"The situation unfolding in north Gaza is apocalyptic," said a joint statement by UN agency heads.

"The area has been under siege for almost a month, denied basic aid and life-saving supplies while bombardment and other attacks continue," the heads of the humanitarian, health and other agencies said.

"The entire Palestinian population in North Gaza is at imminent risk of dying from disease, famine and violence."

Witnesses said Israeli warplanes twice hit Beit Lahia, adjacent to Jabalia, overnight.

Smoke rises following an Israeli bombardment in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip, AFP 

Deaths in Gaza

 

Palestinian officials on Saturday said dozens of Palestinians were killed around Jabalia in Israeli airstrikes.

Medics and Gaza's civil defence rescuers on Saturday reported three people killed in a strike on Nuseirat, in central Gaza, a day after AFP images showed the blood-stained shrouds of several people killed there in an Israeli strike.

An aerial view shows destroyed buildings in Beit Lahia following Israeli bombardments in the northern Gaza Strip. AFP

The Israeli war on Gaza has killed 43,259 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and children, with over 102,019 others injured, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry, which the UN considers reliable.

Thousands of victims are feared trapped under rubble, inaccessible to emergency and civil defence teams due to Israeli attacks.