According to the Hamas-run Ministry of Health, 51 people have been killed in Israeli attacks on the southern Gaza Strip

At least 51 people have been killed in Israeli airstrikes and a ground operation in the Khan Younis area in the southern Gaza Strip, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza.

Tanks reportedly advanced into some parts of the city and its surrounding areas on Tuesday evening, with residents reporting gunfire and heavy artillery fire.

One wounded man who made it to hospital told the BBC that “tanks stormed into his village without warning.”

Separately, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it struck Hamas targets overnight at three schools housing displaced people in the central and northern Gaza Strip.

The IDF said Hamas members were operating in “command and control centers” embedded in Muscat, Rimal and Bureij preparatory schools.

The Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that at least nine civilians were killed at a school in Muscat in the Tuffah district of Gaza City and that six others were killed at the Al-Amal Institute for Orphans in the Rimal district.

The Al-Amal Institute for Orphans later said in a Facebook post that eight people were killed and a large number injured, including children and women, when an Israeli attack hit one of its buildings housing hundreds of displaced civilians.

Israel's continued attacks on Gaza came a day after it repelled rocket fire from Iran and launched a ground invasion in Lebanon. She described Tuesday's advance into Lebanon as a “limited” operation targeting sites of the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah after a year of cross-border fighting.

The IDF has not yet commented on the attacks in the southern Gaza Strip, which reportedly took place at dawn on Wednesday.

But a man from the village of Qizan al-Najjar, southeast of Khan Younis, told BBC Arabic that some of his relatives were killed in the attack.

“Tanks rushed into the area, accompanied by quadcopters that targeted us directly,” he said from Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, where medical officials also provided an update on the death toll.

Another man in the hospital said: “We were in Qizan al-Najjar when suddenly shells from planes and tanks rained down on us.”

A third man told BBC Arabic: “There was no warning. After the rocket fire from Lebanon we witnessed complete destruction. I barely survived; my daughter is injured and my wife has a head injury that may cause vision loss.”

He said Israeli forces also “completely destroyed” a house where displaced families had sought refuge.

Gaza's Health Ministry warned on Wednesday that the death toll could rise and another 82 people would be injured in the attacks.

The IDF has launched several ground operations against Hamas militants in Khan Younis, Gaza's second-largest urban area, since December.

The war began when Hamas gunmen attacked Israel on October 7 last year, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 others hostage.

Israel responded with a military operation in Gaza in which, according to the Ministry of Health, a total of 41,689 people have now been killed.