US President Joe Biden has called for a “pause” in the conflict in Gaza after he was confronted by a rabbi heckler demanding a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

Biden was speaking at a fundraiser in Minneapolis on Thursday (AEDT) when an audience member who identified herself as Jessica Rosenberg shouted: “As a rabbi, I need you to call for a ceasefire right now.”

The president responded: “I think we need a pause. A pause means give time to get the prisoners out”, which was later clarified to mean “hostages”.

Israel this week declared it would not agree to any ceasefire which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said would be like surrendering to the militant group Hamas.

The rabbi continued singing “ceasefire now” as she was escorted from the venue by security.

Biden told the audience the situation was “incredibly complicated” for Israelis and the Muslim world.

“I supported a two-state solution; I have from the very beginning,” he said.

“The fact of the matter is that Hamas is a terrorist organisation. A flat-out terrorist organisation.”

Israel has been relentlessly bombarding the Gaza Strip, forcing the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, and sent in ground troops over the weekend.

The Palestinian death toll is said to be nearly 9,000, according to Gaza’s health ministry, since Israel began retaliating for the killings of 1400 Israelis on October 7.

Foreigners flee Gaza

Israel launched another strike on the Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza, and the Hamas-run government said 195 Palestinians had been killed in those attacks.

Meanwhile more foreigners were preparing to leave the besieged Gaza Strip on Thursday (AEDT).

At least 320 foreign citizens on an initial list of 500, as well as dozens of severely injured Gazans, crossed into Egypt on Wednesday under a deal among Israel, Egypt and Hamas.

Passport holders from Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Finland, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Britain and the US were in the evacuation.

Gaza border officials said the border crossing would reopen on Thursday (local time) so more foreigners could exit. A diplomatic source said some 7500 foreign passport holders would leave Gaza over about two weeks.

Pressing an offensive against Hamas militants, Israel has bombed Gaza by land, sea and air in its campaign to wipe out Hamas after the Islamist group’s cross-border rampage into southern Israel on October 7. Israel said Hamas killed 1400 people, mostly civilians, and took more than 200 hostages.

“Hamas deliberately builds its terror infrastructure under, around and within civilian buildings, intentionally endangering Gazan civilians,” an Israeli statement said.

United Nations human rights officials said the operation could be a war crime.

“Given the high number of civilian casualties and the scale of destruction following Israeli air strikes on Jabalia refugee camp, we have serious concerns that these are disproportionate attacks that could amount to war crimes,” the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights wrote on X.

There were no immediate figures from Gaza authorities on casualties from the explosion at the camp on Wednesday. Palestinian health officials said the first Israeli airstrike on Tuesday killed about 50 people and wounded 150.

Israel said Tuesday’s strike killed Ibrahim Biari, who it described as a ringleader of the October 7 attack on Israel.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Israel and Jordan on Friday, the State Department said. He will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for an update on Israel’s military objectives, it said.

The Gaza health ministry says at least 8796 Palestinians in the narrow coastal enclave, including 3648 children, have been killed by Israeli strikes since October 7.

Explosions were heard in the early hours of Thursday around the al-Quds hospital in densely populated Gaza City, the Palestinian Red Crescent said. Israeli authorities had previously warned the hospital to evacuate immediately, which UN officials said was impossible without endangering patients.

Israel said its strikes on Tuesday and Wednesday killed two Hamas military leaders in Jabalia, Gaza’s biggest refugee camp. Israel said the group had command centres and other “terror infrastructure under, around and within civilian buildings, intentionally endangering Gazan civilians”.

Gaza’s Hamas-run media office said on Thursday that at least 195 Palestinians were killed in the two Israeli attacks on Jabalia, with 120 missing under the rubble. At least 777 people were wounded, it said in a statement.

Amid growing international calls for a humanitarian pause in hostilities, conditions in the seaside enclave are increasingly desperate under Israel’s assault and tightened blockade. Food, fuel, drinking water and medicine have run short.

Hospitals have struggled as shortages of fuel forced shutdowns including Gaza’s only cancer hospital. Israel has refused to let humanitarian convoys bring in fuel, citing concern that Hamas fighters would divert it for military purposes.

Blinken was due to depart on Thursday (US time) for his second visit to Israel in less than a month. He planned to meet Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on Friday to voice solidarity but also to reassert the need to minimise Palestinian civilian casualties, his spokesperson said.

-with AAP