Saudi Arabia has condemned "in the strongest terms" the Israeli ground operation in Gaza City, a day after Israel unleashed a long-threatened ground assault on the enclave.
The kingdom also urged members of the UN Security Council to act to halt what it described as Israel's killing, starvation and forced displacement of Palestinians, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Yesterday Israel started a ground offensive to seize control of Gaza's main urban centre.
There has been a wave of criticism from countries around the region including Qatar, which has been hosting and mediating ceasefire talks.
Qatar described the Israeli ground offensive as a continuation of its "war of genocide" against the Palestinians.
After a UN Commission of Inquiry concluded yesterday that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza, Israel's ambassador in Geneva, Daniel Meron, called the report "scandalous" and "fake", saying it had been authored by"Hamas proxies".
Meanwhile, Israel's army has said it had opened a temporary new route to allow people to flee Gaza City, a day after launching a major ground assault aimed at crushing Hamas.
The Israeli military unleashed a massive bombardment of Gaza City before dawn yesterday and pushed its troops deeper into Gaza's largest urban hub.
It came as a United Nations probe accused Israel of committing "genocide" in the Palestinian territory, saying Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior officials had incited the crime.
The Israeli military said it was opening "a temporary transportation route via Salah al-Din Street".
Its Arabic-language spokesman, Colonel Avichay Adraee said the corridor would remain open for just 48 hours from midday tomorrow.
Until now, the army had urged residents to leave Gaza City via the coastal road towards what it calls a "humanitarian zone" further south, including parts of Al-Mawasi.
Salah al-Din Street runs down the middle of the Gaza Strip from north to south.
'We pulled the children out in pieces'
The United Nations estimated at the end of August that around one million people lived in Gaza City and its surroundings.
There has been a fresh exodus in recent days, and the Israeli army has said that "more than 350,000" had so far fled south.
Many Palestinians in Gaza insist there is no safe place in the territory and say they would rather die in their homes than be displaced yet again.
Yesterday, people spoke of relentless bombing in Gaza City, much of which is already in ruins after nearly two years of Israeli strikes.
Only huge piles of rubble remained of a residential block in the north of the city hit by Israel's bombardment.
"Why kill children sleeping safely like that, turning them into body parts?" said Abu Abd Zaquout. "We pulled the children out in pieces."
The Israeli army said it had launched a major ground operation in Gaza City to oust Hamas from one of its last strongholds in the war-ravaged territory.
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The war was sparked by Hamas's October 2023 attack on southern Israel which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.
Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed at least 64,964 people, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the territory's health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.
The Israeli military estimates there are 2,000 to 3,000 Hamas militants in central Gaza City, and that about 40% of residents have fled.
UN investigators say Israel committing genocide
Hamas said the assault was "systematic ethnic cleansing targeting our people in Gaza".
Gaza's civil defence, a rescue force operating under Hamas authority, said at least 44 people had been killed by Israeli fire yesterday.
The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry (COI), which does not speak for the world body, found that "genocide is occurring in Gaza and is continuing to occur", commission chief Navi Pillay said.
Israel said it "categorically rejects this distorted and false report" and called for the "immediate abolition" of the COI.
Qatar became the latest country to urge Israel to stop its assault on Gaza City, calling it "an extension of its genocidal war against the Palestinian people".
France issued a similar call, saying the "destructive campaign... no longer has any military logic" and appealing for a resumption of ceasefire talks.
Israel carried out strikes against Hamas leaders in Doha on 9 September, killing five of the Palestinian militant group's members and a Qatari security officer.
Yesterday, during a visit to Doha, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Qatar's emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, to ask the Gulf country to stay on as a mediator in the Gaza talks.
Plight of Palestinians in Gaza 'unacceptable' - Pope
Pope Leo has denounced the "unacceptable" conditions faced by Palestinians in Gaza, voicing solidarity with civilians and renewing his appeal for a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas.
"I express my deep closeness to the Palestinian people in Gaza, who continue to live in fear and survive in unacceptable conditions, forced once again to leave their land," the pope said in his weekly general audience at the Vatican.
The pope renewed his call for a truce, for the freeing of hostages held in Gaza, and for a negotiated diplomatic solution to the conflict.
He urged the faithful to join him in prayer "that a dawn of peace and justice may soon arise".
Leo, elected the first US pope in May, has been stepping up his calls for a halt to the war in Gaza in recent weeks.
Earlier this month, the pope met Israeli President Isaac Herzog at the Vatican. In an unusually lengthy statement afterwards, the Vatican said Leo had lamented the "tragic situation in Gaza" with Mr Herzog.
Read more: How did UN commission reach its genocide conclusion?
