After a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated Washington's rejection of Israel's planned military offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
"We share Israel's goal of defeating Hamas which is responsible for the worst massacre of the Jewish people since the Holocaust," Blinken said before his departure.
But he added: "A major military ground operation in Rafah is not the way to do it. It risks killing more civilians, it risks wreaking greater havoc with the provision of humanitarian assistance. It risks further isolating Israel around the world and jeopardizing its long term security and standing."
Netanyahu said he told Blinken at the meeting that Israel would push forward with the attack either way, but that he would prefer US support.
"I told him that I hope we will do this with US support, but if necessary, we will do it alone," Netanyahu said.
The United States and other allies are critical of a potential Rafah offensive because, according to estimates, 1.5 million of the 2.2 million residents of the Gaza Strip are currently crowded together in a very small space in the city, which sits on the border with Egypt.
The Gaza war started with the massacre on October 7 of around 1,200 Israelis by Palestinian militant Hamas and allied gunmen operating out of the coastal strip.
Netanyahu stressed that Israel's army has plans to bring people to safety before launching a ground offensive, but has argued that the only way to defeat Hamas in Gaza is to dismantle the last battalions of the Islamist organization.
In view of the dire humanitarian situation and the many civilian casualties in the Gaza, Washington's tone towards the Israeli leadership has become much harsher in recent weeks.
At the beginning of next week, Israel is to send high-level delegations to Washington to put the relevant plans on the table. The US, in turn, wants to bring options into play to defeat Hamas without a ground offensive in Rafah.
"We'll be able to lay out for them in detail," Blinken said on Friday. "I started to do that today."
Blinken also planned to discuss with Netanyahu and others the ongoing negotiations for the release of the hostages. He previously held talks in the Saudi Arabian port city of Jeddah on Wednesday and in the Egyptian capital Cairo on Thursday.
In New York, the UN Security Council on Friday failed again to pass a resolution calling for a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas, this time after Russia and China vetoed it.
The resolution, introduced by the United States after it had vetoed previous resolutions but had a change of heart following the more than 31,000 deaths in Gaza, was called half-hearted by Russia's UN ambassador Vasily Nebenzia. He said the measure did not call for a ceasefire clearly enough.
The US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, campaigned strongly in favour of the resolution immediately before the vote, saying delaying the resolution means more suffering.
Also on Friday, Israel's military said troops are continuing the operation against militants in al-Shifa hospital, the largest in the Gaza Strip.
"So far, the forces have eliminated more than 150 terrorists in the area of the hospital," the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Friday. Hundreds of suspects have been detained.
On Thursday, the IDF said it had killed more than 140 militants and detained 600 others since this most recent operation at the hospital began on Monday. Several senior members of the Palestinian Islamist Hamas and Islamic Jihad are said to be among those detained.
Residents told dpa that Israel's military had attacked most of the houses around the hospital.
None of the claims could initially be independently verified by dpa.
Since the most recent operation at al-Shifa started early on Monday, two IDF soldiers have been killed, the IDF said.
Israeli soldiers first entered the complex in mid-November, and the IDF said troops found a Hamas tunnel complex there.
According to the military, damage to civilians, patients, doctors and medical equipment was prevented during the operation. This claim could not be independently verified either.
Fighting is also continuing in the city of Khan Younis. "Troops eliminated several terrorists in close combat," the IDF said. People have also been killed in the centre of the Gaza Strip in recent days. According to the military, these were terrorists. In one case, grenades or artillery fire were fired at Israeli soldiers.
Also on Friday, at least seven Israelis were injured in the West Bank in a firefight lasting several hours following a suspected attack by a Palestinian, according to Israeli media reports.
One person was in critical condition, hospital sources told several Israeli media outlets. It was unclear whether the injured were security forces. There was initially no official confirmation of the incident.
According to reports, the suspected perpetrator was killed by an airstrike during a pursuit.
Israeli army officials said a man opened fire on an Israeli vehicle in the early morning near an Israeli settlement near the West Bank city of Ramallah. This was followed by an exchange of fire with the suspected perpetrator that lasted several hours.
A combat helicopter and a drone were also said to have taken part in the chase. Palestinian reports said the perpetrator was a former member of the Palestinian security forces from near Ramallah.
The situation in the West Bank has also become steadily more tense and sometimes violent since the start of the war in Gaza. According to the territory's Ministry of Health, more than 420 Palestinians have been killed there since October.