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At least 60 people have been killed in an Israeli air strike on the town of Beit Lahia in the north of the strip, an official at Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry says.

Rescuers said a five-storey residential building was hit, and videos on social media showed bodies covered in blankets on the floor, BBC News reported.

A further 17 people are thought to be under the rubble, health ministry official Marwan Al-Hams told a news conference.

There has been no immediate comment on the strike from Israel's military, which began a new offensive in the area earlier this month after saying Hamas was regrouping there.

The director of the nearby Kamal Adwan hospital in Jabalia, Hussam Abu Safia, told the AFP news agency that children were being treated at the hospital, which was struggling to treat patients due to a lack of staff and medicines.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have been operating in northern Gaza during the past two weeks, particularly in the areas of Jabalia, Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun.

Israel says it is trying to prevent Hamas fighters from regrouping and accuses them of embedding among the civilian population, which Hamas denies.

In a statement on Tuesday, it said it killed 40 “terrorists” in Jabalia, and in central Gaza it said it “eliminated many terrorists" over the past 24 hours including some who "attempted to plant explosives near the troops".