The strikes came after Hamas on Monday released an Israeli American hostage, a gesture that some thought could lay the groundwork for a ceasefire.

Israeli military strikes killed at least 50 Palestinians, local health authorities said, as President Donald Trump continued his visit to the Middle East.

New Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand accused Israel on Wednesday of using a lack of food as a political tool in its Gaza operation and urged further work on a ceasefire with Hamas, the militant group that controls the Palestinian enclave.

One in five people in the Gaza Strip are facing starvation as the entire territory edges closer to famine, a new United Nations-backed report warns, after nearly three months of Israel’s blockade of critically needed humanitarian aid.

Israel’s government has publicly dismissed warnings of extreme food shortages after it blocked aid deliveries, but an internal analysis concluded that a crisis looms if food supplies are not restored.

United Nations aid chief Tom Fletcher on Tuesday criticized an Israel-initiated and U.S.-backed humanitarian aid distribution plan for Gaza as a "fig leaf for further violence and displacement" of Palestinians in the war-torn enclave.

The United Nations’ top humanitarian official blasted Israel for “deliberately and unashamedly” imposing inhumane conditions on Palestinians that include the risk of famine.

Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu defiantly ramps up the war in Gaza, despite mounting pressure from Trump and castigation by France's president.