Amid large-scale bombardment overnight, Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said al-Rantisi children's hospital was targeted in three separate Israeli attacks, forcing half of its patients and their families to flee. The Israeli military said it was looking into the report. Other hospitals said at least 35 people had been killed by Israeli fire across Gaza so far on Wednesday, most of them in the north. Earlier, the Israeli military announced that it had struck more than 150 targets across Gaza City in two days in support of its ground forces.

Israel says its aim is to free its hostages and defeat up to 3,000 Hamas fighters in what it describes as the group's "last stronghold", but the offensive has drawn widespread international condemnation. The leaders of more than 20 major aid agencies, including Save the Children and Oxfam, warned that "the inhumanity of the situation in Gaza is unconscionable". With world leaders due to gather for the UN General Assembly next week, they called for "urgent intervention". A source at al-Rantisi hospital said there were no injuries but that air conditioning units, water tanks and solar panels were severely damaged. The hospital is "the only specialist facility for children with cancer, kidney failure, and other life-threatening conditions", according to Fikr Shalltoot, Gaza director of the NGO Medical Aid for Palestinians.

For days - as Israel has ramped up strikes in and around Gaza City - huge columns of Palestinians have streamed southwards in donkey carts, rickshaws, vehicles strapped high with belongings, and on foot. Until now, they have been forced to flee down the main coastal road to an Israel-designated "humanitarian area" in al-Mawasi. (BBC)