• Pope calls for Gaza ceasefire during Easter appearance
• 1,827 killed in Gaza since Israel resumed its offensive

Gaza's civil defence agency reported that Israeli air strikes since dawn yesterday have killed at least 25 people across the Gaza Strip, including women and children.

Israel resumed its aerial and ground assault on Gaza on March 18, reigniting fighting after a two-month ceasefire that had paused more than 15 months of war in the coastal territory.

"Since dawn today, the occupation's air strikes have killed 20 people and injured dozens more, including children and women across the Gaza Strip," Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for the civil defence agency told AFP.

In a separate statement later, the agency reported that five people were killed in an Israeli drone strike on a group of civilians in eastern Rafah.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday vowed to continue the war and bring home the remaining hostages held in Gaza without yielding to Hamas's demands.

"We are at a critical stage of the campaign, and at this point, we need patience and determination to win," Netanyahu said in a statement, rejecting calls from the Hamas to end the war and withdraw troops from Gaza.

Since Israel resumed its offensive last month, at least 1,827 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.

The overall death toll in the Gaza war has reached 51,201, the majority of them civilians, according to the ministry, figures the UN considers reliable.

Pope Francis yesterday reiterated his call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza in an Easter Sunday message read aloud by an aide as the pontiff, still recovering from pneumonia, looked on during a brief appearance on the main balcony of St Peter's Basilica.

In the Easter message, the pontiff said the situation in Gaza was "dramatic and deplorable". The pope also called on Hamas to release its remaining hostages and condemned what he said was a "worrisome" trend of antisemitism in the world.

Meanwhile, an Israeli army probe into last month's killing of 15 Gaza medics and rescuers concluded yesterday that six of the victims were Hamas members, expressing regret over the civilians killed in the incident.

"Fifteen Palestinians were killed, six of whom were identified in a retrospective examination as Hamas terrorists," the army said, referring to the incident on March 23. "The IDF (military) regrets the harm caused to uninvolved civilians," it added.

Younis Al-Khatib, president of the Red Crescent in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, told journalists in Ramallah around two weeks ago that an autopsy of the victims' bodies revealed that "all the martyrs were shot in the upper part of their bodies, with the intent to kill".

The military acknowledged a failure on the part of its troops to fully report the incident, moving to dismiss the commander responsible.

"The examination identified several professional failures, breaches of orders, and a failure to fully report the incident," the army said.

It added that a deputy commander "will be dismissed from his position due to his responsibilities as the field commander... and for providing an incomplete and inaccurate report during the debrief".

The incident occurred in the early hours when the emergency service providers were addressing distress calls from Palestinian residents near Rafah following an Israeli air strike in the area, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society.

Eight Red Crescent staff members, six from the Gaza civil defence rescue agency and one employee of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees were killed in the incident, according to the UN humanitarian agency OCHA and Palestinian rescuers.

Days after the incident, the Israeli military said its soldiers fired on "terrorists" approaching them in "suspicious vehicles", with a spokesman later adding that the vehicles had their lights off.