The death toll in Gaza nears 10,000 as Israeli forces push on with intense strikes in the Palestinian enclave, AFP reports.

It said more than 200 people had died in overnight massacres — a day after reporting a total death toll of more than 9,770, mostly women and children.

Ground forces have flooded the northern half of the Gaza Strip and tightened an encirclement of Gaza City even as hundreds of thousands of civilians remain there despite Israeli evacuation orders.