At least 60 people were killed by Israeli strikes across Gaza in a 24-hour period, Gaza's health ministry said Friday, as Israel pressed ahead with its military offensive and let in minimal aid to the strip.

The dead included 10 people in the southern city of Khan Younis, four in the central town of Deir al-Balah and nine in the Jabaliya refugee camp in the north, according to the Nasser, Al-Aqsa and Al-Ahli hospitals where the bodies were brought.

Since President Donald Trump announced his intent to end a half-century of U.S. sanctions on Syria, a debate has developed in his administration over how quickly and thoroughly that should happen.

At risk could be the future of a transitional government run by those who drove Syrian leader Bashar Assad from power late last year and hopes that it can stabilize the country after a devastating 13-year civil war that has left millions dead or displaced, the economy in ruins and thousands of foreign fighters still on Syrian soil.

Two Palestinian sources told AFP Friday the leaders of pro-Iran Palestinian factions who were close to former Tehran-backed ruler Bashar al-Assad have left Syria under pressure from the new authorities.

One pro-Iran Palestinian factional leader who left after Assad's December ouster said on condition of anonymity that "most of the Palestinian factional leadership that received support from Tehran has left Damascus", while another still based there confirmed the development.

According to the head of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, the medic Asaad al-Nsasrah has not spoken with the media since Israeli soldiers killed 15 emergency responders in southern Gaza on March 23.

Words in Hebrew could be heard in the final moments of a video of the killings that was subsequently found and made public.

The man accused of fatally shooting two staff members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington outside a Jewish museum told police after his arrest, "I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza," federal authorities said Thursday in announcing charges in the killings they called a targeted act of terrorism.

Elias Rodriguez, 31, shouted "Free Palestine" as he was led away after his arrest, according to charging documents that provided chilling new details of the Wednesday night shootings in the nation's capital that killed an American woman and an Israeli man who had just left an event at the museum. They were set to become engaged.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Iran will hold the United States responsible for any Israeli attack on its nuclear facilities after U.S. media reported Israel is preparing for an attack.

"We believe that in the event of any attack on the nuclear facilities of the Islamic Republic of Iran by the Zionist regime, the U.S. government will also be involved and bear legal responsibility," Araghchi said in a letter to the United Nations published on Thursday.

Killing babies "as a hobby." "Expelling a population." "Fighting against civilians."

It is some of the harshest language against Israel's wartime conduct in Gaza and it came this week from a prominent Israeli politician, sparking a domestic uproar as the country faces heavy international criticism.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar accused European governments of incitement against his country on Thursday after the fatal shooting of two embassy staffers in Washington.

"There is a direct line connecting anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli incitement to this murder," Saar told a press conference. "This incitement is also done by leaders and officials of many countries and international organizations, especially from Europe."

Air raid sirens sounded in Jerusalem, where AFP journalists reported loud booms overheard, as the Israeli military announced it had intercepted a missile launched from Yemen on Thursday.

"Following the sirens that sounded a short while ago in several areas in Israel, a missile launched from Yemen was intercepted," the army said in a statement.

The main comments made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin at a Jerusalem press conference on Wednesday in which he discussed the Gaza war and tensions with Iran:

- Gaza hostages -