TEHRAN- Israeli forces pounded northern Gaza with intense airstrikes overnight into Monday night as the Palestinian death toll from a month of fighting passed 10,000.

As Israeli troops have pushed into the dense confines of Gaza, an even bloodier phase is expected.

According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, around 10,022 Palestinians have been martyred so far.

Child casualties crossed 4,000 as Israeli raids expanded, Al Jazeera reported.

The Israeli military said late Sunday that it had cut off northern Gaza from the south, calling it a “significant stage” in the war. On Monday, it said that aircraft struck 450 targets overnight and ground troops took over a Hamas compound, ABC News reported. 

On Sunday afternoon, an Israeli air strike hit several houses near a school at the Bureji refugee camp in central Gaza, killing at least 13 people, according to officials at Al-Aqsa Hospital. 

It was the third refugee camp to be hit by Israeli air strikes in the past 24 hours. More than 50 Palestinians were killed in attacks on Gaza’s al-Maghazi and Jabalia refugee camps, Al Jazeera said.

Arafat Abu Mashaia, a resident of the al-Maghazi camp, said the Israeli air strike flattened several multi-story homes where people forced out of other parts of Gaza were sheltering.

“It was a true massacre,” he said early on Sunday as he stood on the wreckage of destroyed homes. “All here are peaceful people. I challenge anyone who says there were resistance [fighters] here.”

The camp, a built-up residential area, was located in the evacuation zone.

“These repeated air strikes on refugee camps in central and southern Gaza are the reason why people are not taking the Israeli announcement of guaranteeing safe corridors to travel to the south seriously,” Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said.

According to the United Nations, 1.5 million people are now internally displaced in Gaza out of a population of 2.3 million.

Food, medicine, fuel, and water are running low, and UN-run schools that have been turned into shelters, are beyond capacity, with many Palestinians sleeping on the streets outside. 

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu again rejected the idea of halting the offensive, ignoring appeals and protests across the world.

“There will be no ceasefire without the return of our hostages, we say this to both our enemies and our friends. We will continue until we beat them,” Netanyahu told air and ground crews at the Ramon Air Force Base in southern Israel on Sunday.

Israel says it is targeting Hamas fighters and assets, accusing the group of using civilians as human shields. Critics say Israel’s strikes are disproportionate, considering the large number of civilians killed.

This is while UN leaders are saying "enough is enough" and demanded a humanitarian ceasefire on Monday nearly a month into the war, as the enclave's health authorities said dozens more people were killed in overnight attacks by Israeli fighter jets and troops, Reuters reported.