A family, including six children, have been killed in the central Gaza Strip, in the latest waves of Israel’s deadly attacks across the besieged Palestinian territory.

At least 23 Palestinians were killed overnight and into Sunday, according to numbers from local health authorities.

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The parents and their six children were killed in Deir el-Balah in the central part of the Strip, Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said. The grandfather of the children said their mother worked for the United Nations.

“My daughter, together with her husband and six children, was sleeping peacefully at home in Dier al-Balah. They were taken by surprise, an Israeli missile landed over their heads. The entire house was flattened. They were all killed,” Mohammed Awad Khattab told Al Jazeera.

“My daughter has been struggling to have children for years. She had those children through IVF … What wrong did those innocent children do? Were they posing any danger to Israel? Were they carrying arms?” he asked.

Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Deir el-Balah, said: “Four of her children were twins and they have been lined up together in order to be buried in cemeteries here in this town.

“We have seen really heartbreaking scenes this morning with dozens of bodies lined up in the morgue outside Al-Aqsa Hospital. There has been a remarkable surge in Israeli strikes in Deir el-Balah where Palestinians were told to seek refuge,” Abu Azzoum added

Israel’s 10-month-long offensive has so far killed more than 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza.

Elsewhere in the strip on Sunday, an Israeli aircraft bombed two apartment buildings in the Jabalia refugee camp, killing at least four Palestinians, the Wafa news agency reported.

Late on Saturday, an attack near the southern city of Khan Younis killed four people from the same family, including two women, according to Nasser Hospital.

And in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the centre of the Strip, seven people were killed, including three children, according to Al Jazeera Arabic.

“We are talking about the grim reality of more than 40 Palestinians killed in [the] past 48 hours and this number is expected to rise given the new Israeli orders to evacuate Maghazi,” Abu Azzoum said, referring to the refugee camp located in Deir el-Balah.

‘Chaos and fear’

According to UNWRA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, areas designated as so-called “humanitarian zones” in Gaza by the Israeli military have shrunk to just 11 percent of the Strip, “causing chaos and fear among the displaced”.

Mohammed Moghayyar, the director of operations at Gaza Civil Defence, told Al Jazeera that Israel reducing the size of the humanitarian zone has cut off crucial facilities such as hospitals and increased the risk of diseases spreading.

“The more the Israeli occupation forces reduce the safe humanitarian zones, the more it continues to violate international law and the Geneva Convention, the more it causes death and killing among our people,” he said from Deir el-Balah.

Meanwhile, the Israeli army said it is deepening its operations in Khan Younis and on the outskirts of Deir el-Balah.

Fighter jets attacked targets in Khan Younis from which rockets were launched towards the Nirim community in southern Israel yesterday, the army said.

Air attacks destroyed loaded launchers ready for attacks in the area, it added, saying that soldiers killed fighters and located weapons, including grenades, assault rifles and explosives.

Troops also kept operating in the Rafah area above and below ground, the army statement said.

As the war rages on, United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken headed to the region on Sunday for another attempt at procuring a ceasefire deal. In the Qatari capital, Doha, where Qatari, Egyptian and US negotiation mediators tried to hammer out a deal on Gaza, ceasefire talks were paused on Friday, but are expected to resume next week with the hope of concluding an agreement in Cairo.