The United States stepped up pressure Monday for a Gaza ceasefire with a call for a UN Security Council vote on a truce as it redeployed Washington’s top diplomat to the region scarred by eight months of war.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s regional tour was preceded by further bombardment of Gaza by Israeli forces, with witnesses reporting overnight strikes in the center of the strip and helicopter gunfire on ravaged Gaza City.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, faced domestic dissent, with war cabinet member Benny Gantz quitting Sunday over the premier’s handling of the war.

Washington sought to bring a ceasefire closer by tabling a draft resolution at the United Nations, calling for an “immediate ceasefire with the release of hostages” between Israel and militant group Hamas.

A staunch ally of Israel, the United States has been widely criticized for having blocked several earlier UN draft resolutions calling for a halt to the fighting.

A new push for a deal by President Joe Biden on 31 May, separate from the UN, has so far failed to produce tangible results, while further doubts have been cast on a truce by an Israeli special forces raid to free hostages which killed scores of Palestinians on Saturday.

“People were screaming — young and old, women and men,” said Muhannad Thabet, 35, a resident of the crowded Nuseirat refugee camp area.

“Everyone wanted to flee the place, but the bombing was intense and anyone who moved was at risk of being killed due to the heavy bombardment and gunfire.”

The Israeli military said the extraction team and the four rescued captives came under heavy gun and grenade fire by militants, who killed one police officer, while Israel’s air force launched strikes that reduced nearby buildings to rubble.

The health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said 274 people were killed and 698 wounded, in what it labelled the “Nuseirat massacre,” figures that could not be independently verified.

Among those were at least 64 children, 57 women and 37 elderly people, the ministry said.

The Israeli military said the extraction team and the four rescued captives came under heavy gun and grenade fire by militants, who killed one police officer, while Israel’s air force launched strikes that reduced nearby buildings to rubble.

Many Israelis shed tears of joy when they heard of the release of the four captives, all reported in good health.

Noa Argamani, 26, Almog Meir Jan, 22, Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 41, had been abducted from the Nova music festival during Hamas’ October 7 attack on southern Israel that triggered the war.

Pressure is mounting over Netanyahu’s failure to return remaining hostages and the departure of Gantz from the war cabinet marked a major political blow.

Gantz’s decision, which will not bring down the right-wing government, comes after he had issued an ultimatum to Netanyahu to present a post-war plan for Gaza by 8 June.

Responding to the first major political blow to him during the conflict, Netanyahu told Gantz it was “not the time to abandon the battle.”