The bodies of more than a dozen aid workers have been recovered in southern Gaza from what a United Nations agency described as a “mass grave,” a week after they went missing following attacks by Israeli forces.

The aid workers and their ambulances were found Monday in a hastily dug grave, which was apparently plowed over by bulldozers, the UN said.

The U.N. said Israel killed the people as they were trying to aid injured civilians, and then buried them in a mass grave. Israel said nine were militants.

Israel’s military operation in the Gaza Strip is expanding to "crush" the area of Hamas and seize "large areas," Defense Minister Israel Katz announced Wednesday.

A top official said “large areas” of the enclave would be seized, suggesting that Israel intended to hold on to more territory.

Israel's renewed military operation in Gaza "is expanding to crush and cleanse the area of ​​terrorists," Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement on Wednesday.