WASHINGTON, May 18, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - US Secretary of State Marco Rubio held another telephone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday, his spokeswoman said, after Israel's army launched an intensified offensive in Gaza.

The call, which was their second in just three days, comes after Israel said its stepped-up campaign was aimed at "the defeat of Hamas" and fresh strikes killed more than two dozen.

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 spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said in a statement.

The fresh Israeli offensive comes amid growing international concern over worsening humanitarian conditions in Gaza, where an Israeli blockade continues to restrict aid.

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.

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

Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Of the 251 hostages taken during the attack, 57 remain in Gaza, including 34 the military says are dead.

The health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said 3,131 people have been killed since Israel resumed strikes on March 18, taking the war's overall toll to 53,272.

Bruce said Rubio had spoken to Netanyahu from Rome ahead of Leo XIV's inaugural mass in the Vatican as pope.