"The massacre committed by the Israeli occupation army in the refugee tents northwest of Rafah city in the southern Gaza Strip has left 40 martyrs and 65 wounded," Mohammad al-Mughayyir, a senior official at the civil defence agency, told AFP.

"We saw charred bodies and dismembered limbs ... We also saw cases of amputations, wounded children, women and the elderly."

He said that rescue efforts were facing major challenges.

"There is a fuel shortage ... there are roads that have been destroyed, which hinders the movement of civil defence vehicles in these targeted areas," Mughayyir said.

"There is also a shortage of water to extinguish fires."