Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said US-Israeli relations have “never been stronger”, as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio visits to discuss the war in Gaza following Israel’s attack on Hamas members in Qatar.

He told reporters the relationship was as strong and “durable as the stones in the Western Wall”, while at the holy site in Jerusalem on Sunday.

Earlier, Rubio said US President Donald Trump was unhappy with the Israeli strike on the key US ally, but stressed that the US-Israeli relationship was “very strong”.

His visit comes as Israeli forces continue to destroy residential buildings in Gaza City, forcing thousands to flee ahead of an expected ground offensive to seize the city.

“Obviously we’re not happy about it, the president was not happy about it. Now we need to move forward and figure out what comes next,” Rubio said before he departed for Israel.

In his remarks at Joint Base Andrews, Rubio added that Trump’s priority remained the return of all hostages and an end to the war. Hamas members had been in Doha to discuss the latest US proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza when Israel launched its strikes.

When asked whether the strike on Doha complicated Qatar’s willingness to work with the US, Rubio said “they’ve been good partners on a number of fronts”.

Qatar – a key US ally in the region and the location of a major American air base – will host an emergency Arab-Islamic summit on Monday to discuss next moves.

Doha has condemned Israel’s attack as “cowardly” and a “flagrant violation of international law”. Netanyahu said the move was “fully justified” because it targeted senior Hamas leaders who organised the 7 October 2023 attacks.

Some 48 Israeli hostages, of whom 20 are believed to remain alive, are being held by Hamas in Gaza. Their families have said Netanyahu is the “one obstacle” preventing their return and reaching a peace deal.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum wrote on social media that Israel’s strike on Qatar last week shows “every time a deal approaches, Netanyahu sabotages it”.

Netanyahu’s plan to occupy Gaza City has drawn international criticism, with the UN warning a military escalation in an area where famine has been declared will push civilians into an “even deeper catastrophe”.

Footage from Sunday verified by the BBC showed bombs hitting the al-Kawthar tower. Local officials told Reuters that at least 30 residential buildings had been destroyed. Israel said it had completed five waves of air strikes on the city over the past week, targeting more than 500 sites including what it said were Hamas reconnaissance and sniper sites, buildings containing tunnel openings and weapons depots.

Israel has demanded that Gaza City’s residents leave the city and head south and on Saturday the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it estimated about 250,000 Palestinians had fled, though hundreds of thousands are believed to remain in the area. Hamas has called on people not to leave.

Some say they cannot afford to go while others say southern Gaza is not safe either as Israel has carried out air strikes there too.

“The bombardment intensified everywhere and we took down the tents, more than 20 families, we do not know where to go,” Musbah al-Kafarna, displaced in Gaza City, told Reuters.

On Sunday, the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said the bodies of 68 people killed by the Israeli military had arrived at its hospitals over the previous day.

Since UN-backed global food security experts confirmed a famine in Gaza City on 22 August, the ministry has reported that at least 144 people have died from starvation and malnutrition across the territory. Israel has said it is expanding its efforts to facilitate aid deliveries and has disputed the health ministry’s figures on malnutrition-related deaths.

The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 64,871 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.