Heavy fighting and sustained bombardments have continued to rock the Gaza Strip despite the UN Security Council’s adoption of a resolution earlier this week calling for an “immediate ceasefire”, AFP reports.

“Dozens” were killed overnight, including 12 in a home in the southern city of Rafah, the health ministry said on Friday. The offensive has turned much of the territory into a wasteland and shattered the health system.

The Israeli military (IDF) has conducted sieges on three major hospitals, accusing Hamas and Islamic Jihad of hiding inside and using patients, medical staff and displaced people for cover — charges the Palestinian groups have denied.

Palestinian Abed Radwan, 63, said he had to flee when “Israeli forces stormed all buildings and homes in the Al-Rimal area, arrested several people and forced the rest to walk south”.

“I walked with them,” he said. “I saw many decomposing bodies in the streets and several houses flattened. They left nothing intact, they destroyed everything.”