Israel's war against Palestinian militant group Hamas has come under increasing scrutiny as the civilian death toll rises, but international powers including the United States have failed so far to help negotiate a ceasefire.

The Gaza war, triggered by Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel, has drawn in Tehran-aligned armed groups across the Middle East, repeatedly heightening fears of a broader regional conflagration.

Top US diplomat Antony Blinken appealed Tuesday to Hamas urgently to accept a ceasefire plan to ease suffering in Gaza but also entered a public spat with Israel as he capped a new round of shuttle diplomacy.

The on-and-off truce talks reconvened in Qatar's capital on Thursday without Hamas, which has accused Israel of obstructing a deal and insists on the implementation of previously agreed terms.

The fact that Haifa's industrial area sits next to one of the largest ports in the eastern Mediterranean also stokes fears of environmental disaster

These bring to at least 11 the number of schools in Gaza to be struck since July 6, killing around 150 people, based on a tally of tolls previously given by officials in the Hamas-run territory.

UNESCO said the site, which dates back to the fourth century, had been put on the endangered list at the demand of Palestinian authorities and cited the "imminent threats" it faced.

Hours earlier, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told two top Israeli officials that casualties among Palestinian civilians "still remain unacceptably high".

Troops, tanks and aircraft were fighting in Gaza's biggest urban area on the eve of new truce talks in Qatar that aim to free the hostages and halt the conflict raging into its 10th month.

Even before the Gaza war broke out, the Taybeh brewery's pale ales and lagers had to carve a rocky path to make their way out of the occupied West Bank.

The conflict has killed tens of thousands, laid waste to much of the Gaza Strip, uprooted most of its 2.4 million population and put them at risk of starvation.

UNICEF recommends that young children eat foods daily from five of eight main groups -- breast milk; grains, roots, tubers and plantains; pulses, nuts and seeds; dairy; meat, poultry and fish; eggs; vitamin A-rich fruits and vegetables; and other fruits and vegetables.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant to discuss the deal, the State Department said in a pair of statements Sunday night.

The attack prompted a wave of international condemnation, with Palestinians and many Arab countries calling it a "massacre". Israel said it was looking into the "tragic accident".

The health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said in a statement that the strikes "claimed the lives of 35 martyrs and left dozens injured, most of them children and women".

In the space of a week, the Israeli army has announced the death of eight hostages who had been presumed to be alive -- five Israelis, two Thais and a French-Mexican dual national.

As Israel keeps up its campaign against Hamas, Arab leaders are mapping out ways to support post-war Gaza, placing one major condition on their involvement: a pathway to Palestinian statehood.

During the war that accompanied Israel's creation, around 760,000 Palestinians fled or were driven from their homes and many took refuge in what would later become the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

Pro-Palestine protests and counter-protests have been the center of attention in recent weeks

Officers also detained several people at Fordham University in New York and cleared an encampment set up inside a school building, officials said, and law enforcement were on standby at Columbia University across town after mass arrests the previous evening.

Washington has heightened pressure on all sides to reach a ceasefire -- a message pushed by Blinken, who was on his seventh regional tour since the Gaza war broke out in October.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly raised the issue with US President Joe Biden in a call at the weekend.

Blinken flew to Amman after talks with Gulf Arab leaders in Riyadh, part of his seventh tour of the region since the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel.

A senior Hamas official said Sunday that the Palestinian group had no "major issues" with the most recent truce plan.

The United Nations Security Council will vote Thursday on the Palestinians' application to become a full UN member state, several diplomatic sources have told AFP.

Amid escalating pressure for increased humanitarian aid access to Gaza, Israel's Cabinet has approved the opening of the Erez border crossing in northern Gaza.

Israeli farmer Yarden Zemach, 38, said he felt safe when picking avocados with Palestinians on October 5 -- just two days before the attack.

Biden has led a chorus of international anger over the attack on employees of US-based World Central Kitchen, who were distributing desperately needed food to a population on the verge of famine.

The usually bullish Netanyahu, 74, appears both physically and politically fragile.

Monday's deaths came as the Israeli army wrapped up a two-week military operation in and around the Al-Shifa Hospital which reduced the besieged territory's largest medical complex to charred ruins.