Gaza's civil defence has said dozens of bodies had been found buried at a Gaza hospital complex previously raided by Israel, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to ramp up military pressure on Hamas.
Mr Netanyahu, who threatened action "in the coming days" but did not specify, has repeatedly said the Israeli army will launch a ground assault on Rafah despite international concern for civilians who have taken refuge in the southern city.
His latest remarks came a day after US politicians approved $13bn in new military aid to close ally Israel, even as global criticism mounts over the dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
The Palestinian militant group Hamas, whose 7 October attack triggered the Gaza war, said the US aid was a "green light" for Israel to "continue the brutal aggression against our people".
Gaza's civil defence agency said its teams had discovered 50 bodies since yesterday buried in the courtyard of the Nasser Medical Complex in Gaza's main southern city of Khan Yunis.
"We are continuing the search operation today and are waiting for all graves to be exhumed in order to give a final number of martyrs," Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for the civil defence agency, told AFP.
"There were no clothes on some bodies, which certainly indicates (the victims) faced torture and abuse," Bassal said.
Israel's military said it was checking the reports.
Hamas in a statement said the 50 bodies were exhumed from what it called a "mass grave of those executed in cold blood and buried with military bulldozers in the hospital's courtyard".
The Israeli army said it was checking these reports.
Israel pulled its ground forces from Khan Yunis on 7 April after carrying out what it called a "precise and limited operation" at the hospital, one of Gaza's biggest.
Hospitals in Gaza have faced the brunt of the Israeli assault, with the military accusing Hamas of using the facilities as command centres and to hold hostages abducted in the 7 October attack, claims denied by the Palestinian militants.
Today, an AFP photographer saw civil defence crews exhuming human remains from the courtyard, while grieving relatives collected bodies wrapped in white.
Mr Netanyahu, in a video statement on the eve of the Jewish holiday of Passover, said Israel "will deliver additional and painful blows" to Hamas.
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"In the coming days we will increase the military and political pressure on Hamas because this is the only way to free our hostages," he said.
Israel estimates 129 captives remain in Gaza after the 7 October Hamas attack, including 34 who the military says are dead.
The army has said at least some of the hostages are held in Rafah, so far been spared an Israeli invasion and where most of Gaza's 2.4 million people have sought shelter.
Fears of wider Middle East conflict eased
Fears of wider war breaking out in the Middle East have eased somewhat after Iran downplayed Israel's reported retaliation over its unprecedented missile and drone attack on the country a week ago.
Israel hit Gaza with several strikes overnight, according to the Palestinian territory's civil defence agency.
The bodies of 13 people, mostly children, were recovered after an Israeli strike hit the home of a family near the southernmost Gaza city of Rafah, the agency said. Other people were believed to be under rubble.
A separate Israeli strike on a home in the Rafah area killed at least three people and wounded others, Civil Defence said.
Resident Umm Hassan Kloub, aged 35, said her children screamed when they "woke up to a nightmare of an explosion".
"Every second we live in terror, even the sound of Israeli aircraft doesn't stop," she said.
"We don't know whether we will live or die. This is not life."
'Second Gaza'
Soon after the war began, when Hamas militants from Gaza attacked southern Israel on 7 October, Israel told Palestinians in northern Gaza to move to "safe zones" further south such as Rafah.
Around 1.5 million of Gaza's 2.4 million people are now estimated to be sheltering in the city.
However, Israel has for two months threatened to invade the city in its mission to destroy Hamas.
The G7 group of developed economies said on Friday that it opposed a "full-scale military operation" there, fearing "catastrophic consequences" for Rafah's civilians.
Violence has also flared in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where a two-year surge in clashes has further escalated since the war broke out.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said yesterday that at least 14 people were killed during an Israeli raid on a refugee camp in the northern West Bank.
The Israeli army said it killed 10 militants during the operation at Nur Shams camp, which started on Thursday.
A camp resident who declined to give his name said the West Bank had become a "second Gaza".
"This is the first time in our history that we have seen such destruction, such devastation," the man told AFP.
Separately, Israeli forces shot dead two Palestinian teenagers near the West Bank city of Hebron, the Palestinian health ministry said this morning, bringing to at least 483 the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli troops and settlers in the West Bank since 7 October, according to ministry data.
The Israeli army said the two assailants had attempted to stab and shoot troops near the village of Beit Einun.
According to the Shin Bet internal security agency, at least 19 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks in the West Bank since the Gaza war started.
US boosts Israeli defences
Much of the new military assistance approved by the US House of Representatives yesterday was expected to be used to reinforce Israel's air defences.
Israel welcomed the aid, while Hamas condemned it as a "green light" for continued Israeli "aggression".
The US bill said that more than $9 billion will also be earmarked to address "the dire need for humanitarian assistance for Gaza as well as other vulnerable populations around the world".
The boost for Israel's defences comes after almost all of the more than 300 missiles and drones that Iran launched towards the country a week ago were intercepted, according to the Israeli military.
Israel had vowed to respond to Iran's first-ever attack on its territory, which was itself retaliation for a deadly 1 April strike on Iran's embassy consular annex in Damascus.
Iran blamed Israel for that attack.
Israel's response appeared to come on Friday when explosions were reported in the central Iranian province of Isfahan.
Israeli officials have made no public comment, and Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian downplayed the incident.
He told NBC News that Tehran would not respond "as long as there is no new adventure on behalf of the Israeli regime against Iran's interests".
Israel today said it will hold a "protest talk" with ambassadors from several United Nations Security Council members which voted for the "State of Palestine" to become a full UN member.
France, Japan and others backed the bid which the United States vetoed.
Israeli anger over hostages
Israel has faced growing global opposition to the war, which has turned vast areas of Gaza into rubble while a siege has left residents without enough water, food, medicines and other vital supplies.
The population "faces famine, malnutrition, and infectious disease outbreaks", the International Rescue Committee charity warned this week.
Hamas's attack that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 34,097 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also come under pressure within Israel, including to reach a deal for the release of hostages still held by Hamas. Israel estimates 129 captives remain in Gaza, including 34 who the military says are dead.
Families of the hostages were among thousands attending an anti-government protest in Tel Aviv last night.
Ofir Angrest, whose brother Matan was kidnapped on 7 October, called for Jewish Israelis to leave an empty chair at their traditional Seder meals marking the beginning of the holiday Passover tomorrow.
"Enough! After more than six months, you're simply disrespecting me and the families of the hostages," Angrest said, adding that he was addressing the Israeli cabinet.
