Bodies were brought to a hospital in the Gaza Strip late Tuesday after at least seven Palestinians were killed in a barrage of Israeli attacks which threatened the two-week-old ceasefire.

Five dead, including two children, were brought to the Nasser Hospital after a strike hit a vehicle in Khan Younis, according to the health facility's head of pediatrics.

The flare-up of violence presented one of the biggest tests so far for the truce between Israel and Hamas and had international mediators scrambling to prevent it from collapsing.

Israel notified the United States before launching the strikes on Tuesday, according to two U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

Elsewhere, two bodies of Palestinians killed in the strikes were brought to the Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, according to the hospital's managing director.

Earlier in the day, Israeli troops were shot at in the southern city of Rafah and returned fire, according to an Israeli military official who spoke on condition of anonymity because there hasn't been an official announcement yet.

Hamas also handed over body parts on Monday that Israel said were the partial remains of a hostage recovered earlier in the war.

In a statement, Hamas denied involvement in the gunfire in Rafah and reiterated its commitment to the ceasefire.

Over 68,500 Palestinians have died in the two-year war in Gaza, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count.

The ministry maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts.

Israel has disputed them without providing its own toll.