This picture taken from western Jabalia in central Gaza shows smoke billowing east of Gaza City, in the central Gaza Strip following Israeli strikes. AFP
"Gaza -- we are talking and hopefully we're going to get that straightened out over the next week," Trump said, echoing similarly optimistic comments he made July 4.
Delegations from Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas have now spent a week trying to agree on a temporary truce to halt 21 months of devastating war in the Gaza Strip.
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 that an end to the war was near. Strikes across the Palestinian territory on Sunday killed at least 43 people, including 11 at a Gaza City market.
The Israeli war on Gaza has killed at least 58,026 Palestinians, and nearly 139,000 wounded, most of them women and children, since October 2023.
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.
"We require 275,000 litres of fuel per day to meet basic needs."
Talks and 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.
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