U.S. President Joe Biden has expressed his "grave concern" over violence in Israel and Gaza in a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu while separately telling Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that Hamas must "cease firing rockets."

Qatar's foreign minister has met with the political chief of Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas and called for an end to Israel's bombardment of Gaza, state media said.

Israeli strikes killed at least 42 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip Sunday, the worst daily death toll yet in the almost week-long clashes, as the U.N. Security Council met amid global alarm at the escalating conflict.

Egypt opened its Rafah border crossing with Gaza Saturday to allow 10 ambulances to transport Palestinians seriously wounded in Israeli air strikes to Egyptian hospitals, medical officials said.

Israel's army destroyed in an air strike Saturday the 13-floor building housing Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television and American news agency The Associated Press in the Gaza Strip, AFP journalists said. 

An Israeli air raid on a densely populated refugee camp in Gaza City killed at least 10 Palestinians from an extended family, mostly children, early Saturday in the deadliest single strike of the current battle with Gaza's Hamas rulers. Both sides pressed for an advantage as cease-fire efforts gathered strength.

The latest outburst of violence began in Jerusalem and has spread across the region, with Jewish-Arab clashes and rioting in mixed cities of Israel. There were also widespread Palestinian protests Friday in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli forces shot and killed 11 people.

Israeli fighter jets pounded the Gaza Strip overnight, killing 10 members of a single family, medics said Saturday, after a day of deadly violence rocked the West Bank and a US envoy arrived for talks.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday that Israel had no plans on relenting in its attacks against Hamas in Gaza, after heavy bombardment targeting the group in the Palestinian enclave.

"They attacked our capital, they fired rockets at our cities. They're paying and will continue to pay dearly for that," he said following security consultations at the military's headquarters in Tel Aviv.

Two Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank on Friday, including one who attempted to stab a soldier, as clashes injured more than 100 people in the occupied territory.

The U.N. Security Council will hold a virtual public meeting Sunday to address the soaring violence between Israel and the Palestinians, diplomats have said.