Israeli strikes on northern and central Gaza killed at least 87 Palestinians in 24 hours, local health authorities said, as the death toll in the enclave surpassed 44,000.

Scores of people were killed overnight in Israeli airstrikes on houses in northern Gaza where displaced people were sheltering, according to media reports and agencies run by Gaza's Hamas-led administration.

The Israeli military bombed at least five crowded homes in northern Gaza early on Thursday with many casualties buried beneath the rubble, Palestinian health officials said, as troops deepened an incursion along the territory's northern edge.