Israeli 'massacre' kills dozens of Palestinians in Jabalia

Fifteen children among victims of strike on home sheltering displaced families

The bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes are buried in Jabalia, in northern Gaza. AFP

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Almost 40 Palestinians were killed, including 15 children, in an Israeli "massacre" in Jabalia on Sunday morning in the latest attack on an area largely devastated by a weeks-long Israeli siege on the enclave's north.

An Israeli strike destroyed a home crammed with displaced families, the official Wafa news agency said, killing at least 36 people and wounding a "large number". Several more are missing, it added.

Footage shared by Wafa showed civilians carrying the bodies of victims from the flattened building, reduced to an immense pile of rubble in the town's Al Balad neighbourhood.

Most of Jabalia and its refugee camp, the largest in Gaza, has already been devastated by Israeli raids, including a continuing siege on the north that began early last month, trapping hundreds of thousands of people in an area where Israeli forces have destroyed all remaining ambulances and prevented most aid from entering.

Hours earlier, Israeli shelling on Gaza city, killed Wael Al Khour, an official at the Welfare Ministry, and seven members of his family, including his wife and children on Sunday, medics and relatives said. Several people remain missing, Wafa reported.

More than 43,600 Palestinians have been killed and almost 103,000 wounded since the war in Gaza began last October, with most of the enclave's infrastructure destroyed in Israeli attacks.

Thousands more are missing under the rubble, Gaza's Health Ministry says.

Efforts to reach a ceasefire to end the war have not succeeded and seemed more distant than ever on Saturday, as Qatar withdrew from mediation efforts.

Doha, which has been working with Egypt to broker peace talks, told Hamas and Israel it will suspend participation until both sides show "willingness and seriousness" to resume negotiations, Qatar's Foreign Ministry said.