Former President Barack Obama on Friday criticized Israel’s ongoing military action in Gaza, saying that “there’s not a military rationale for continuing to pummel what is already rubble” and arguing for Palestinian statehood.

Thousands of Palestinians have been forced to flee Gaza City since Israel launched its ground offensive last week.

Spain and Italy have said they are sending navy ships to where a flotilla of dozens of boats carrying activists seeking to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza is sailing.

The city had been spared from widespread demolitions during previous military operations there. This time is different.

Women and children were among 20 people who died when a strike hit a building sheltering displaced families, first responders say.

The Israeli prime minister's speech was defiant, despite his growing international isolation over his refusal to end the devastating war to eradicate Hamas.

The IDF claim that Hamas was filming Israeli military forces from Nasser Hospital “is false and fabricated,” said Ismail Al-Thawabta, director of the Hamas-run Gaza government media office. Israel is trying to “cover up a full-fledged war crime against the hospital, its patients and medical staff,” he said.

Israeli strikes and gunfire have killed at least 38 people across Gaza overnight, according to health officials.