His statement came hours after UN-backed experts publicly accused Israel of "genocide" for the first time.
Guterres added that a recent attack near Qatar's embassy demonstrates Israel's lack of interest in serious ceasefire negotiations for Gaza.
“Let’s hope that Qatar’s meeting with the US will lead to the US pressuring Israel to engage in negotiations in good faith.”
File Photo: United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks to the press in New York, United States. AFP
Hamas refutes Israeli lies
Meanwhile, Hamas issued a new statement denouncing the lies promoted by the Israeli army to justify the destruction of Gaza City.
The group stated that Israeli claims about resistance forces using residential towers for military purposes were “nothing but exposed lies, fabricated to cover up the occupation’s systematic destruction of Gaza, just as it had previously destroyed Rafah, Khan Younis, Jabalia, Beit Hanoun, and Beit Lahiya.”
Hamas also rejected Israeli accusations that it uses civilians as human shields or prevents them from leaving Gaza City, describing these claims as “transparent attempts at deception.”
Such an approach, it added, shows the “rogue entity’s disregard for global public opinion and its insistence on continuing to commit massacres against innocent civilians while forcibly displacing them from the Gaza Strip.”
It further noted that “the lies and fabrications spread by the spokesmen of this criminal occupation and its leaders will not change the reality of this fascist entity and its terrorist army, whose sadistic thirst for the blood of civilians and children has been documented by UN reports and international institutions.”
Hamas added that history proves such crimes will not be erased, regardless of how much time passes.
The Palestinian resistance movement urged the international community to recognize Israel’s “fascist nature” and to hold its leaders accountable for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The logo of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas.
Expanded assault
Israel's defence minister, Israel Katz, proclaimed on Tuesday that “Gaza is burning” after non-stop airstrikes killed at least 106 Palestinians and wounded hundreds of others in the past 16 hours, while tanks amassed to begin incursions into Gaza City.
The Israeli army said this morning that its expanded operation in Gaza City has begun and warned residents to move south, as it attempts to ethnically cleanse more than 1.2 million Palestinians from the north to the south of the strip.
A statement by a military spokesperson said two Israeli divisions had moved into Gaza City, and another was joining. “They will surround Gaza City from all sides,” the statement said.
According to the occupation army statement, two divisions had already pushed into Gaza City, with another joining the operation. The Israeli army said its goal was to encircle the city “from all sides.” Defence Minister Israel Katz bragged on social media that Gaza is burning,” boasting of the large-scale bombing of homes and infrastructure are carried out “with an iron fist.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also hailed the assault, making his remarks while appearing in court on corruption charges.
Targeting civilians
Overnight, heavy airstrikes against northern Gaza killed at least 20 Palestinians.
The city's Shifa Hospital said it received the bodies of 20 people killed in a strike that hit multiple houses in a western neighbourhood, with another 90 wounded arriving at the facility in recent hours.
“A very tough night in Gaza,” Dr. Mohamed Abu Selmiyah, director of Shifa Hospital, told The Associated Press
“The bombing did not stop for a single moment,” he said. “There are still bodies under the rubble.”
Palestinian residents reported heavy strikes across Gaza City on Tuesday morning.
Al Jazeera reporters on the ground said the Israeli airstrikes and bombardment have not stopped in the past 16 hours.
TV live Footage shows hundreds of civilians running aimlessly in the streets of the city as they try to flee Israeli bombs and drones.
The Gaza civil defence forces have been working non-stop to lift the dead and survivors from under the rubble of homes destroyed by the bombing.
Civil defence workers rescued Marah Haddad, a six-year-old girl, who was trapped under the rubble of her bombed family building for eight hours.
Destroying a city
Frantic residents said bombardment of the city had been ramped up dramatically over the past two days, with heavier explosions that destroyed dozens of homes, and naval boats joining tanks and planes in the bombardment of the coast.
Windows were felt shaking in buildings as far as 25 miles away, according to the New York Times.
“We are all terrified," said Montaser Bahja, a former schoolteacher sheltering in an apartment in western Gaza City near the coast.
