GAZA CITY: Gaza`s civil defence agency said Israeli strikes on Monday killed at least 40 people across the Palestinian territory, which has been under an Israeli aid blockade for more than 50 days.

Israel resumed its military campaign in the Gaza Strip on March 18. A ceasefire agreement that had largely halted the fighting for two months before that collapsed over disagreements between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, which has been calling for a long term ceasfire.

Brazil on Monday called for a `complete withdrawal` of Israeli forces from Gaza and termed Israel`s blocking of aid to the territory `unacceptable.` `The resumption of Israeli bombardments and the continued obstruction of humanitarian aid are unacceptable,` Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira told a meeting of BRICS foreign ministers in Rio de Janeiro.

Civil defence official Mohammed al-Mughayyir said that 40 people had been killed since dawn on Monday. They included eight people who were killed in an Israeli strike on the Abu Mahadi family home in Jabalia, in the north of the territory.

`They were sleeping in their homes, feeling safe, when missiles hit... this scene makes the body shiver,` said Abdul Majeed Abu Mahadi, 67, who added that hisbrother was killed in the attack.

`If a person looked at this scene, they would have seen children, women and elderly men cut into pieces, it makes the heart ache, but what can we do?` The civil defence agency reported that another 10 people were killed in an Israeli strike on the Al-Ghamari familyhome in the Al-Sudaniya area northwest of Gaza City.

A strike on the Al-Agha family home killed eight others in an area of Khan Yunis in the south, it added.

Fourteen others were killed in four separate strikes across the territory, the civil defence said, including one that hit a tent sheltering displaced people in the Al-Shafii camp, west of Khan Yunis.

The health ministry in Hamasrun Gaza said on Monday that at least 2,222 people have been killedsince Israel resumed strikes, bringing the overall death toll since the conflict broke out to 52,314.

`Empty-handed` At the break of dawn, 10-yearold Youssef al-Najjar races barefoot, clutching a battered pot, to a community kitchen in Gaza City,only to find hundreds of others already queueing. `People push and shove out of fear of missing their turn. There are little children who fall,` said Youssef.

Thousands of Gazans, including many children, rush to community kitchens every day in the hope of securing food for their families.

The humanitarian crisis in Gaza has worsened significantly since Israel blocked all aid from entering the territory on March 2.

-AFP