Jabalia, Gaza - A second Israeli bombing raid in two days has killed and wounded "dozens" in Gaza's biggest refugee camp, according to local health authorities.

The Gaza health ministry said there were "dozens of martyrs and injured in a bombing by the occupation planes" at the Jabalia camp, a day after Israel acknowledged carrying out one devastating strike as part of its offensive following the October 7 Hamas attacks.

Images obtained by AFP showed rescuers working with their bare hands to pull bodies and injured out of ruined buildings around another major hole left by Wednesday's shelling.

Rescuers said "whole families" were killed, but casualty details could not be immediately confirmed. Israel's military did not comment.

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More than 50 people were reportedly killed in Tuesday's attack, adding to a death toll of over 8,700 at the health ministry's latest count – about a third of which are children.

UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths denounced the Jabalia strike after a two-day visit to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.

"This is just the latest atrocity to befall the people of Gaza where the fighting has entered an even more terrifying phase, with increasingly dreadful humanitarian consequences," Griffiths said in a statement.

He said "the world seems unable, or unwilling, to act," adding "this cannot go on. We need a step change."

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Griffiths said: "We need the warring parties to agree to pauses in the fighting" so that desperately needed relief aid can get into the Palestinian territory of 2.4 million people.

Israel said Tuesday's strike killed a senior Hamas commander based in Jabalia, Ibrahim Biari, "who was one of those who directed the murderous terrorist attack on October 7."

Hamas denied Biari's presence at the camp, but its military wing said seven of the more than 240 hostages taken in the October 7 attack, including three with foreign passports, were killed in Tuesday's air attack.