Israeli strikes pounded Gaza as both sides near the end of a dark year and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned the escalation sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attack will last for “many months”, AFP reports.

At least 48 Palestinians were killed in overnight bombing in Gaza City, the health ministry in the Gaza Strip said, with many still buried under the rubble.

“After the explosion we arrived at the scene of the strike and saw martyrs everywhere,” said one resident after a building was hit. “Children are still missing, we can’t find them.” Another strike killed 20 people sheltering at Al-Aqsa University in the west of Gaza city, witnesses said.

The Israeli army reported killing around a dozen enemy fighters in multiple ground battles, air and tank strikes and said it had located Hamas tunnels, and explosives planted in a kindergarten.

As heavy combat raged on, 85 per cent of Gaza’s 2.4 million people have been displaced, according to the UN, which warns of a growing risk of hunger and disease as desperate families shelter in makeshift tents against the winter cold.

The world has watched on in horror for months as the decades-old Israel-Palestinian conflict exploded into the bloodiest-ever Gaza offensive after Hamas launched its unprecedented attack on October 7.