“Death would be more merciful than what we’re living through.”
Al Jazeera reporters on the ground said Israeli warplanes and drones are bombarding the eastern parts of the city to push residents to the western areas, leaving them with no option but to walk on Rashid Street towards the south of the strip as the only way to escape death.
At least 800,000 Palestinians remain trapped under Israeli fire in the city, according to Al Jazeera.
An official from the United Nations' children's agency said on Tuesday it was "inhumane" to expect hundreds of thousands of children to leave Gaza City.
Camps further south are unsafe, overcrowded and ill-equipped to receive them, she said, according to Reuters.
"It is inhumane to expect nearly half a million children, battered and traumatised by over 700 days of unrelenting conflict, to flee one hellscape and end up in another," Tess Ingram, a UNICEF spokesperson, told reporters by video link from the sprawling tent camp of Mawasi, Gaza.
Conditions there are so desperate that some people who fled Israel's new offensive on famine-struck Gaza City in recent days are heading back towards the falling bombs, they told Reuters.
"People really do have no good option - stay in danger or flee to a place that they also know is dangerous," she said, adding that some children had been killed at the Mawasi camp while collecting water.
Ingram described seeing large numbers of people fleeing down the main road out of Gaza City this week.
One mother, Israa, made the journey on foot, accompanied by her five hungry, thirsty children, including two who had no shoes, Ingram said, who met them.
"They were walking into the unknown - no clear destination or plan - with little hope of finding solace," she said.
'A fascist entity'
"Israel has become a fascist entity led by a fascist person ... This is not a war on Hamas. It is a war to destroy all the basics of life in Gaza City. It is a war to ethnically cleanse the Palestinians from the city," Mustafa Barghouti, the General Secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative, told Al Jazeera.
The Israelis are facing heroic resistance from the residents of Gaza City who are refusing to flee because they understand that leaving the city is the prelude to expulsion from the strip, said Barghouti.
"However, the situation is very difficult because the Israeli warplanes are targeting civilians who are refusing to leave their homes."
The United Nations estimated on Monday that over 220,000 Palestinians have fled northern Gaza over the past month to escape Israeli bombardment.
Barghouti added that this barbaric war can be stopped if there is international pressure on Israel to stop it.
He noted that the United States, Israel's main ally and sponsor, can stop the war immediately if it decides to do so.
Palestinians respond
In a statement, Hamas said the crimes of the occupation are taking place under the cover of the American administration, which bears the responsibility for all the repercussions of this aggression.
"We call on the international community to take measures and actions to force the occupation to end this war and the blockade on Gaza," added the statement.
In tandem, the Islamic Jihad said the synchronisation of the Israeli escalation with the visit by US Secretary of State Marc Rubio to Tel Aviv is a declaration that the Trump administration supports war crimes.
Palestinian presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said that the Israeli occupation forces' launch of a large-scale aggression on Gaza City constitutes a dangerous escalation that threatens the lives of millions of Palestinians and will deepen the humanitarian catastrophe.
Abu Rudeineh warned of the danger of Israeli statements calling for burning Gaza and reoccupying it, describing them as new war crimes added to the occupation's criminal record, according to the Palestinian News Agency (WAFA).
The Palestinian presidential spokesman held the Israeli government responsible for the dangerous escalation, which is forcing thousands of Palestinians to flee once again, in a move aimed at displacing them.
He stressed that this action constitutes an internationally rejected "war crime against humanity" and will lead to further tension and instability in the region as a result of these condemned Israeli policies.
The Palestinian presidential spokesman called on the US administration to assume its responsibilities and not encourage the occupation to continue its comprehensive aggression against the Palestinian people.
He called on the US administration to immediately halt this bloody war, in which more than 200,000 Palestinians have been killed or wounded, and to comply with international resolutions calling for an end to the war, the entry of aid, and an immediate withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
In Israel
Two Israeli officials told the NYT that the ground invasion was in its early stages. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military and government operations.
Yair Golan, the leader of the opposition Democratic Party, denounced the operation.
