Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli air strikes on Sunday killed more than 40 Palestinians, including children at a water distribution point, as talks for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas stalled.

Delegations from Israel and the Palestinian militant group have now spent a week trying to agree on a temporary truce to halt 21 months of devastating fighting in the Gaza Strip.

On the ground, civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said eight children were among the 10 victims of a drone strike at a water point.

Israel's military blamed it on a "technical error" when targeting a militant in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, adding "the munition fell dozens of meters from the target".

Washington is Israel's top ally and Donald Trump has been pushing for a ceasefire, with the US president saying Sunday he was hopeful of a deal.

But there was no immediate sign an end to the fighting was near. Strikes across the Palestinian territory on Sunday killed at least 43 people, including 11 at a Gaza City market, Bassal said.

In Nuseirat, resident Khaled Rayyan told AFP he was woken by the sound of two large explosions.

"Our neighbour and his children were under the rubble" of a house hit, he said.

Another resident, Mahmud al-Shami, called on the negotiators to secure a ceasefire deal.

"What happened to us has never happened in the entire history of humanity," he said. "Enough."

Israel Intensifies Strikes, Cites '150 Terror Targets'

The Israeli military, which has recently intensified operations across Gaza, said that in the past 24 hours the air force "struck more than 150 terror targets".

It released aerial footage of what it said were fighter jet strikes attacking Hamas targets around Beit Hanoun, in northern Gaza, showing explosions on the ground and thick smoke in the sky.

Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency and other parties.

The war was sparked by Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which led to 1,219 deaths, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Of the 251 people taken hostage by militants that day, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.

Hamas-run Gaza's health ministry says that at least 58,026 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed in Israel's retaliatory campaign. The United Nations considers those figures reliable.

UN agencies on Saturday warned that fuel shortages had reached "critical levels", threatening to worsen conditions for Gaza's more than two million people.

"Only 150,000 litres of fuel have been allowed in over the past few days -- an amount that covers less than one day's needs," the head of the Palestinian NGOs Network in Gaza, Amjad Shawa, told AFP on Sunday.

"We require 275,000 litres of fuel per day to meet basic needs."

Forced displacement fears

Talks in the Qatari capital Doha to seal a 60-day ceasefire and hostage release were in the balance on Saturday after Israel and Hamas accused each other of trying to block a deal.

Despite the deadlock, Trump said "hopefully we're going to get that straightened out over the next week", speaking to reporters Sunday as he echoed similarly optimistic comments he made July 4.

Hamas wants the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, but a Palestinian source with knowledge of the talks said Israel had presented plans to maintain troops in more than 40 percent of the territory.

The source said Israel wanted to force hundreds of thousands of Palestinians into the south of Gaza "in preparation for forcibly displacing them to Egypt or other countries".

A senior Israeli official said Israel had demonstrated an openness "to flexibility in the negotiations, while Hamas remains intransigent, clinging to positions that prevent the mediators from advancing an agreement".

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he is prepared to enter talks for a more lasting end to hostilities once a temporary truce is agreed, but only if Hamas disarms.

Netanyahu on Sunday evening faced renewed pressure to secure the release of all hostages when protesters beamed images of captives onto buildings near his Jerusalem office.

"The absolute majority want a deal even (at the cost of) ending the fighting," Yotam Cohen, whose brother Nimrod is still being held, told AFP.

Also read: Israel plans open prison for 2 million Gazans | Trump, Netanyahu draw bleak future

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by HOOK Desk and is published from a syndicated feed AFP.)

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