Gaza City, Gaza - Israel said Tuesday its forces battled Hamas inside Gaza overnight and struck 300 targets after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu categorically ruled out a ceasefire as a "surrender" to the Palestinian militant group.

"The soldiers killed terrorists and directed air forces to real-time strikes on targets and terror infrastructure," the army said in a statement.

In the fourth night of major ground operations inside the north of the Palestinian territory, it reported "several engagements" in which its forces came under anti-tank missile and machine gun fire.

Air strikes hit about 300 targets including missile and rocket launch posts and "military compounds inside underground tunnels belonging to the Hamas terrorist organization," the statement said.

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The fighting came after Netanyahu on Monday evening slapped aside a call from 120 countries for a sustained humanitarian truce.

"This will not happen," the premier told foreign media, vowing Israel would "fight until this battle is won".

"Calls for a ceasefire are calls for Israel to surrender to Hamas," he said.

Israel launched the war on October 7 in retribution for Hamas-led raids that killed an estimated 1,400 people, according to officials.

More than three weeks of massive and sustained Israeli aerial bombardments have been followed by a large-scale ground offensive inside Gaza, with more than 8,000 killed so far, more than half of them women and children, per local health authorities.

On Monday witnesses saw "dozens" of Israeli tanks operating on the southern outskirts of Gaza City. Israel's military also released images of mechanized units grinding through coastal sands in northern Gaza.

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Footage from the enclave appeared to show an Israeli tank firing on a car that was driving away.

Thousands of buildings have been destroyed and the territory's 2.4 million residents have run out of water, food, fuel, and other essentials.

Some 120 governments voted in favor of a non-binding UN resolution calling for a sustained truce, with the US among only 14 countries to oppose it.

On Monday, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA said the limited number of aid trucks entering Gaza was insufficient to meet the "unprecedented humanitarian needs".

Still, the White House rejects a permanent ceasefire, saying it would only give Hamas time to restock and regroup. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby insisted the US is committed to increasing the flow of "humanitarian assistance" into the strip, while admitting that even then it would amount to little more than a trickle.

Meanwhile, very little is known about the fate of the more than 230 hostages – aged between a few months and over 80 years old – who are believed to be held in a network of Hamas tunnels under Gaza.

Hamas on Monday released a video of three female hostages, seated against a tile wall.

One of the women called for Israel to agree to Hamas's demand to exchange the hostages for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, furiously bashing Netanyahu for failing them.

Netanyahu decried the clip as "cruel psychological propaganda".

Authorities later said the remains had been found of 23-year-old German-Israeli Shani Louk who was abducted from a music festival in the Israeli desert.

She had been "tortured and paraded around Gaza by Hamas terrorists" and "experienced unfathomable horrors," according to Israel's foreign ministry.