"Netanyahu launched an operation to occupy Gaza and eliminate Israel in order to remain in power."
In tandem, the families of Israeli prisoners in Gaza "called on the people of Israel to stand with us in front of Netanyahu's house to demand that he stop the attack."
Overnight, families of the Israeli captives still being held in Gaza gathered outside of Netanyahu's residence, pleading with him to stop the Gaza City operation. Some pitched tents and slept outside his home in protest.
US backs assault
The Israeli ground assault of Gaza City comes a day after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared Washington's unwavering support for Israel in Gaza during his visit to Tel Aviv.
Rubio, speaking to journalists as he was about to leave Israel for Qatar, suggested the offensive on Gaza City had begun.
“The Israelis have begun to take operations there. So we think we have a very short window of time in which a deal can happen,” Rubio said. “We don’t have months anymore, and we probably have days and maybe a few weeks, so it's a key moment — an important moment.”
“Our preference, our No. 1 choice, is that this ends through a negotiated settlement," he added, while acknowledging the dangers an intensified military campaign posed to Gaza.
“The only thing worse than a war is a protracted one that goes on forever and ever,” Rubio said. “At some point, this has to end. At some point, Hamas has to be defanged, and we hope it can happen through negotiation. But I think time, unfortunately, is running out.”
Health officials in Gaza reported that at least 24 people have been killed, most of them in Gaza City, in the early hours of the Israeli assault, according to Reuters.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said on Tuesday that emergency departments in the few hospitals still operating in Gaza City were overcrowded and that medical teams were working with depleted stocks of essential medicines and life-saving supplies.
It added that a severe shortage of blood units and components is compounding the risks of emergency interventions for the wounded.
The southwestern neighbourhood of Tel Al-Hawa in Gaza City is witnessing the most intense bombing and demolition operations since the beginning of the war, witnesses said.
The Israeli forces are using explosive-laden robots. The shrapnel and debris from these powerful explosions have landed hundreds of metres away.
Hadja Lahbib, the European Commissioner for crisis management who oversees EU humanitarian aid, posted on X saying that “As Israel intensifies its operations in #Gaza City, the protection of civilians and respect for international humanitarian law must remain our compass — just days ahead of key talks with partners at the United Nations General Assembly in New York."
Ignoring condemnation
The Israeli expansion of the assault on Gaza City comes amid growing regional and international condemnation of the Israeli war in the Gaza Strip.
It comes a day after Arab and Muslim nations denounced last week's Israeli strike on Qatar and reaffirmed their support for the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people at an emergency summit in the Qatari capital.
Germany on Tuesday slammed Israel's ground assault on Gaza City as "completely wrong", urging instead talks towards a ceasefire and hostage release deal.
"The renewed offensive towards Gaza City is... the completely wrong path," said Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul. "We reject this and have made this clear to the Israeli government."
The European Union warned that Israel's ground assault on Gaza City will add to the toll of death and destruction, and worsen an already "catastrophic" humanitarian situation in the territory.
"The EU has consistently urged Israel not to intensify its operation in Gaza City," EU spokesman Anouar El Anouni said.
"A military intervention will lead to more destruction, more death and more displacement, and we have been clear that this will also aggravate the already catastrophic humanitarian situation and also endanger the lives of hostages," he said.
The Israeli ground assault also comes on the day a United Nations commission of inquiry found that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
The report says there are reasonable grounds to conclude that four of the five genocidal acts defined under international law have been carried out since the start of the Gaza war in 2023: killing members of a group, causing them serious bodily and mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions calculated to destroy the group, and preventing births.
It cites statements by Israeli leaders and the pattern of conduct by Israeli forces as evidence of genocidal intent.
The Israeli war on Gaza has killed at least 64,871 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 164,926 others, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Nearly two years of Israeli airstrikes and bombing have destroyed most homes and infrastructure in the strip.
The famine in Gaza, declared by the UN in August after months of total Israeli blockade on the strip, has claimed the lives of nearly 500 Palestinians.
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