Israeli forces carried out their heaviest airstrikes in weeks across the Gaza Strip on Saturday, killing at least 32 people, according to Palestinian health officials, a day before the Rafah border crossing with Egypt is set to partially reopen.

The strikes hit multiple locations, including residential apartments in Gaza City, a tent camp sheltering displaced people in Khan Younis, and a Hamas-run police station, local authorities said. Gaza’s civil defence agency reported that most of those killed were women and children.

“The death toll since dawn today has risen to 32, most of them children and women,” said Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for the civil defence agency. “Residential apartments, tents, shelters and a police station were targeted, resulting in this humanitarian catastrophe.”

The latest toll marked a sharp increase compared with the daily death figures reported since a US-brokered ceasefire entered its second phase earlier this month. Despite the truce, violence has continued almost daily, with both Israel and Hamas accusing each other of breaching the agreement.

In a statement, the Israeli military said the strikes were carried out in response to a ceasefire violation on Friday, when eight Palestinians were detected exiting a tunnel in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. The army said it targeted “four commanders and additional terrorists from the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist organisations across the Gaza Strip.”

Hamas condemned the strikes, calling them “a brutal crime,” and rejected Israel’s account of events.

The escalation came a day before the Rafah border crossing — Gaza’s main gateway to Egypt — is scheduled to reopen for the “limited movement of people” after nearly two years of closure, raising concerns that renewed violence could jeopardize fragile humanitarian arrangements.