Israel-Gaza live updates: France, UK, Canada recognize Palestinian statehood

President Donald Trump on Tuesday was asked by a reporter for his reaction to Israel beginning a ground offensive in Gaza City.

"We're going to see what happens because I hear Hamas is trying to use the old human shield deal, and if they do that, they're going to be in big trouble," Trump said as he left the White House ahead of a trip to the United Kingdom. "They're going to be in big trouble. They put it out two days ago that they're going to use the hostages as human shields."

The Chief of the General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, said Tuesday that expanding the ground operation in Gaza City "is a move of decisive importance for the continuation of the war."

"Yesterday we expanded the ground operation into the center of Gaza City, which constitutes a vital area for Hamas," Zamir told ground troops, as quoted in an IDF readout.

"The mission rests on your shoulders: to decisively defeat the Gaza City brigade," Zamir said, referring to the local Hamas unit.

The maneuver in Gaza City is a significant step to carry out our highest moral and important duty -- to return all the hostages home and to dismantle the military and governing capabilities of the Hamas terrorist organization," he added.

"The threat has changed, but so have we; we come better prepared," Zamir said.

-ABC News' Morgan Winsor

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry urged "exceptional and urgent international intervention to protect civilians in Gaza City" as the Israel Defense Forces launched a major offensive operation there overnight.

"The failure of international diplomacy to stop the war is suspicious and unjustified," the ministry said in a post to X on Tuesday morning.

The ministry accused the Israeli government of a "deliberate targeting of civilians, turning Gaza City into a mass graveyard and an uninhabitable land, as is the case with the broader area of the sector, and pushing nearly a million Palestinians into displacement and movement within a tight circle of death."

The ministry, which is based in the West Bank, called on foreign powers to "ensure an immediate cessation of the war and aggression, the protection of civilians, the prevention of their displacement from the sector, the immediate release of hostages and prisoners and the sustainable delivery of aid."

Israel's action in the Gaza Strip amount to a genocide, a United Nations commission said in a report released on Tuesday, a finding that an Israeli ministry rejected as "fake."

The Independent International Commission of Inquiry, which operates under the U.N Human Rights Council, also wrote in a 72-page report that it found that some "statements made by Israeli authorities are direct evidence of genocidal intent."

"Additionally, on the basis of circumstantial evidence, the Commission finds that genocidal intent was the only reasonable inference that could be drawn based on the pattern of conduct of the Israeli authorities," the report said.

It added, "Thus, the Commission concludes that the Israeli authorities and Israeli security forces have the genocidal intent to destroy, in whole or in part, the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip."

The Israeli Foreign Ministry in a statement sought to reject the assertions, saying the authors of the report amounted to "Hamas proxies."

"The report relies entirely on Hamas falsehoods, laundered and repeated by others," the ministry said in part in a post on social media on Tuesday.

The report was researched and written by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, which was formed by the Human Right Council in 2021, as an independent investigative body.

The commission's findings are independent of the proceedings at the International Court of Justice, which would be tasked with making "a final determination in the future on Israel's responsibility under the Genocide Convention," the report said.

-ABC News' Somayeh Malekian, Jordana Miller and Kevin Shalvey