International calls mount for protection of civilians in Gaza

Israel expanded its offensive against Hamas militants in besieged Gaza on Monday, as international concern deepened over the mounting civilian death toll in a war sparked by the October 7 attacks.

Over the weekend, Israeli air strikes on northern Gaza threw thick clouds of smoke and dust into the sky.

Several people were killed in the strike, news agencies said, while Hamas accused Israel on Telegram of a "grave violation" of humanitarian law.

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says more than 15,500 people have been killed in the territory since October 7, more than half of them women and children.

On Sunday, the Israeli military said it had carried out around 10,000 air strikes since the war started.

The mounting death toll in Gaza has sparked growing international concern over Israel's conduct of the war to eradicate Hamas.

On Sunday, hospitals in southern Gaza were overflowing with dead and wounded, some crying out in pain.

At least seven people were killed in an Israeli bombing early Sunday near Gaza's southern border with Egypt, the Hamas-run government said.

Israeli strikes also hit the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza late Saturday, killing at least 13 people, according to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa.

US Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday sharply rebuked the rising civilian toll in Israel's eight-week war, sparked by an unprecedented attack on October 7.

"Too many innocent Palestinians have been killed," she told reporters at UN climate talks in Dubai. "Frankly, the scale of civilian suffering and the images and videos coming from Gaza are devastating."

An estimated 1.7 million people in Gaza -- more than two-thirds of the population -- have been displaced by war, according to the United Nations.