Israel has maintained an eight-week blockade on food, medicine and aid entering Gaza, while continuing aerial attacks on homes and tent shelters – deepening what the United Nations describes as the war’s “worst humanitarian crisis”.

Overnight and early Thursday morning, at least 13 people were killed in Israeli attacks, according to Al Jazeera correspondents. Among the dead were three children in a tent near Nuseirat in central Gaza, and a woman and four children in a home in Gaza City.

Also reportedly killed in a recent attack was local journalist Saeed Abu Hassanein, whose death adds to at least 232 slain reporters in Gaza during the war.

“The Gaza Strip is witnessing a clear military escalation and a soaring humanitarian crisis,” reported Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum from central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah. He noted that rescuers, with much of their equipment damaged or destroyed, are increasingly struggling to reach victims trapped under wreckage.