At least 22 children were killed in Gaza overnight Tuesday and early Wednesday in a punishing series of Israeli airstrikes on homes in northern Gaza.

An Israeli airstrike on the Gaza Strip on Tuesday killed a well-known Palestinian journalist whom it accused of working with Hamas and was recovering in hospital from an earlier strike, the territory's health ministry said.

Forty-eight people were killed, including at least seven children, in Israeli airstrikes on school compounds sheltering thousands of displaced Palestinians in Gaza, hospital officials said.