Israeli forces launched attacks across Gaza on Sunday, leaving hospitals inundated with casualties, as aid officials sound alarm over “full-scale famine conditions” amid crippling blockade.
Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli strikes since dawn on Sunday killed dozens of people, including a 17-year-old who died in an attack on a southern town.
At least 52,243 Palestinians have been confirmed killed and 117,639 wounded in Israel’s war on Gaza since it began 18 months ago.
The Gaza Government Media Office updated its death toll to more than 61,700, saying thousands of people missing under the rubble are presumed dead.
Israel resumed its military campaign in the Gaza Strip on March 18, as a ceasefire agreement that had largely halted the fighting for two months collapsed over disagreements with Hamas.
Gaza mediator Qatar said Sunday there was some progress in talks in Doha this week aimed at securing a new truce in the Israel-Hamas war.
Speaking at a news conference, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani reported "a bit of progress", in response to questions about reports of a Thursday meeting in Doha between Israel's Mossad spy agency chief David Barnea and the Qatari prime minister.
Meanwhile, Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas appointed a close aide as the first ever vice president of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) on Saturday, positioning him as a potential successor to the veteran leader.
Hussein al-Sheikh was appointed by Abbas, 89, after the vice presidency position was created during a convention held in Ramallah this week.
The new post follows years of international pressure to reform the PLO and comes as Arab and Western powers envision an expanded role for Abbas's Palestinian Authority (PA) in the post-war governance of the Gaza Strip.
"Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas appointed Hussein al-Sheikh as a deputy (vice president) of the PLO leadership," a member of the organisation's executive committee, Wasel Abu Yousef, told AFP.