The Palestinian Health Ministry has accused Israel of using banned weapons in pounding the Gaza Strip.

"Gaza hospitals burst at the seams of martyrs and wounded," health undersecretary Youssef Abul Resh told a press conference in Gaza City late Saturday.

He accused Israel of using banned weapons in striking the Gaza Strip, home to 1.8 million Palestinians.

"Medical teams have found wounds on the bodies of those killed and injured that are caused by the banned DIME weapons," the Palestinian official said.

"Foreign doctors in Gaza have confirmed that Israeli missiles and shells are destructive and internationally banned," he added.

Abul Resh cited that about 40 percent of those killed in ongoing Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strips were women and children.

"Children and women make up around 62 percent of those injured in the attacks," he said, going on to appeal to human rights organizations and the international community "to pile pressures on Israel to halt is aggression on the Gaza Strip".

At least 165 Palestinians have been killed and hundreds injured since Israel launched a military offensive in the Gaza Strip on Monday with the stated aim of ending rocket fire from the strip.

Gaza-based resistance factions, for their part, continue to launch low-yield rockets at Israeli cities in response to the unrelenting Israeli strikes.