Gaza, Aug 27 (IANS): At least seven Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a gathering on the beach in Gaza City, Palestinian security and medical sources said.

An Israeli drone targeted the gathering of Palestinians, killing seven and wounding dozens of others, the sources told Xinhua news agency on Monday.

The Israeli army has not commented on the reported attack, Xinhua news agency reported.

During the past 24 hours, the Israeli military killed 30 people and wounded 66 others, bringing the total death toll to 40,435 and injuries to 93,534 since the Palestinian-Israeli conflict broke out on October 7, 2023, Gaza-based health authorities said in a statement.

As the death toll continues to rise, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are facing an increasingly severe humanitarian crisis.

"Families across the Gaza Strip continue to be forced to flee, forced to leave their homes and belongings behind. All they can now do is try to stay alive," the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East said on social media platform X on Monday.

"This is a complete stripping of humanity. A never-ending tragedy," it said.

"People have lost absolutely everything."

Israel has continued its brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip following an attack by the Palestinian group Hamas last October 7, despite a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire.

The onslaught has resulted in more than 40,400 Palestinian deaths, mostly women and children, and over 93,500 injuries, according to local health authorities.

An ongoing blockade of Gaza has led to severe shortages of food, clean water and medicine, leaving much of the region in ruins.

Israel faces accusations of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which has ordered a halt to military operations in the southern city of Rafah, where more than one million Palestinians had sought refuge before the area was invaded on May 6.