This picture taken from western Jabalia in the central Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing east of Gaza City, in the central Gaza Strip following Israeli strikes. AFP
The indirect negotiations in the Qatari capital, Doha, appeared deadlocked over the weekend after both sides blamed the other for blocking a deal for a 60-day ceasefire and the release of captives.
In Gaza, the Palestinian territory's civil defence agency said Israel killed at least 22 people in the latest strikes on Monday in and around Gaza City, and Khan Younis in the south.
One strike on a tent in Khan Younis on Sunday killed the parents and three brothers of a young Gazan boy, who only survived as he was outside getting water, the boy's uncle told AFP.
Belal al-Adlouni called for revenge for "every drop of blood," saying it "will not be forgotten and will not die with time, nor with displacement or with death".
AFP reporters in southern Israel, meanwhile, saw large plumes of smoke in northern Gaza.
Trump, who met Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington last week, claimed he is keen to secure a truce in the 21-month Israeli genocidal war on Gaza, which was sparked on October 7, 2023.
Israel has killed 58,026 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly children and women.
"Gaza -- we are talking and hopefully we're going to get that straightened out over the next week," he told reporters late on Sunday, echoing similarly optimistic comments he made on July 4.
A Palestinian source with knowledge of the talks told AFP on Saturday that the Palestinian resistance group Hamas rejected Israel's new demands to keep troops in over 40 per cent of Gaza and its plans to move Palestinians into an enclave on the border with Egypt.
Hamas accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of being the main obstacle.
"Netanyahu is skilled at sabotaging one round of negotiations after another, and is unwilling to reach any agreement," the group wrote on Telegram.
In response, a senior Israeli political official accused Hamas of inflexibility.
Mediators are pursuing "innovative mechanisms" to bridge the gaps between Israeli and Hamas delegations after a week of Gaza truce talks in Qatar, an official with knowledge of the negotiations said on Monday.
"Mediators are actively exploring innovative mechanisms to help bridge the remaining gaps and maintain momentum in the negotiations," the official said, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
Pressure
Israel's Foreign Minister Gideon Saar and the Palestinian Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Varsen Aghabekian Shahin headed to Brussels on Monday for talks between the EU and its Mediterranean neighbours.
But the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority denied media reports that any meeting between the two was on the agenda.
In Israel, Netanyahu has said he would be ready to enter talks for a more lasting ceasefire only when Hamas lays down its weapons.
But he is under pressure to quickly wrap up the war, with military casualties mounting and with public frustration both at the continued captivity of the hostages and a perceived lack of progress in the conflict.
Politically, his fragile governing coalition is holding, for now, but Netanyahu is seen as beholden to a minority of far-right ministers in prolonging an increasingly unpopular conflict.
He also faces a backlash over the feasibility and ethics of an ethnic ghetto plan to build a so-called "humanitarian city" from scratch in southern Gaza to house forcibly displaced Palestinians if and when a ceasefire takes hold.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees has described the Israeli proposed facility as a "concentration camp."
Israeli media said the costs were discussed at a security cabinet meeting at the prime minister's office on Sunday night, just hours before his latest court appearance in a long-running corruption trial on Monday.
* This story was edited by Ahram Online.
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