Heavy bombings were reported in Gaza’s Rafah and Khan Younis, as AFPTV footage showed long plumes of smoke extending across the horizon.

Grasping empty containers, dozens of Gazans waited on a street in Rafah for food to be distributed.

“We’re fed up; this is not a life. I swear such a war has never happened before,” said one of them, Nour Ismail. “Now there is real hunger. My children are dying of hunger.”

Vast areas of Gaza lie in ruins and its 2.4 million people have endured dire shortages of water, food, fuel and medicine, alleviated only by the limited arrival of aid trucks.

Eighty per cent of Gazans have been displaced, according to the UN, many fleeing south and now shielding against the winter cold in makeshift tents.