Gaza's civil defense said Sunday dozens of bodies had been found buried at a Gaza 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" 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.
Gaza's civil defense 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 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".
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, with the military accusing Hamas of using the facilities as command centers and to hold hostages abducted in the October 7 attack, claims denied by the Palestinian militants.
On Sunday, an AFP photographer saw civil defense 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" to Hamas.
"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 October 7 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.
