In the last 18 months of his life, Pope Francis had a frequent evening ritual: He would call the lone Catholic church in the Gaza Strip to see how people huddled inside were coping with a devastating war.

That small act of compassion made a big impression on Gaza's tiny Christian community and was why he was remembered at his death Monday as a beloved father figure in the beleaguered territory.

The head of Israel's internal security service on Monday accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of trying to exploit the power of the agency for political and personal gain through a litany of improper demands. His comments deepened a showdown between the two men that has divided the nation.

In a submission to the Supreme Court, Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar wrote that he refused a request from Netanyahu to identify Israeli anti-government protesters and surveil their financial backers.

Gaza's civil defence agency said that a spate of Israeli air strikes since dawn on Tuesday killed at least 25 people across the Hamas-run territory.

Israel resumed an intense air and ground offensive on Gaza on March 18, ending a two-month ceasefire that had largely halted the fighting in the besieged Palestinian territory.

An Israeli investigation into the killings of 15 Palestinian medics last month in Gaza by Israeli forces said Sunday it found a chain of "professional failures" and a deputy commander has been fired.

The shootings outraged many in the international community, with some calling the killings a war crime. Medical workers have special protection under international humanitarian law. The International Red Cross/Red Crescent called it the deadliest attack on its personnel in eight years.

Suleiman Khalil was harvesting olives in a Syrian orchard with two friends four months ago, unaware the soil beneath them still hid deadly remnants of war.

The trio suddenly noticed a visible mine lying on the ground. Panicked, Khalil and his friends tried to leave, but he stepped on a land mine and it exploded. His friends, terrified, ran to find an ambulance, but Khalil, 21, thought they had abandoned him.

U.S. airstrikes targeting Yemen's capital killed 12 people and wounded 30 others, the Houthi rebels said early Monday.

The deaths mark the latest in America's intensified campaign of strikes targeting the rebels. The U.S. military's Central Command declined to answer questions about the strike or discuss civilian casualties from its campaign.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas paid tribute to Pope Francis, who died Monday at 88, calling him a "faithful friend of the Palestinian people".

"Today, we lost a faithful friend of the Palestinian people and their legitimate rights," Abbas said, noting that Pope Francis "recognized the Palestinian state and authorized the Palestinian flag to be raised in the Vatican."

Qatar's chief negotiator voiced frustration over talks for a truce in Gaza in an interview with AFP, a month after Israel resumed its strikes on the Palestinian territory and another round of negotiations ended without a deal.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to bring home the remaining hostages in Gaza without yielding to Hamas' demands, insisting the military campaign in the Palestinian territory had reached a "critical stage".

The United States will roughly halve the number of troops it has deployed in Syria to less than 1,000 in the coming months, the Pentagon said Friday.