The top US diplomat Marco Rubio has said the US is "troubled" by the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

His comments came as at least 114 Palestinians were killed in Israeli air strikes on Thursday, health officials said.

Asked by the BBC if the Trump administration remained fully behind the nature of Israel's military action given the scale of the recent Israeli attacks and its bombing of hospitals, he once again called on Hamas to surrender and release hostages and said there could be no peace so long as the group exists.

"That said, we're not immune or in any way insensitive to the suffering of the people of Gaza, and I know that there's opportunities here to provide aid for them," he said.

Gaza has been under a complete Israeli blockade of all food and other humanitarian supplies for 10 weeks. Israeli forces have been intensifying their bombardment of what they say are Hamas fighters and infrastructure ahead of a planned expansion of their ground offensive in Gaza.

Rubio's comments - made after a meeting of Nato foreign ministers in Turkey - appeared to be a reference to a controversial Israeli-American proposal to use private providers to set up aid collection points in Gaza. That plan has been rejected by the UN as unethical and unworkable.

They come as Donald Trump is visiting the region and indirect negotiations on a new ceasefire and hostage release deal between Hamas and Israel continue.

Hamas meanwhile accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of "undermin[ing] mediation efforts by deliberate military escalation".

An Israeli government spokesman said Israel wanted negotiations on hostage releases to succeed, but that they would take place while Hamas was under "military pressure".

The US is Israel's main arms supplier and the language used by Rubio is unusual. Previously he has responded to questions about Palestinian civilian casualties only by calling on Hamas to surrender. It also comes amid recent reports of a rift between Trump and Netanyahu.