Israeli forces destroyed at least 30 residential buildings in Gaza City, forced thousands of people from their homes and killed at least 38 people in continued attacks, Palestinian officials said, as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived to discuss the future of the conflict.
Israeli attacks killed at least 38 Palestinians and injured dozens across Gaza today, the territory's civil defence agency said, while two more people died of malnutrition and starvation, according to health officials.
Local hospitals said Israeli strikes targeted a vehicle near Al-Shifa hospital and a roundabout in Gaza City while a strike on a tent in the city of Deir al-Balah killed at least six members of the same family.
Two parents, their three children and the children's aunt were killed in that strike, according to the Al-Aqsa hospital.
The family was from the northern town of Beit Hanoun and arrived in Deir al-Balah last week after fleeing their shelter in Gaza City.
Israeli strike hits residential building in Gaza City
Images showed a column of vehicles and people on foot fleeing Gaza City southwards through a desolate landscape of destroyed buildings.
"We are living in constant terror amid relentless shelling and powerful explosions," said Sara Abu Ramadan, 20, a resident of Gaza City.
"Why such massive firepower in these rockets? What's their goal? We are dying here, with nowhere to seek refuge... and the world just watches."
Bakri Diab, who fled western Gaza City for the south, said Israeli strikes continued there as well.
"All the occupation has done is force people to crowd into places with no basic services and no safety," said the 35-year-old father of four.
Mr Rubio began a visit to Israel this morning, after expressing the Trump administration's unwavering support for its ally in the war with Hamas despite a strike in Qatar that drew broad criticism of Israel.
The trip is taking place after President Donald Trump rebuked Israel over the unprecedented attack against Hamas leaders meeting in Doha on Tuesday.
It marked Israel's first such strike against US ally Qatar and has put renewed strain on diplomatic efforts to bring about a truce in Gaza.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the visit underscored the "strength" of ties between the two countries.
Mr Netanyahu, calling Mr Rubio an "extraordinary friend" of Israel, said his visit showed "the strength of the Israeli-American alliance".
"It's as strong, as durable as the stones in the Western Wall that we just touched," Mr Netanyahu told journalists after offering prayers at the Jerusalem religious site alongside Mr Rubio and Washington's envoy to Israel, Mike Huckabee.
Meanwhile, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani urged the international community to "stop using double standards" and punish Israel for what he described as its "crimes".
He was speaking at a preparatory meeting on the eve of an emergency summit of Arab and Islamic leaders organised by Qatar after Israel carried out an unprecedented air strike on Hamas leaders in Doha.
"The time has come for the international community to stop using double standards and to punish Israel for all the crimes it has committed, and Israel needs to know that the ongoing war of extermination that our brotherly Palestinian people is being subjected to, and whose aim is to expel them from their land, will not work," the prime minister said.
Before departing for the region, Mr Rubio told reporters that while President Trump was "not happy" about the Israeli strike on Qatar, it was "not going to change the nature of our relationship with the Israelis".
But he added that the United States and Israel were "going to have to talk about" its impact on truce efforts.
Israel's strike in Doha targeted Hamas leaders gathering to discuss a new ceasefire proposal put forward by the United States.
In recent days, Israel has ramped up efforts to seize control of Gaza City, the territory's largest urban centre, telling residents to evacuate and blowing up numerous high-rise buildings it said were being used by Hamas.
Aid agencies say an Israeli takeover of Gaza City would be catastrophic for a population already facing widespread malnutrition.
As of late August, the UN estimated that around one million people were living in the city and its surrounding areas, where it has declared a famine it blamed on Israeli aid restrictions.
Israeli attacks on Gaza have killed at least 64,803 people since October 2023, mostly civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Gaza that the United Nations considers reliable.
Large parts of major cities have been completely destroyed and around 90% of two million Palestinians have been displaced.
Global hunger monitor IPC determined this month that an entirely man-made famine is currently taking place in Gaza, while UN human rights chief Volker Turk said the famine was the direct result of Israeli government policies.
The world's biggest academic association of genocide scholars passed a resolution saying the legal criteria have been met to establish Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
The current stage of the war was sparked by Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.
UK, France to recognise Palestine, US commits to fight 'anti-Israel actions'
On Friday, the UN General Assembly voted to back a revival of the two-state solution, in defiance of Israeli opposition.
Israeli allies Britain and France, alongside several other Western nations, are set to recognise Palestinian statehood at a UN gathering this month out of exasperation at Israel's conduct of the Gaza war and in the occupied West Bank.
Nevertheless, Israel retains the backing of its most powerful ally and biggest arms supplier, the United States.
Ahead of Mr Rubio's visit, State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said the diplomatic chief would show "our commitment to fight anti-Israel actions including unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state that rewards Hamas terrorism".
At home, opponents of the Mr Netanyahu government have sought to pressure ministers to end the war in return for the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza.
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Yesterday, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, the main campaign group for the captives, accused the Israeli premier of being the "one obstacle" to freeing the hostages.
Of the 251 people taken hostage by Palestinian militants in October 2023, 47 remain in Gaza, including 25 the Israeli military said are dead.
Brian Katulis, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, said Mr Rubio was unlikely to push Israel toward a ceasefire.
"There is an alarming passivity in actually getting to a ceasefire in Gaza," said Mr Katulis, who worked on Middle East policy under former president Bill Clinton.
"The administration seems to be listening more to its own base of Huckabees and other evangelical Christians allied with right-wing Israelis," he said, referring to the US Ambassador in Jerusalem, Mike Huckabee, a Baptist pastor.
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