Israel hits new low as dozens of bodies found at Gaza hospital

Gaza's civil defence said Sunday dozens of bodies had been found buried at a hospital complex previously raided by Israel, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to ramp up military pressure on Hamas.

Netanyahu, who threatened action "in the coming days" without elaborating, 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 Gazan city.

Gaza's civil defence agency said its teams had discovered 50 bodies since Saturday buried in the courtyard of the Nasser Medical Complex in Gaza's main southern city of Khan Yunis.

"We... 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" in the hospital's courtyard.

Israel pulled its ground forces from Khan Yunis on April 7 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.

On Sunday, an AFP photographer saw civil defence crews exhuming human remains from the courtyard, while grieving relatives collected bodies wrapped in white.

Netanyahu, in a video statement on the eve of the Jewish holiday of Passover, said Israel "will deliver additional and painful blows".

"In the coming days we will increase the military and political pressure on Hamas," he said.

Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a televised statement that "the chief of staff has approved the next steps for the war," without offering details.

Earlier this week, the G7 group of developed economies said that it opposed a "full-scale military operation" in Rafah, fearing "catastrophic consequences" for civilians.

Israeli forces have already carried out regular air strikes on the city.

The civil defence agency said Israeli strikes hit two homes in Rafah overnight, killing at least 16 people, mostly children.

Resident Umm Hassan Kloub, 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.

Israel's offensive has killed at least 34,097 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to territory's health ministry.

Violence has also flared in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where a two-year surge in clashes has further escalated since the Gaza war broke out.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said Sunday that at least 14 people were killed during a 40-hour Israeli raid on Nur Shams refugee camp in the northern West Bank.

On Sunday two Palestinians were killed during an Israeli raid near Hebron, and another at a northern West Bank checkpoint, the Palestinian health ministry said.

Meanwhile Hamas's military wing said its fighters in southern Lebanon fired 20 rockets at a northern Israeli military base, the latest in cross-border exchanges of fire.

The Israeli army announced Sunday the death of Major Dor Zimel, 27, one of 14 soldiers wounded in a Hezbollah strike Wednesday on Arab al-Aramshe village in northern Israel near the Lebanese border.