The Israeli military has said it has wrapped up a month-long operation in southern and central Gaza that it says has killed more than 250 Palestinian fighters, AFP reports.

“The troops of the 98th Division have completed their divisional operation in the Khan Younis and Deir el-Balah area, after about a month of simultaneous above and underground operational activity,” a military statement said.

“As part of the operation, the troops eliminated over 250 terrorists and destroyed dozens of [pieces of] terrorist infrastructure.”

A military spokesman confirmed to AFP that no other operations were taking place in those two areas for now.

Residents of Khan Younis said they had returned to scenes of widespread destruction in the Gaza Strip’s main southern city.

Amal al-Astal, 48, described demolished homes and bodies decomposing in the open.

“We found our house destroyed and our neighbours’ [houses] destroyed as well. One of our neighbours’ corpses was decomposed there,” Astal said.

“As soon as we entered, there were tragedies and we could not recognise the landmarks of the neighbourhood.”