AT LEAST 30 Palestinians were killed in the latest Israeli air strikes after a post office sheltering residents at the Nuseirat refugee camp was struck.

The Israeli military claimed that the overnight strike, which wounded about 50 others, had been targeting a senior Islamic Jihad member.

It once again accused Palestinian fighter groups of exploiting civilians as human shields.

Reuters reported that about 50 people could have been killed in the strike, raising the figures from local medics.

The publisher said that photographs from the scene show young children coated with dust and blood in the rubble.

The attack follows a strike on the camp a day earlier, from which the death toll rose to 33 people today.

A total of 71 people were killed across the besieged strip during the day, various media reports indicate.

Gaza’s government media office today called Thursday’s attack a “barbaric and heinous massacre” and said that most of those killed were from the same family.

“The [Israeli] occupation army knew that this is a residential block with many apartment buildings housing dozens of civilians, children, women and displaced people,” the office said.

In a separate attack today, Israel targeted refugee tents in Khan Younis in southern Gaza where at least three people were killed.

Many of the injured were children, according to local sources.

Meanwhile, more than 50 people are now estimated to have died in Wednesday’s attacks on a 70-lorry convoy carrying food and other aid heading to central Gaza.

In a meeting with Italian President Sergio Mattarella in Rome today, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called for a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza so the Palestinian Authority (PA) can assume control.

The PA is the ruling party in the West Bank, unlike in Gaza where Hamas is the official government.

Mr Abbas highlighted in the meeting that the war on Gaza and escalating Israeli military actions in the West Bank and East Jerusalem were leading to increased settler violence and raids on Palestinian homes, as well as continued settlement expansion.

He also called for international support for Palestine’s bid for full United Nations membership and wider recognition of Palestinian statehood by governments, including Italy.