Israel pounded the length of the Gaza Strip on Thursday, killing families in their homes even as Washington sent an envoy to encourage its ally to guard better against civilian casualties in its war against Hamas militants.

The more than two-month war is now raging across the entire Palestinian enclave, causing a humanitarian catastrophe, with little end in sight. “It will require a long period of time — it will last more than several months — but we will win and we will destroy them,” Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant told visiting White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan.

In Rafah, jammed with people in makeshift tents on Gaza’s southern edge, people wept at a morgue where bodies of those killed in the latest strikes were wrapped in bloodied shrouds. Some were small children.

The adjacent homes of the Abu Dhbaa and Ashour families were obliterated and residents picked forlornly through rubble. Gaza health authorities said 26 people had been killed there.

Neighbour Fadel Shabaan had rushed to the area after the bombing. “It was difficult because of the dust and people’s screams. We went there and we saw our neighbour who had ten martyrs. This is a safe camp, there is nothing here, the children play soccer in the street,” he said.

Israel has brushed off calls for a ceasefire, including a resolution at the UN Security Council blocked by a US veto last week and another that passed overwhelmingly in the General Assembly this week.

Washington has provided diplomatic cover for its longstanding ally but expressed increasing alarm, with President Joe Biden calling Israeli bombing “indiscriminate”.

Sullivan met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He planned to discuss with the Israelis the need to be more accurate in strikes, spokesperson John Kirby said.

Up to 45 per cent of the 29,000 air-to-ground munitions that Israel has dropped on Gaza since October 7 have been unguided “dumb bombs” according to a US intelligence assessment reported by CNN.

Agriculture minister Avi Dichter, a member of Israel’s security cabinet, rejected Biden’s characterisation of Israel’s strikes as indiscriminate.

“There is no such thing as ‘dumb bombs’. Some bombs are more accurate, some bombs are less accurate. What we have is mostly pilots who are precise,” he said.