GAZA, July 5 (Xinhua) -- At least 45 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, amid warnings of a complete collapse of public sectors due to fuel shortages.

In violent attacks, Israeli warplanes fired several missiles at dawn on tents housing displaced people in the al-Mawasi area, west of Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, according to local sources and witnesses.

Sources and witnesses said that flames engulfed a large number of tents in the area amid screams and cries of women and children.

Mahmoud Basal, spokesperson for the Civil Defense in Gaza, told Xinhua that 17 people, including a doctor and three of his children, were killed in the attack.

Additionally, 15 people were killed, and several others injured in Israeli airstrikes targeting different neighborhoods in Gaza City, north of the Strip, according to Basal.

He added that four people were killed after Israeli aircraft targeted two houses in the Bureij and Maghazi refugee camps in the central Gaza Strip.

Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis reported in a statement that nine people, including three children, were killed by Israeli army fire near a U.S.-backed aid distribution center north of Rafah, the southernmost of the Gaza Strip.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli army on these incidents.

Since Israel resumed its intensified military campaign on March 18, at least 6,780 Palestinians have been killed and 23,916 injured, bringing the overall death toll in Gaza since the conflict began in October 2023 to 57,338, with a total of 135,957 people injured, according to health authorities in Gaza on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Amjad Shawa, director general of the Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations Network, warned on Saturday that vital sectors are threatened with complete collapse due to the worsening fuel crisis.

The health authorities in Gaza also warned that the fuel crisis is exacerbating the severe strain on the health system and the remaining functioning hospitals. ■