RAFAH: Israel struck Gaza on Sunday and troops were battling militants in several areas of the Palestinian territory, where the health ministry said the death toll in the war had exceeded 35,000 people.
More than seven months into the Gaza war, UN chief Antonio Guterres urged "an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, the unconditional release of all captives and an immediate surge in humanitarian aid" into the besieged Gaza Strip.
"But a ceasefire will only be the start," Guterres told a donor conference in Kuwait. "It will be a long road back from the devastation and trauma of this war."
As Egyptian, Qatari and US mediation efforts towards a truce appeared to stall, US President Joe Biden said on Saturday a ceasefire could be achieved "tomorrow" if Palestinian groups released the captives held in Gaza since the October 7 attack that sparked the conflict.
Correspondents, witnesses and medics said Israeli air strikes pounded parts of northern, central and southern Gaza during the night and into Sunday morning.
In Rafah, Gaza's southernmost city which sits on the border with Egypt, the Kuwaiti hospital said Sunday it had received the bodies of "18 martyrs" killed in Israeli strikes over the past 24 hours.
The health ministry in the territory said that at least 63 people had been killed over the last 24 hours, bringing the overall death toll from Israel's bombardment and offensive in Gaza to at least 35,034 people, mostly women and children.
Israel defied international opposition this week and sent tanks and troops into eastern Rafah, effectively shutting a key aid crossing.
On Saturday, the Israeli military expanded an evacuation order for eastern Rafah and said 300,000 Palestinians had left the area.
Palestinians in Rafah, many of them displaced by the fighting elsewhere in the territory, piled water tanks, mattresses and other belongings onto vehicles and prepared to flee again.
Israel began what it termed a "limited" operation in Rafah this week, while the international community has repeatedly condemned the possibility, long-threatened by the Israeli government, of a full-scale ground invasion of the city.
Protests against the war spread to Saturday's Eurovision Song Contest in Sweden, where thousands rallied outside the Malmo Arena condemning Israel's participation.
Meanwhile, in Tel Aviv on Saturday, Israeli protesters again took to the streets to pressure their government to do more to reach a truce and captives release deal.
The rally came hours after Palestinian movement Hamas's armed wing said that an Israeli-British man Nadav Popplewell, had died in captivity. — AFP
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