Israel pounded Gaza with more air strikes, one of which killed the head of the Hamas-led national security forces, Jehad Mheisen, and members of his family in their house, a Hamas-aligned news agency said.

Meanwhile, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak followed U.S. President Joe Biden on visits to demonstrate support for fighting against Hamas while urging Israel to ease the plight of besieged Gazans.

Biden, who spent less than eight hours in Israel, flew home having pledged support, and hugged and consoled survivors of the October 7 raid by Hamas fighters who rampaged through southern Israel, killing 1,400 people, and according to Israeli authorities are now holding at least 203 hostages.

But he appeared to have only limited success in his other mission, to persuade Israel to ease the plight of 2.3 million Gazans under a total siege.

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Biden said he had secured an offer from Egypt to allow 20 aid trucks to reach Gaza at some point in coming days, a fraction of the 100 per day that UN Aid Chief Martin Griffiths told the Security Council were needed. 

Instead of meeting in person, Biden spoke to Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi by phone from Air Force One on his flight back to Washington.

'We don't want to see Hamas stealing aid'

Egypt has long said its crossing to Gaza is open on its side but aid cannot get through due to Israeli bombardment of the Gaza side. Cairo has also firmly rejected any suggestion that it should open the border to allow a mass exodus of Gazans to flee to safety.

Mark Regev, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said on CNN that Israel had agreed to allow aid to Gaza via Egypt "in principle" but "we don't want to see Hamas stealing aid that's directed towards the civilian population. It's a real problem."

Washington has pushed, so far with no luck, to open the crossing to let the small number of Gazans with foreign passports leave, including a few hundred Palestinian Americans.

Machinery to repair roads has been sent through the Rafah border crossing from Egypt into the Gaza Strip in preparation for the delivery of some of the aid stockpiled in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, two security sources said.

U.S. and UK stand with Israel

During a speech, Biden told Israelis: "While you feel that rage, don't be consumed by it. After 9/11, we were enraged in the United States. And while we sought justice and got justice, we also made mistakes."

Israel said it would allow limited aid to reach Gaza from Egypt provided none of it benefited Hamas. But it repeated its position that it will open its own checkpoints to let in aid only when all of the more than 200 hostages captured by the gunmen were set free.

Sunak landed in Tel Aviv hours after Biden left, carrying similar messages of support and condolence for Israelis.

"Above all, I'm here to express my solidarity with the Israeli people. You have suffered an unspeakable, horrific act of terrorism and I want you to know that the United Kingdom and I stand with you," Sunak told Israeli reporters after landing.

He also stressed the need to provide aid to Gazans. "Palestinians are victims of what Hamas has done. It's important that we continue to provide humanitarian access," he said.

Chinese President Xi Jinping told Egypt's prime minister that their countries should work together to bring "more stability" to the Middle East, as the conflict casts a shadow over the region.

U.S. vetoes resolution for 'humanitarian pause'

Meanwhile, U.S. officials told their Turkish counterparts that aircraft carriers that have been moved closer to Israel in the eastern Mediterranean were sent there for the possible evacuation of civilians, a Turkish defense ministry official said.

The U.S. has deployed two aircraft carriers - and their support ships - to the eastern Mediterranean since the start of the conflict.

Turkish President Erdogan criticized the U.S. for the move, saying that they would commit "serious massacres" in Gaza. He also said the deployment of U.S. aircraft carriers to the region hindered Turkish efforts to establish calm in the region.

The U.S. also vetoed a UN Security Council resolution calling for a "humanitarian pause" in the raging Israel-Palestine conflict as the text did not recognize Israel's right to defend itself, the U.S. ambassador said.

Inside Gaza there was no let-up of the punishing Israeli bombardment that health officials say has so far killed nearly 3,500 people and wounded more than 12,000.

In Khan Younis, in the south of the Gaza Strip, an area of shops was reduced to rubble as far as the eye could see, with a toddler's pink cot overturned on the ground, windows blown off a clothing store and damaged vehicles.

'It's never been this brutal'

Rafat al-Nakhala, who had sought shelter there after obeying Israel's order for civilians to flee Gaza City in the north, said nowhere was safe.

"I'm over 70 years old, I've lived through several wars, it's never been like this, it has never been this brutal, no religion and no conscience. Thank God. We only have hope in God, not in any Arab or Muslim country or anyone in the world, except for God," said al-Nakhala.

Footage obtained from the Jabaliya refugee camp in the north showed residents digging with their bare hands inside a damaged building to free a small boy and girl trapped under masonry. The body of a man was hauled out of the ruins on a stretcher as residents tried to light up the site with torches on their mobile phones.

The United Nations says around half of Gazans have been made homeless, still trapped inside the enclave, one of the most densely populated places on earth.

Israelis living in border communities near the Gaza Strip are also bracing for a long and hard conflict with Hamas - some heeding evacuation calls but others staying put.

The plight of Gaza civilians has enraged the Middle East, making it more difficult for Biden and other Western leaders to rally Arab allies to prevent the conflict from spreading.

Saudi Arabia condemns Israel's 'heinous crime'

An explosion at a hospital in Gaza on the eve of Biden's visit scuppered his plans to meet Arab leaders, who called off a summit with him. Palestinians blamed the explosion on an Israeli air strike and said it killed nearly 500 people. Israel said it was caused by a failed rocket launch by Palestinian fighters.

Thousands rallied across the Arab and Muslim world to protest against the deaths of hundreds of people in the strike. Protesters took to the streets of the West Bank city of Ramallah and Nablus, shouting "Free, free Palestine."

The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, which both established ties with Israel in the Abraham Accords of 2020, criticized Israel for being behind the strike. Saudi Arabia, which has halted talks on potential ties with Israel since violence flared, called the blast a "heinous crime committed by the Israeli occupation forces."

Qatar also slammed the "brutal massacre." Morocco, another country that recognized Israel in 2020, also blamed it for the strike, as did Egypt, which became the first Arab country to normalize relations with Israel in 1979.

Biden said U.S. evidence supported the Israeli account of the hospital explosion.

Türkiye has declared three days' mourning over the deadly strike, President Erdogan said. "Out of respect for the thousands of martyrs, most of whom are children and innocent civilians, three days of national mourning have been declared in our country," said Erdogan in a message on X, formerly Twitter. "We, Türkiye, feel in our hearts the deep pain felt by our Palestinian brothers."

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