A six-year-old Palestinian girl who went missing after the family's car came under fire in war-ravaged Gaza was found dead Saturday, the health ministry and her relatives said, accusing Israel of killing her.

The last time Hind Rajab had been seen was about two weeks ago when she was surrounded by dead relatives after becoming trapped in the vehicle as they tried to flee Gaza City as Israeli forces advanced.

"Hind and everyone else in the car is martyred," the girl's grandfather, Baha Hamada told AFP.

Joe Biden's tone on Israel has been hardening in recent days, but when he called the country's response in the Gaza Strip "over the top" this week, the US president crossed into new territory.

The comments made Thursday were the strongest by the US leader since Israel launched its barrage on Gaza following Hamas' October 7 attacks -- leaving the White House quietly scrambling to temper their effect.

The episode reflects the growing divide between the Democratic president and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition government which includes far-right ministers.

Meta on Friday confirmed it is assessing when the word "Zionist" should be deemed hate speech as online anti-Semitism escalates amid the Israel-Hamas war.

The tech titan behind Facebook and Instagram confirmed a Washington Post report that it is thinking of expanding its hate speech ban to include more uses of the term, particularly when it appears to be an ill-spirited substitute for "Jews" or "Israelis."

Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah said it fired dozens of rockets at an army position in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Friday, hours after launching a salvo at northern Israel.

Friday's attack came as Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian visited Beirut, and hours after Syria said it downed two drones near Damascus that it said entered its airspace from the Golan.

Hezbollah fighters targeted an Israeli army barracks "in the occupied Syrian Golan with dozens of Katyusha rockets", the group said in a statement.

French prosecutors have recommended that cement maker Lafarge stand trial on charges of terrorism financing over its past activities in Syria, a source close to the case told AFP Friday.

France's anti-terror prosecution unit (PNAT) wants to put the company and nine of its former managers in the dock, the source said.

Lafarge has since 2015 been part of Swiss building materials conglomerate Holcim.

Texas A&M is to close its Qatar campus, the US university said Friday, blaming Middle East insecurity for the move, which drew criticism from its partner in the Gulf emirate.

The university said it had "decided to reassess the university’s physical presence in Qatar in fall 2023 due to the heightened instability in the Middle East".

"The board has decided that the core mission of Texas A&M should be advanced primarily within Texas and the United States," chairman Bill Mahomes said in a statement.

Major Israeli military action on Rafah, in Gaza's far south, would heap further devastation on civilians, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) warned Friday.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week said he had ordered troops to prepare to go into the city as Israel hunts down those behind Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack on southern Israel.

But UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini, under pressure after Israel alleged 12 of the agency's staff took part in the deadly assault, said the humanitarian situation in Rafah was increasingly desperate.

Israeli air strikes pummelled densely crowded Rafah on Saturday after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered his troops to "prepare to operate" in the southern border city that has become a last refuge for displaced Palestinians.

Netanyahu's planned offensive on Rafah, where an estimated 1.3 million people have fled, has drawn condemnation from rights groups and Washington, while Palestinians have said they have nowhere left to retreat.

To arrive at work in Jerusalem on time, Murad Khalid must be at the Israeli checkpoint by 3:00 am, despite living nearby in the occupied West Bank -- a constant challenge made worse by the Gaza war.

The 27-year-old said he and other residents of Kafr Aqab neighbourhood in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem -- located on the West Bank side of the barrier -- are subjected to a "security check that may take an hour for each car" at Qalandia crossing.

Israeli movement restrictions have long made life difficult for the three million Palestinians living in the West Bank.

Adel al-Hajj fears Israeli forces could at any moment launch an "invasion" of southern Gaza's Rafah city, where he and more than a million other Palestinians have fled for safety.

Teeming with displaced Gazans huddled in makeshift camps, Rafah has swelled to about five times its pre-war size since fighting between Israel and Gaza rulers Hamas erupted in October.

The city is one of the few areas spared an Israeli ground offensive, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said this week he had ordered troops to "prepare to operate" there.