More than 70 members of a family were killed in Gaza following an Israeli airstrike, including a veteran UN aid worker. 

Despite growing calls for restraint, Israel showed little sign of modulating its 11-week-old "Operation Swords of Iron" which targets to crush Hamas.

Fighting is now centred on Gaza City and the southern city of Khan Yunis, both considered strongholds of the Palestinian militant group that carried out bloody October 7 raids into Israel.

Issam al-Mughrabi, 56, was killed with his wife, five children, and dozens of other relatives in a bombing near Gaza City, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) said in a statement.

"I am deeply saddened to announce the death of our UNDP colleague and his family in Gaza today. The airstrike also reportedly killed more than 70 members of his extended family," Achim Steiner, head of the UNDP was quoted as saying by NDTV.

He also called for an immediate ceasefire as the scale of death and destruction inside Gaza is blocking the delivery of desperately needed aid.

Since October 7, Israel has been launching a large-scale war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip after Hamas's unprecedented attack on southern Israel, which claimed the lives of about 1,200 Israelis, according to the Israeli authorities.