US President Donald Trump's top diplomat, Marco Rubio, set off for Israel on Saturday telling reporters he intends to discuss the impact of Israel’s strike on Hamas leaders in Qatar on Israel’s war in Gaza.

Israel attempted to kill the political leaders of Hamas with an airstrike on Doha on Tuesday, in what US officials described as a unilateral escalation that did not serve American or Israeli interests.

Rubio travels to Israel amid tensions with fellow US allies in the Middle East over the strike on Qatar as well as Israel’s planned expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Rubio said that while President Donald Trump was “not happy” with the strike, it would not change America's alliance with Israel.

Rubio met with Qatar's Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani at the White House on Friday, underscoring the competing interests in the region that Rubio will seek to balance on his trip.

Al-Thani met with Trump later on Friday.

Israel's assault on Gaza since October 2023 has killed tens of thousands of people, internally displaced Gaza's entire population, and set off a starvation crisis.

Multiple rights experts and scholars assess it amounts to genocide.

Israel says its actions are self-defence after an October 2023 attack by Hamas militants in which 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 taken hostage. (Reuters)