Israeli military operations killed 50 people in Gaza yesterday, the territory’s civil defence agency says, as the army stepped up its attacks on Gaza City, AFP reports.

Gaza’s civil defence agency said 35 people were killed in the city on Friday, along with another 15 in other parts of the territory. The Israeli military claimed it was continuing “its wide-scale strikes on terrorist infrastructure and high-rise structures” in Gaza City.

Israel said that it would “intensify the pace of targeted strikes” in order to disrupt Hamas and “reduce the threat to our troops as part of preparations for the next stages of the operation”.

A single strike in the northwest of Gaza City killed 14 people, the civil defence said. “The majority of them are children and women,” relative Hazem al Sultan told AFP.

“Only two bodies were intact, while the rest were body parts.”