GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Israeli and U.S. officials met Wednesday in Washington to discuss post-war Gaza, even as Israel’s military called the evacuation of Gaza City “inevitable” ahead of a new offensive and no sign of a ceasefire was in sight.
The meeting took place amid mounting outrage over this week’s double Israeli strike on a southern Gaza hospital that killed journalists, emergency responders and others. The toll from the attack on Nasser Hospital rose to 22 after two more people died Wednesday, Gaza health officials said.
The Israeli military, which has said it will investigate, offered no immediate explanation for striking twice and no evidence for an assertion that six of the dead were fighters.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar at the State Department, with both countries saying they discussed cooperation on Iran, ending the war in Gaza, the situations in Lebanon and Syria, and next month’s session of the U.N. General Assembly, at which the Israel-Hamas conflict is likely to be a hot topic.
The State Department said Rubio reaffirmed America’s “unwavering commitment to Israel’s security.”
“The secretary and Foreign Minister Saar agreed that continued close cooperation between their countries is vital to the security and prosperity of the region,” the department said in statement.
A similar statement from the Israeli Embassy in Washington said they had discussed “the different challenges and opportunities in the Middle East,” including the potential nuclear threat from Iran, the war in Gaza and the importance of “repelling anti-Israel initiatives in the international arena.”
Neither man spoke as they posed for photos before their meeting and neither responded to shouted questions from reporters about the killings of Palestinian journalists in Gaza.
U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff told Fox News on Tuesday that President Donald Trump would chair a separate meeting, which would feature “a very comprehensive plan” for post-war Gaza.
He did not offer details about that meeting, which did not appear on Trump’s public schedule for Wednesday. Witkoff also said the official U.S. position was that hostages — Hamas’ main source of leverage — should no longer be part of negotiations. He told Fox News the talks should focus on issues such as Gaza’s future and how to define Hamas in that context.
Israel prepares Gaza City for an evacuation
Aid groups warn that an expanded Israeli military offensive could worsen the humanitarian crisis in the besieged territory, where most of the over 2 million residents have been displaced, neighborhoods lie in ruins and a famine has been declared in Gaza City.
The Israeli military on Wednesday told residents of Gaza City to prepare to leave.
“The evacuation of Gaza City is inevitable,” spokesperson Avichay Adraee wrote in Arabic on X. He said Israeli forces have surveyed vast empty areas south of the city “to assist the evacuating residents as much as possible.” He said the displaced would receive space for tents, and infrastructure would be set up to distribute aid and water.
As a growing chorus of international leaders urges Israel to reconsider its offensive and commit to talks, Pope Leo XIV called for Israel to halt the “collective punishment” and forced displacement of Palestinians in Gaza.
More than 80% of Gaza is designated as an Israeli military zone or subject to displacement orders, the U.N. humanitarian agency said in June.
Israel has pressed ahead with plans to mobilize tens of thousands of reservists. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the military will launch its offensive while simultaneously pursuing a ceasefire.
Hamas said last week that it accepted a ceasefire plan from Arab mediators.
Qatar, which has rarely assigned blame through more than a year of mediation, said Tuesday that Israel has yet to officially respond and “does not want to reach an agreement.” Last week, an official from Qatar said the proposal under discussion was “almost identical” to an earlier draft that Witkoff put forth and Israel accepted.
The deal said to be under discussion would include a 60-day truce, the release of some of the 50 remaining hostages held by Hamas in return for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, a surge of humanitarian aid into Gaza and a road map toward talks on a lasting ceasefire.
Many in Netanyahu’s coalition oppose such a phased deal. Meanwhile, protests have swelled in Israel as hostages’ families and their supporters press for a ceasefire. The government argues that a widened offensive is the best way to bring them home and cripple Hamas’ capacity to launch future attacks.
Hospitals report strikes near aid sites
At least 39 Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded Wednesday across the Gaza Strip, the majority of whom died in Israeli strikes and gunfire, according to Gaza health officials.
In northern Gaza, officials from the area’s main hospital, Al-Shifa, as well as two field hospitals, told the AP that some 20 Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire and strikes, including at least five people seeking aid near the Zikim crossing in northwestern Gaza. U.N aid convoys that routinely enter the area through the crossing are repeatedly overwhelmed by thieves and desperate people seeking aid.
Mahmoud Balousha, 36, went to the crossing but returned Wednesday with only lentils.
“It’s the same every day. We go to get some food for our families, but looters climb onto the trucks to get the aid, and there is little left for us to take back home,” Balousha told the AP through text messages. “When chaos breaks out,” Israeli troops “open fire toward the crowd, and people scatter everywhere.”
The strikes Monday at Nasser Hospital killed 22 people, including Mariam Dagga, a freelance visual journalist who worked for The Associated Press and other publications. Her final photos show a damaged stairwell moments before she died.
Israel’s military did not immediately respond to questions about the strikes. Its offensive has killed nearly 63,000 Palestinians during the war, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which says around half were women and children. The agency does not distinguish between fighters and civilians in its count.
The ministry said Wednesday that 10 more people died of malnutrition-related causes over the past 24 hours, bringing the total number to 313 people during the war, including 119 children.
The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. The U.N. and independent experts consider it the most reliable source on war casualties. Israel disputes its figures but has not provided its own.
Hamas-led fighters abducted 251 people and killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered the war. Most of the hostages have been released in ceasefires or other deals. Of the 50 remaining in Gaza, Israel believes around 20 are alive.
Metz reported from Ramallah, West Bank, and Abou Aljoud from Beirut, Lebanon. Associated Press writers Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel, Nicole Winfield in Rome and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.
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