Israel has kept up heavy bombardment of targets throughout Gaza overnight after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to “fight until victory” following the release of the first two hostages by the enclave’s ruling Hamas group, Reuters reports.

After Netanyahu signalled no pause in Israel’s aerial onslaught and expected ground invasion, its military said fighter jets had struck a “large number of Hamas terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip” including command centres and combat positions inside multi-story buildings.

Palestinian medical officials and Hamas media said Israeli aircraft had overnight targeted several family houses across Gaza — one of the world’s most densely populated places — killing at least 50 people and injuring dozens.

The Israeli military reported a fresh salvo of rockets from Gaza against southern Israeli border communities before dawn, then a lull until sirens sounded in the port city of Ashdod some 40 kilometres north of the Palestinian enclave. There was no immediate word of casualties in either incident.