PROSPECTS for a ceasefire in the fighting between Israel and Hamas remained remote today as Palestinians continued to face a relentless bombardment across Gaza.

Calling for protests to oust the far-right government today, the leader of Israel’s opposition Labour Party condemned the coalition over the situation. 

Although the UN security council has adopted a US-authored peace plan, fighting has continued.

The Gaza Health Ministry says more than 37,000 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children – although this figure is widely considered too low as thousands remain missing.

Around 90 per cent of people living in the territory are estimated to have been displaced by the fighting.

The Norwegian Refugee Council said today that images of Israel’s attacks in Gaza had become so common  there is a danger of the horror becoming “normalised.”

NRC head of operations in Gaza Suze van Meegen said: “We have all become so accustomed to images of brutality and destruction in Gaza that it has now become dangerously normalised.

“Even after more than eight months of violence, there was absolutely nothing normal about the scale and ferocity of attacks on civilians in Gaza’s Middle Area last week.”

Ms van Meegan argued that it was “not normal for a whole population to live in constant fear and with overwhelming grief. It is not normal to feel your safety is at greater risk in a school or hospital than elsewhere.” 

She added: “It is not normal for a community to bury hundreds of people each week.”

Meanwhile Israeli Labour Party leader Yair Golan said “huge protests” taking place across Israel must lead to the removal of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In a lengthy post on social media Mr Golan, a former deputy chief of staff of the Israeli military, said his country’s war on Gaza “has no realistic goals” and it was not possible to “free the hostages and destroy Hamas at the same time.”

Mr Golan said it might have been possible four months ago to have struck a deal with Hamas to free the hostages so that they could return home but he accused Mr Netanyahu of preventing it.

The Labour Party leader insisted: “The government must be replaced, this will not happen without huge protests that will make it clear to Netanyahu and his partners that they have no choice but to call for new elections.”