GAZA -- At least 40 Palestinians were killed and 100 others injured in Israeli airstrikes on the central Gaza Strip, the media office of the Hamas-run government in Gaza said in a press statement on Thursday.

Palestinian security sources told Xinhua that Israeli aircraft launched several raids on a number of residential houses in the city of Deir el-Balah, which led to their complete destruction.

The Hamas-run Health Ministry noted that the bodies of some victims had been transferred to the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.

Ambulances and civil defense teams rushed to the sites of the attacks to save people after the Israeli raids left the neighborhood severely damaged, the security sources added.

Medical sources said that the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital is now crowded with thousands of wounded, sick and displaced people.