Emergency workers on Friday recovered five bodies and rescued around 10 survivors from the rubble of what appeared to be a tunnel in Gaza hit by Israeli bombardment, medics and witnesses said.

Raed al-Dahshan, deputy head of Gaza's civil defence, said they were still sifting through the rubble to find more bodies, hours after a ceasefire ended 11 days of Israeli air strikes on the besieged coastal enclave run by Islamist movement Hamas.

"The civil defence and the ministry of public works and municipalities are working to clear away the rubble," he said.

"We are continuing to look for the missing under the debris.

"But it's tough work because we don't have the heavy equipment to search, so many injured are dying under the rubble," he said.

The recovered bodies take the death toll from Israeli air strikes since May 10 to 243, including 66 children, the health ministry says. 

Hamas has said that fighters were among those killed.