Israel bombed areas of Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip overnight, with fighting throughout Sunday morning, residents and Palestinian media said, as Gaza health authorities and the Israeli military both announced mounting death tolls.

Israel says it has achieved almost complete operational control over northern Gaza and is preparing to expand a ground offensive against Hamas militants to other areas. But Jabalia residents reported persistent aerial bombardment and shelling from Israeli tanks, which they said had moved further into the town on Saturday.

A Gaza health ministry spokesman said on Sunday that 166 Palestinians had been killed in the past 24 hours, taking the total Palestinian death toll to 20,424. The Israeli military said nine soldiers had been killed in the past day, bringing to 155 its published combat losses. The daily toll was one of the highest for Israeli forces of the ground assault so far.

“This is a difficult morning, after a very difficult day of fighting in Gaza,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a cabinet meeting on Sunday. “The war is exacting a very heavy cost from us; however we have no choice (but) to continue to fight.”

The White House said on Saturday that US President Joe Biden and Netanyahu had discussed the Israeli campaign.

Biden “emphasised the critical need to protect the civilian population including those supporting the humanitarian aid operation, and the importance of allowing civilians to move safely away from areas of ongoing fighting”, the White House said.

Netanyahu, speaking at a weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday, dismissed reports that the US had convinced Israel not to expand its military campaign.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday that Netanyahu was persuaded by Biden not to attack the militant Hezbollah group in neighbouring Lebanon out of concerns it would launch an attack on Israel.

“Israel is a sovereign state,” Netanyahu said. “Our decisions in the war are based on our operational considerations, and I will not elaborate on that.”

Israel has long urged residents to leave northern areas of Gaza, but its forces have also been bombarding targets in central and southern parts of the enclave.

Six Palestinians were killed and several wounded in an Israeli air strike on a house at the Bureij refugee camp, in the centre of the Gaza Strip, medics said. In Rafah, on Gaza’s southern border with Egypt, an Israeli air strike on a house killed two people, Palestinian medics said.

The Palestinian Red Crescent reported an attack on one of its main bases in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. It said a 13-year-old child had been shot dead by an Israeli drone.