Israel and Hamas brushed off international calls to renew an expired truce Saturday as air strikes pounded terrorist targets in Gaza and Palestinian groups launched volleys of rockets.

Smoke again clouded the sky over the north of the Palestinian territory, whose Hamas government said 240 people had been killed since a pause in hostilities expired early Friday and combat resumed.

In Israel, the military's Home Front Command reported 40 missile alerts in the south and center of the country, and the Palestinian terrorist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad announced "rocket barrages" against multiple Israeli cities and towns including Tel Aviv.

"Over 250 rockets have been fired at Israel since Friday morning," Israeli military spokesperson Lt. Col. Peter Lerner told reporters.

According to the United Nations, an estimated 1.7 million people in Gaza — more than two-thirds of the population — have been displaced by eight weeks of war.

Fadel Naim, chief doctor at the Al-Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza City, said his morgue had received 30 bodies on Saturday, including seven children.

"The planes bombed our houses: Three bombs, three houses destroyed," Nemr al-Bel, 43, told Agence France-Presse, adding he had counted 10 dead in his family and "13 more still under the rubble."

Gazans are short of food, water and other essentials, and many homes have been destroyed. UN agencies have declared a humanitarian catastrophe, although some aid trucks did arrive Saturday.

"Homes, hospitals and other infrastructure critical to the survival of the civilian population have suffered colossal destruction," Pascal Hundt, head of operations in Gaza for the International Committee of the Red Cross, said.

"Current conditions do not allow for a meaningful humanitarian response, and I fear will spell disaster for the civilian population," he added.

After the truce between Israel and Hamas expired on Friday, Israel had told non-government organizations not to bring aid convoys across the Rafah border crossing from Egypt, the Palestine Red Crescent Society had said.

But on Saturday, the charity said its Egyptian colleagues had managed to send over a number of trucks.

'War will continue'

Both sides blamed each other for the breakdown of the truce, which before it expired had enabled the release of 80 Israeli hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners.

The deal had been brokered with the help of Qatar, backed by Egypt and the United States, but on Saturday Israel said it was withdrawing its negotiators from Doha after reaching a dead end in talks aimed at securing a renewed pause in hostilities.

Israeli hostages freed from Gaza called on their government to secure the remaining captives' release.

In brief video messages screened at a rally in Tel Aviv, four women related the fear, hunger and sleeplessness of their captivity.

"Our daughters saw things that children at that age — or of any age — don't need to see," said Danielle Aloni, 45, who was released last week along with her five-year-old daughter.

Speaking in Tel Aviv, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the war would continue "until we achieve all its aims" including eliminating the Islamist movement.

"Our soldiers prepared during the days of truce for total victory against Hamas," he said at his first press conference since fighting resumed.

During an unprecedented attack on 7 October, Hamas fighters broke through Gaza's militaried border into Israel, killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took around 240 Israelis and foreigners hostage, according to Israeli authorities.

Israel vowed to eliminate Hamas in response and unleashed an air and ground campaign that has killed more than 15,000 people, also mostly civilians, the Hamas authorities who run Gaza say.

Since the end of the pause, Israel's air, naval and ground forces have attacked more than 400 targets in Gaza, the army said on Saturday.

The figure is roughly in line with the daily average number of strikes prior to the pause, according to military figures released previously.

Warplanes hit "more than 50 targets in an extensive attack in the Khan Yunis area" of Gaza's south, according to the military.

Separately, members of an Israeli armored brigade "eliminated terrorist squads and directed fire against terrorist targets in the north of the Gaza Strip," the military said.