Tens of thousands descended upon London to take part in another peace protest.

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) march began at Whitehall from midday on Saturday and proceeded across Vauxhall Bridge before ending with a rally near the US Embassy.

Earlier this week the death toll from Israeli strikes on central parts of Gaza on Thursday rose from 16 to 25, as more bodies have been recovered, hospital officials have said.

The Palestinians killed in the series of strikes on central Gaza included five children and seven women, the officials said.

Sixteen people had initially been reported killed in two strikes on Thursday on the central Nuseirat refugee camp, but officials from the Al-Aqsa hospital said bodies continued to be brought in.

The hospital said they had received 21 dead bodies from the strikes, including some transferred from the Awda hospital, where they had been taken the day before.

One of the strikes killed an 18-month-old boy and his 10-year-old sister. The children’s mother was missing on Friday and the father was killed by an Israeli airstrike four months ago, the family told AP journalists at Aqsa hospital.

Israeli airstrikes also intensified in Lebanon around the north-eastern city of Baalbek this week. They prompted 60,000 people to flee their homes and have emptied many small villages in the area, said Hussein Haj Hassan, a Lebanese official representing the region.

Rescuers searched for survivors after airstrikes killed seven people in Younine, a town in the Bekaa Valley, said Governor Bachir Khodr.

The strikes brought down a building believed to be housing 20 people.

Further Israeli strikes in the north east killed 11 people in the village of Amhaz, five people in the town of Nahleh and 14 others across the Bekaa Valley, Mr Khodr added.