Fighting raged unabated overnight, after Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed again that his nation would "erase Hamas," as a full-scale ground invasion looms.
Gaza's Hamas-controlled government media office said "more than 60 were martyred in the raids" during the night — including 17 in a single strike that hit a house in northern Gaza — and at least 10 others were killed in new strikes on Monday morning.
The Israeli military said it had hit "over 320 military targets in the Gaza Strip" in the 24 hours up to Monday morning.
The Middle East nation said the targets "included tunnels containing Hamas terrorists, dozens of operational command centers" as well as "military compounds and observation posts" used by Islamic Jihad, another militant group.
Mohammed Abu Sabalah, a resident of Rafah, said he returned home from the local mosque after dawn prayers Monday and that "a quarter of an hour later there was a bombing."
"We couldn't see anything because of the thick smoke," Sabalah said.
"We thank God that we've emerged safe and sound" with "only a few windows and doors destroyed," Sabalah added, in reference to his house.
Israeli forces are massed near the Gaza border, and smaller units have already carried out limited incursions, targeting Hamas and hoping to rescue hostages, whose number Israel now estimates at 222.
In one such operation, a 19-year-old Israeli soldier was killed, and three others wounded, the army said, adding that the tank operation had aimed "to dismantle terror infrastructure... and locate missing persons and bodies."
Mourners carry the bodies two Palestinian men that were killed during a raid on the village of Zawata, in the Israeli occupied West Bank on October 23, 2023.
Tensions have been inflamed in the occupied West Bank, where 95 Palestinians have been killed in clashes involving Israeli security forces or settlers since fighting began in Gaza, according to the Ramallah-based health ministry.
Israel kept evacuating southern communities near Gaza.
Orit Cohen, 29, a native of Sderot, an Israeli town just near Gaza's northern border, said "I came to pick up my mother who until then refused to leave the city. But the army is bombing right on the other side."
"I was afraid for her and I came to get her out of here," Cohen added.
While the Israel-Hamas war continues, the United States vowed a "continued flow" of relief goods in Gaza, where Israel has cut off most water as well as food, power and fuel.
At least a dozen trucks carrying desperately needed aid — the third convoy in three days — arrived inside Gaza from Egypt on Monday through Rafah, Gaza's only crossing not controlled by Israel.
A volunteer from the Egyptian Red Crescent looks on as a convoy of lorries carrying humanitarian aid crosses to the Gaza Strip on Oct 22, 2023.
U.S. President Joe Biden brokered the aid convoys with Egyptian and Israeli leaders last week — but the United Nations estimates Gaza needs about 100 trucks of relief goods every day.
U.N. aid chief Martin Griffiths said Sunday's delivery of food, water and medical supplies was "another small glimmer of hope for the millions of people in dire need of humanitarian aid.
"But they need more, much more," Griffiths added.
Israel has rejected the entry of fuel into Gaza, fearing Hamas could use it for weapons and explosives.
This has sparked warnings that soon Gaza's ambulances, hospital incubators and water desalination plants will stop functioning.