An Israeli air strike on a hospital courtyard in the Gaza Strip has killed at least four people and sent flames sweeping through a packed tent camp for people displaced by the war, leaving dozens with severe burns, according to Palestinian medics.

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central city of Deir el-Balah was already struggling to treat a large number of wounded people from an earlier strike on a school-turned-shelter nearby that killed at least 20 people when the air strike early on Monday hit and fire engulfed many of the tents.

Hospital records showed four people were killed and more than 70 wounded. Twenty-five people were transferred to the Nasser Medical Complex in southern Gaza after suffering severe burns, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.

The death toll is expected to rise as rescue teams scramble to rescue survivors.

The Israeli military said it targeted fighters hiding out among civilians but did not provide evidence for their presence. In recent months, it has repeatedly struck crowded shelters and tent camps, alleging that Hamas was using them as staging grounds for attacks.

Israel is still carrying out daily strikes across Gaza as part of its genocide against Palestinians, which has entered a second year. Its forces are waging a major ground assault in the north.

Israel has ordered the entire remaining population of the northern third of Gaza, estimated at around 400,000 people, to evacuate to the south and has not allowed any food to enter the north since the start of the month. Hundreds of thousands of people from the north heeded Israeli evacuation orders at the start of the war and have not been allowed to return.