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Israel has been continuing its air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip overnight - with Israeli forces being seen on the territory's main north-south road, close to Gaza City.

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, told foreign journalists there would be no ceasefire until Hamas was dismantled, saying "this is a time for war" and that a ceasefire would amount to a "surrender" to the militant group that attacked Israel on the 7th October.

However, the humanitarian situation in Gaza is quickly deteriorating with the United Nations saying public order is at risk. The UN's children's agency says more than 400 children are being injured or killed in Gaza every day.

大象传媒 Newsday got an update from Juliette Touma who is Director of Communications at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and based in Jordan.

"As of last night 64 [UNWRA] colleagues have been killed during the war including one yesterday. He was killed with his family - eight children and his wife - while he was at home.

"Normally in any conflict humanitarians are allowed to do their work... which we're not able to do in the Gaza Strip. There should be an increase in the number of trucks sent to Gaza, for now we have seen only a trickle and they do not have fuel on them. We need fuel on those convoys.

"The shelters that UNWRA manages - all 450 of them spread across the Gaza Strip - are becoming overcrowded. Now we are hosting 670,000 people in also places that were not supposed to be shelters. We are starting to get reports of diseases spreading such as scabies and diarrhoea.

"The challenges are huge. There needs to be a humanitarian ceasefire. Places that should be protected have been hit - churches, mosques and UN facilities. So no place is safe. Gaza has turned very quickly into a hell-hole."

(Pic: Displaced Palestinians watch a nearby Israeli strike as they take shelter in a UN-run school in Gaza; Credit: Reuters)

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