Rescuers said Israeli strikes on Gaza killed 100 people on Friday, as Hamas demanded the United States press Israel to lift a sweeping aid blockade in return for a US-Israeli hostage released by the group.
In early March, shortly before the collapse of a two-month ceasefire in its war against Hamas, Israel reimposed a total blockade on the Gaza Strip, where aid agencies have warned of critical shortages of everything from food and clean water to fuel and medicines.
US President Donald Trump acknowledged on Friday that "a lot of people are starving" in the besieged Palestinian territory.
"We're looking at Gaza. And we're going to get that taken care of," Trump told reporters in Abu Dhabi, on a regional tour that excluded key ally Israel.
Israel says its decision to cut off aid to Gaza was intended to force concessions from militant group Hamas, which still holds dozens of Israeli hostages seized during the October 7, 2023 attack that sparked the war.
Hamas on Monday freed Edan Alexander, the last living hostage with US nationality, after direct engagement with the Trump administration that left Israel sidelined.
As part of the understanding with Washington regarding Alexander's release, senior Hamas official Taher al-Nunu said the group was "awaiting and expecting the US administration to exert further pressure" on Israel "to open the crossings and allow the immediate entry of humanitarian aid".
Nunu's remarks come a day after Hamas had warned Trump that Gaza was not "for sale", responding to the US president again suggesting he could take over the Palestinian territory and turn it into "a freedom zone".
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