Arab leaders to meet over Gaza as deaths mount

The Israeli strike hit an ambulance that was part of a convoy carrying injured Palestinians at Gaza's biggest hospital, al-Shifa, health officials in the Hamas-run enclave said on Friday.

"Upon their arrival to al-Shifa, (Israel) directly targeted the convoy's second vehicle, committing a terrible massacre that claimed the lives of 15 and wounded more than 60," health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said.

Israel's military said it had identified and hit an ambulance "being used by a Hamas terrorist cell" in the battle zone, and that a number of Hamas fighters were killed.

"We emphasise that this area is a battle zone. Civilians in the area are repeatedly called upon to evacuate southwards for their own safety," the military said.

The Hamas-controlled Palestinian health ministry challenged Israel over the bombing of the ambulance and demanded it provide proof that the ambulance was carrying militants.

"The occupation conducted an ugly massacre in which ... 15 people were martyred and 60 other people were wounded including a number of the displaced," al-Qidra said.

The Israeli military gave no evidence to support its assertion that the ambulance was linked to Hamas but said it intended to release additional information.

Reuters was unable to independently verify accounts from either side.

Israel's ground forces encircled Gaza City on Thursday after stepping up a bombing campaign it says aims at wiping out Hamas, after the militant group killed 1400 people and took more than 240 others hostage in an October 7 assault in southern Israel.

Israel last month ordered all civilians to leave the northern part of the Gaza Strip, including Gaza City, and head to the south of the enclave, which it has also continued to bomb.

Gaza's living conditions, already dire before the fighting, have deteriorated further. Food is scarce, residents have resorted to drinking salty water, medical services are collapsing and Gaza health officials say more than 9250 Palestinians have been killed.

The United Nations humanitarian office OCHA estimates that nearly 1.5 million of Gaza's 2.3 million population are internally displaced.

On a visit to the region, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday and called for a humanitarian pause in fighting that he said would facilitate work to release hostages, allow aid into Gaza, but not prevent Israel from defending itself.

In a televised address, Netanyahu rejected the idea of a pause unless hostages are freed.

"I made clear that we are continuing full force and that Israel refuses a temporary ceasefire which does not include the release of our hostages," he said.

Blinken on Saturday will meet with the Saudi, Qatari, Emirati and Egyptian foreign ministers as well as Palestinian representatives in Amman, the Jordanian foreign ministry said.

The Arab leaders will stress the "Arab stance calling for an immediate ceasefire, delivering humanitarian aid and ways of ending the dangerous deterioration that threatens the security of the region", the ministry said in a statement.

The leader of Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah group warned the United States that if Israel did not stop its assault on Gaza then the conflict could widen into a regional war.

Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, in his first speech since the Israel-Hamas conflict erupted on October 7, also threatened the US, hinting his Iran-backed paramilitary group was ready to confront American warships in the Mediterranean.

"You, the Americans, can stop the aggression against Gaza because it is your aggression," Nasrallah said.

He added that Hezbollah, the spearhead of a Tehran-backed regional alliance hostile to Israel and the US did not fear the US naval firepower Washington has assembled in the region since the crisis erupted.

Australian Associated Press