The US, meanwhile, said that Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, will be travelling to a European country for talks on a truce, as well as on finalising an aid “corridor” for Gaza. He may then head to the Middle East for more talks, according to media reports.

The Latin and Greek Orthodox patriarchs of Jerusalem describing starving people not "batting an eyelid" at the sound of bombing.

The aid agency says its buildings in the central part of the territory were attacked after the military targeted Deir al-Balah, which had largely been spared.

Israel's military on Tuesday responded to accusations by the World Health Organization (WHO) that its forces attacked the UN agency's facilities in central Gaza and detained staff members. The military said soldiers came under fire in the city of Deir al-Balah on Monday and returned fire in the direction the shots originated.

Israel Defense Forces pushed into a central Gaza city on Monday for the first time since the war with Hamas began.

Context: Deir al-Balah had been an informal refuge for Palestinians escaping other parts of Gaza, and huge tent camps have sprung up in the city. The city also hosts warehouses for the U.N. as well as guesthouses for U.N. staff.

Israeli ground troops for the first time have pushed into areas of a central Gaza city where several aid groups are based.

A planned “humanitarian city” inside Gaza intended to hold hundreds of thousands of Palestinians would be a “concentration camp,” former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has warned.