Israel pressed on with its bombing of Gaza on Tuesday as the United Nations General Assembly votes on a non-binding resolution demanding "an immediate humanitarian ceasefire" in the besieged Palestinian enclave.

Israel army strikes on Monday targeted Gaza's main southern city of Khan Yunis, now the epicenter of the fighting, as well as Rafah, a city on the border with Egypt where tens of thousands of people are seeking shelter.

In central Gaza, Al-Aqsa hospital was inundated with victims Monday, including dozens of screaming children, after Israeli strikes on the Al-Maghazi refugee camp.

In Gaza City's Al-Rimal neighborhood, thousands of Palestinians set up camp at a UN agency headquarters after nearby homes and shops were destroyed by Israeli strikes.

An Agence France-Presse correspondent said both the Islamic and adjacent Al-Azhar universities had been reduced to rubble, as had the police station.

Fighting and heavy bombardment in the south, where Israel had previously urged civilians to seek safety, have left people with few places to go.

The UN estimates 1.9 million of the territory's 2.4 million people have been displaced by the war, half of them children.

As basic supplies run out and sanitary conditions deteriorate, women and girls in Rafah said they had been forced to use scraps of cloth for menstrual periods.

Facing growing pressure to do more for civilians, Israel announced Monday it would be screening aid to Gaza at two additional checkpoints, which would allow more assistance to enter the ravaged territory.

No new direct crossings will be opened, Israel said, but the Nitzana and Kerem Shalom crossings will be used to carry out checks before sending the trucks through Rafah.

Arab countries called for the new special session of the UN General Assembly following a visit to the Rafah border by more than a dozen Security Council ambassadors.

The draft text, seen by AFP, largely reproduces the ceasefire resolution blocked in the Council on Friday by the United States.

Fears of a wider conflict continue to grow, with Iran-backed groups targeting US and allied forces in Iraq and Syria, and daily exchanges of fire along Israel's border with Lebanon.

A drone and rockets targeted two military bases in Iraq and Syria on Monday housing forces of the international coalition against the Islamic State group, a US military official said.

Israeli forces killed four Palestinians in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin on Tuesday, the Palestinian health ministry reported.

Meanwhile, shops, schools and government offices shut in the occupied West Bank, annexed east Jerusalem and allied countries Monday as Palestinians staged a general strike protesting against Israel's relentless onslaught in Gaza.

Essam Abu Baker, who coordinates Palestinian factions in Ramallah, called the protest part of a global effort to put pressure on Israel to stop the war that has killed more than 18,200 Palestinians in the territory, mostly women and children, as well as 104 Israeli soldiers, according to the latest reported death tolls.

The UN estimates 1.9 million of the territory's 2.4 million people have been displaced.

Hamas, which triggered the war with its 7 October attacks on Israel that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, warned that the remaining 137 hostages held in Gaza would not survive the conflict unless Israel met its demands and freed more Palestinian prisoners.                    

WITH AFP