An Israeli air strike on a five-storey residential block in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza has killed at least 34 people, the local civil defence agency says.

The agency, quoted by AFP, said many of the dead were women and children, with dozens stilled feared to be under the rubble. Seven people were also injured.

The Israeli military said it had been striking militant targets in the northern Gaza, including Beit Lahia, in an attempt to stop Hamas from regrouping.

Elsewhere, in central Gaza three separate attacks on refugee camps killed 15 people, while five more were killed in a Israeli drone attack on Rafah in the south, the civil defence added.