Defence Minister Israel Katz wrote "Gaza is burning", while US top diplomat Marco Rubio warned a negotiated settlement is urgently needed as "time is running out".
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The Gaza Strip came under heavy bombing overnight on Monday, as Israel launched a barrage of strikes towards Gaza City, the enclave's biggest city.
Defence Minister Israel Katz wrote on X on Tuesday that "Gaza is burning," reaffirming Israel's stance that it will not back down until the completion of the mission.
The Shifa Hospital received the bodies of 12 people killed, and at least 90 others were injured, after a strike hit multiple houses in the west of the city, the hospital's managing director Dr Rami Mhanna said.
It comes amid reports that Israel launched its ground offensive on Gaza's once most populous city, and US top diplomat Marco Rubio warned there is now only a "short window of time in which a deal can happen."
“We don’t have months anymore, and we probably have days and maybe a few weeks so it's a key moment, an important moment,” the US secretary of state said, speaking to journalists before his departure to Qatar.
Last week, Israel struck a residential area in the Qatari capital Doha, in what it said was a targeted strike at Hamas' top officials. The move has been condemned internationally, including by the United Nations Security Council.
Rubio acknowledged the dangers Israel's intensified military campaign posed to Gaza, and said the US would like to see a negotiated settlement soon.
“The only thing worse than a war is a protracted one that goes on forever and ever,” Rubio said. “At some point, this has to end. At some point, Hamas has to be defanged, and we hope it can happen through a negotiation. But I think time, unfortunately, is running out.”
Both Rubio and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the elimination of Hamas and the release of the 48 hostages, 20 of whom are believed to still be alive, is the only way to end Israel's offensive in Gaza.
Hamas said it would only free the hostages in return for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, a lasting ceasefire and a withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Strip.