Street fighting in Gaza City is preventing emergency workers from responding to calls for help from people trapped under rubble after Israeli bombardments, the UN has said.

People who can no longer get out of their homes and those who need ambulances for the wounded often wait in vain, the United NationsOffice for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported, citing the Palestinian Red Cross.

The emergency numbers of the Red Cross had received hundreds of calls from desperate people. There is a lack of fuel for the ambulances and fighting near the hospitals was so intense that rescue teams were unable to mobilise, Al Jazeera reports.