An Israeli strike hit Palestinians near a medical centre in Gaza yesterday, killing 17 including eight children.
At least 52 people were killed by Israeli forces during the day in the war-battered Palestinian territory.
The high death toll comes after the agency said 26 people were killed across Gaza on Wednesday, 29 on Tuesday and 12 on Monday.
The strike in Deir Al Balah in the central Gaza Strip came as Israeli and Hamas negotiators hold talks with mediators in Qatar over a proposed 60-day ceasefire deal aimed at building agreement on a lasting truce.
However, a senior Israeli official said that an agreement was not likely to be secured for another one or two weeks.
Khalil Al Deqran, spokesperson for the health ministry in Gaza, said Israel had targeted a medical centre and that eight of the dead were children. Many of those injured had suffered severe wounds to the head and chest, he said.
Videos verified by Reuters showed a scene of carnage, with the bodies of dead and injured, mainly women and children, lying in blood amid a cloud of dust as people screamed all around, and of motionless children lying in blood on a donkey cart.
At Deir Al Balah’s Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital, where the dead and wounded were taken, Samah Al Nouri said her daughter had been killed in the morning strike after attending the clinic to seek treatment for a throat ailment.
“They hit her with a shell. Her brother went to check and he said they all died. What did they do? What’s their fault? She was only getting treatment in a medical facility. Why did they kill them?” she said.
Israeli attacks on Palestinian hospitals and health facilities, detentions of medics, and restrictions on the entry of medical supplies have drawn condemnation from the United Nations.
The United Nations humanitarian agency OCHA said in May that the UN had documented at least 686 attacks impacting healthcare in Gaza since the war began.
Almost 3,000 Palestinians were killed over the past month in Gaza.
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