The Israel-Gaza war has continued since October 7 (file photo)
Gaza’s civil defense said on Sunday that dozens of bodies had been found in a hospital building ahead of an Israeli attack, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to step up military pressure on Hamas.
Netanyahu threatened action “in the coming days” without elaborating, saying repeatedly that Israel would launch a ground attack on Rafah despite international concerns about civilians taking refuge in the southern Gaza city.
The prime minister’s latest comments came a day after U.S. lawmakers approved $13 billion in new military aid to close ally Israel, despite growing global criticism over the dire humanitarian crisis in the besieged Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian group Hamas, whose Oct. 7 attack triggered the war in Gaza, said the U.S. aid gave Israel a “green light” to “continue its brutal aggression against our people.”
Gaza’s civil defense agency said its teams had discovered 50 bodies since Saturday in the courtyard of the Khan Younis Nasser Medical Center in the main city of southern Gaza.
“We… are waiting for all graves to be exhumed in order to determine the final number of martyrs,” civil protection spokesman Mahmoud Basal told AFP.
“Some of the bodies had no clothes on them, which is a sure sign that (the victims) faced torture and ill-treatment,” Basal said.
The Israeli military said it was examining the reports.
Hamas said in a statement that the 50 bodies were exhumed from a so-called “mass grave” in the hospital yard.
Israel withdrew ground troops from Khan Younis on April 7 after what it called a “precise and limited surgery” at Khan Younis Hospital, one of Gaza’s largest hospitals.
Gaza’s hospitals have borne the brunt of Israeli attacks, with the military accusing Hamas of using them as command centers and holding hostages kidnapped on October 7, a claim Hamas denies.
On Sunday, an AFP photographer saw civil defense workers exhuming human remains from courtyards while grieving relatives collected bodies wrapped in white.
Resident Umm Mohammed al-Harazeen came to the hospital area hoping to get news about her husband.
She said he had been missing since Israeli forces entered Khan Younis and “we have been looking for him but to no avail”.
-“Wake up from a nightmare”-
Netanyahu said in a video statement on the eve of the Jewish holiday of Passover that Israel “will deal an additional painful blow to Hamas.”
“In the coming days, we will increase military and political pressure on Hamas because this is the only way to free the hostages,” he said.
Israel estimates that 129 prisoners remain in Gaza after the October 7 Hamas attack, 34 of whom the military says are dead.
The military said at least some of the hostages were being held in Rafah, which has so far been shielded from the Israeli invasion and where most of Gaza’s 2.4 million residents have sought refuge.
“The chief of staff has approved the next steps for the war,” Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a televised statement, without providing details.
“On Passover, the hostages will be held captive for 200 days… We will fight until you return to us,” he said.
Earlier this week, the Group of Seven advanced economies said they opposed a “full-scale military operation” in Rafah, fearing “catastrophic consequences” for civilians.
The Israeli army has carried out regular air strikes on the city.
Israel’s overnight attacks on two houses in Rafah killed at least 16 people, mostly children, the civil defense agency said.
Resident Umm Hassan Kloub, 35, said her children screamed when they “awoke to a nightmare of explosions.”
“We live in fear every second, even the sound of Israeli planes does not stop,” she said.
Hamas attacks that sparked the war killed 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 34,097 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-controlled region’s health ministry.
– US strengthens Israeli defenses –
Violence has also erupted in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, escalating a two-year surge in conflict in the region since the Gaza war began.
A 40-hour Israeli attack on the Noor Shams refugee camp in the northern West Bank left at least 14 people dead, the Palestinian Red Crescent said on Saturday.
Two Palestinians were killed in an Israeli attack near Hebron on Sunday, and another Palestinian was killed at a northern West Bank checkpoint, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. The military said all three had tried to attack troops.
Meanwhile, Hamas’s military wing said its operatives in southern Lebanon fired 20 rockets at a northern Israeli military base, the latest in a cross-border firefight that typically involves Hamas ally Hezbollah.
The Israeli army announced on Sunday that a soldier wounded in a Hezbollah attack near the Lebanese border on Wednesday has died.
Much of the new military aid approved by the U.S. House of Representatives on Saturday is expected to be used to bolster Israel’s air defenses.
According to the Israeli military, almost all of the hundreds of missiles and drones that Iran launched into the country a week ago were intercepted with the help of Israel’s allies.
Iran’s first direct attack on Israel was itself retaliation for the deadly April 1 attack on Tehran’s embassy and consulate in Damascus.
Israel appeared to respond on Friday when an explosion rocked Iran’s central Isfahan province, although fears of a wider war eased after Iran appeared to downplay the situation.
Israeli officials have made no public comment, while Iranian Foreign Minister Hussein Amir-Abdullahian said Tehran would not respond unless Israel launched further attacks.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Sunday praised Iran’s armed forces for their “success in recent events” in his first comments since drone and missile attacks on Israel.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
