Israel-Palestine conflict: At least 140 killed in Israeli night strikes on Gaza, says Hamas

Gaza's Hamas government said Tuesday that Israeli air strikes on the besieged territory during the night killed at least 140 people.

A statement from the government's media office said "more than 140 people were martyred and hundreds wounded in massacres committed by the occupation (Israel) raids".

Gaza's health ministry said on Monday that more than 5,000 people have been killed in the besieged Palestinian enclave since Israel launched its withering bombing campaign more than two weeks ago.

Alarm has surged about the spiralling humanitarian crisis in Gaza amid the war sparked by the October 7 Hamas attack that, Israeli officials say, killed more than 1,400 people who were gunned down, stabbed or burnt by the militants. Hamas also took more than 200 hostages.

Thousands of buildings have been destroyed and more than one million people displaced in the territory that has been under siege and largely deprived of water, food and other basic supplies.

Hamas on Monday released two elderly Israeli women held hostage in Gaza as the United States expressed increasing concern that the escalating Israel-Hamas war will spark a wider conflict in the region, including attacks on American troops.

• Dwindling fuel supplies for hospital generators put premature babies in incubators at risk