Making his ninth trip to the Middle East since the Israeli war on Gaza broke out, Blinken is expected to meet Israeli leaders before truce talks resume in Cairo in the coming days.

US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators have said negotiations to clinch a ceasefire in the more than 10-month-old war were making progress, and US President Joe Biden said "we are closer than we have ever been".

But Hamas political bureau member Sami Abu Zuhri undercut the cautious optimism, telling AFP that signs of progress after two days of talks in Doha were "an illusion".

"We are not facing a deal or real negotiations, but rather the imposing of American diktats," he said.

Previous optimism during months of on-off truce talks has proven unfounded.

But the stakes have risen since the late July Israeli assassination of  Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh, and as the humanitarian crisis in the besieged Gaza Strip has deepened with a feared polio outbreak.

After mediators announced they had put forward a "bridging proposal" to close remaining gaps, Hamas said it rejected "new conditions" from Israel and called for a plan outlined by Biden in late May to be implemented.

The Palestinian group as well as some analysts and Israeli protesters have accused Netanyahu of hamstringing a deal to safeguard his hard-right ruling coalition.

"We have a prime minister that is not so much willing to release the captives, to finish the war, because he has he own interests," Yossi, a 53-year-old protester, said as thousands rallied in Tel Aviv demanding a deal to bring home the captives still held in Gaza.

Strikes in Lebanon, Gaza 

As efforts towards a long-sought truce continued, so has the Israeli violence in Gaza but also in the occupied West Bank and in Lebanon.

Lebanon's health ministry said an Israeli air strike on Saturday in the Nabatieh area killed 10 Syrians, including a woman and her two children, one of the deadliest attacks on south Lebanon since October.

In Gaza, the civil defense agency said an Israeli air strike killed 15 people from a single Palestinian family.

"We are in the morgue seeing indescribable scenes of limbs and severed heads and children who are dismembered," said Omar al-Dreemli, a relative.

The Israeli killings in Al-Zawaida helped push the Gaza war death toll to 40,074.

Israeli troops have also expanded operations around Gaza's main southern city of Khan Yunis, Israel's military said Saturday.

The war has destroyed much of Gaza's housing and healthcare infrastructure, leaving children vulnerable to preventable diseases.

The United Nations appealed Friday for seven-day pauses in the fighting so it could vaccinate children against polio, as the Palestinian health ministry reported Gaza's first polio case in 25 years.

 'Conclude the agreement

Iran and its regional allies have vowed retaliation for Haniyeh's assassination in an Israeli attack in Tehran, and for an Israeli strike in Beirut that killed a top Hezbollah commander.

Western and Arab diplomats have been shuttling around the region to push for a Gaza deal which they see as the best way to avert a wider conflagration following the high-profile killings.

In Israel, Blinken will seek to "conclude the agreement for a ceasefire and release of detainees", the State Department said.

The proposed deal, which Biden outlined on May 31 but attributed to Israel, would freeze fighting for an initial six weeks and lead to the release of hostages and prisoners.

In Gaza, civilians have been on the move again after the Israeli military issued fresh evacuation orders.

"During each round of negotiations, they exert pressure by forcing evacuations and committing massacres," said Issa Murad, a Palestinian displaced to central Gaza's Deir al-Balah.