Rome, Italy - US Secretary of State Marco Rubio held another telephone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday, his spokesperson said, after Israel's army launched an intensified assault on Gaza.

The call, which was their second in just three days, comes after fresh Israeli strikes that killed more than two dozen people.

Rubio and Netanyahu "discussed the situation in Gaza and their joint efforts to secure the release of all remaining hostages," the secretary of state's spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a statement.

The new Israeli attacks come amid growing international outrage over worsening humanitarian conditions in Gaza, where an Israeli blockade – which Human Rights Watch says has become a "tool of extermination" – continues to restrict aid.

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Rubio earlier on Saturday repeated calls for a halt in fighting in Gaza, saying in excerpts of an interview to CBS: "We also support an end of the conflict, a ceasefire."

"We don't want people obviously suffering as they have, and we blame Hamas for that, but nonetheless, they're suffering," Rubio said.

"We are actively engaged in trying to figure out if there is a way to get more hostages out through some ceasefire type mechanism," Rubio added during the interview to be aired in full on Sunday.

President Donald Trump acknowledged one day earlier in Abu Dhabi that "a lot of people are starving" in the besieged Palestinian territory.

The health ministry in Gaza said 3,131 people have been killed since Israel resumed strikes on March 18, taking the overall toll to 53,272 – though the true number is believed to be far higher.

Bruce said Rubio had spoken to Netanyahu – who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza – from Rome ahead of Leo XIV's inaugural mass in the Vatican as pope.