ISRAELI strikes have killed at least 55 more Palestinians across the Gaza Strip, hospital officials said today.

This followed senior government officials saying on Wednesday that Israel would seize large areas of Gaza and establish a new security corridor across the coastal enclave.

Israel has vowed to escalate the war with Hamas until the resistance group returns dozens of remaining hostages, disarms and leaves the territory. Israel has imposed a month-long halt on all imports of food, fuel and humanitarian aid that has left civilians facing acute shortages as supplies dwindle.

Officials in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, said today that the bodies of 14 people had been taken to Nasser hospital — nine of them from the same family. The dead included five children and four women. 

The bodies of another 19 people, including five children aged between one and seven years and a pregnant woman, were taken to the European hospital near Khan Younis, hospital officials said. 

In Gaza City, 21 bodies were taken to Ahli hospital, including those of seven children.

The Israeli military ordered the residents of several areas — Shujaiya, Jadida, Turkomen and eastern Zeytoun — to evacuate, warning that the army would “work with extreme force in your area.”

People should move to shelters west of Gaza City, the military said.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israel was establishing a new security corridor across the Gaza Strip to put pressure on Hamas, suggesting that it would cut off the southern city of Rafah, which Israel has ordered evacuated, from the rest of the Palestinian territory.

Mr Netanyahu referred to the new axis as the Morag corridor, using the name of a Jewish settlement that once stood between Rafah and Khan Younis, suggesting that it would run between the two cities. 

Mr Netanyahu arrived in Hungary today for his second foreign trip since the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant against him in November in relation to allegations of war crimes in Gaza.

As Mr Netanyahu arrived in Budapest, Gergely Gulyas, chief of staff to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, wrote in a brief statement: “Hungary will withdraw from the ICC.”

ICC member countries are required to arrest suspects facing a warrant if they set foot on their soil. 

Mr Netanyahu’s travels came the day after his office was ensnared in yet another scandal.

Israeli police arrested two of his close associates this week on suspicion of accepting money from Qatar to promote a positive image of the Gulf Arab state in Israel.