Frustrated with the dwindling prospect of reaching a ceasefire deal in the year-long Gaza war, some Israeli entrepreneurs have sought a different avenue to release hostages -- offering a financial reward for those who choose to free them.

Former SodaStream CEO Daniel Birnbaum told AFP Monday he had received around 100 calls after announcing on social media platform X that he would give $100,000 in cash or bitcoin to "anyone who delivers from Gaza a living Israeli prisoner".

Hundreds of far-right demonstrators, including legislators and ministers, gathered Monday near the Israel-Gaza border to demand the establishment of Jewish settlements in the war-battered Palestinian territory, an AFP correspondent reported.

"If we want, we can resettle in Gaza," said National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, as the audience applauded. "The land of Israel is ours."

Many in the demonstration wore stickers reading "Gaza is ours for eternity".

Al-Qard al-Hassan, bombed by Israel over it's Hezbollah links, is a lifeline for mainly Muslim Shiite communities battling a years-long financial crisis that has locked Lebanese out of their bank deposits.

The financial firm, officially registered as a charity, has been offering customers credit in exchange for gold deposits on an interest-free basis since the 1980s.

Its beneficiaries are mainly Shiite Muslims, but in a country where a five-year economic crisis has forced many into desperation, Christians and Sunni Muslims have also turned to its services.

Israel has announced steps to boost aid deliveries to Gaza, but UN figures show a huge drop in supplies getting through to the war-battered territory and humanitarian workers doubt much is reaching those who need it most.

Aid workers and experts told AFP that there were still many obstacles to getting desperately needed supplies to Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip's north, where intense Israeli military operations since early October have left hundreds dead.

Lebanese security forces faced resistance Monday as they sought to evict displaced families sheltering in an abandoned Beirut building, as scuffles erupted with crowds angered by the move, said an AFP correspondent.

The building in Beirut's Hamra district was largely abandoned before it was recently overtaken by several families, many of them from the capital's southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold heavily targeted by Israeli strikes.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken left for the Middle East Monday on a new push for an elusive Gaza ceasefire two weeks before US elections, seeing a new opportunity from Israel's killing of Hamas's leader.

It will be the 11th trip to the Middle East by the top US diplomat since war broke out a year ago, with Blinken on his last visit to Israel in August warning it may have been the "last chance" for a US-led ceasefire plan.

Rights group Amnesty International published Monday a report that accused the Saudi Arabian franchise of French supermarket giant Carrefour of exploiting migrant workers.

Carrefour told AFP that an internal probe had not confirmed most allegations but was planning on conducting an external review.

Amnesty said it found migrant workers for Carrefour's Saudi Arabian franchisee were deceived by recruitment agents, forced to work excessive hours, denied days off, cheated of their earnings and made to live in squalid accommodations.

Up to 1,000 women and children needing medical care will shortly be evacuated from Gaza to Europe, the head of the World Health Organization's Europe branch said in comments published on Monday.

Israel, which is besieging the war-devastated Palestinian territory, "is committed to 1,000 more medical evacuations within the next months to the European Union," Hans Kluge said in an interview with AFP.

He said the evacuations would be facilitated by the WHO -- the United Nations' health agency -- and the European countries involved.

Lebanese state media reported Israeli strikes Sunday on branches of a Hezbollah-linked financial association, including near the country's only airport, after the Israeli military warned it would attack Al-Qard Al-Hassan's branches.

The strikes mark an expansion of the Israeli campaign against Iran-backed group Hezbollah after a year of cross-border exchanges that escalated in late September into a full-blown war.

Just a month ago, south Beirut's bustling streets were packed with traffic, families strolling about and youths in cafes, but now silence dominates the abandoned Hezbollah bastion, interrupted only by the sound of Israeli bombs.

Escalating Israeli attacks since late September, after nearly a year of low-intensity cross-border exchanges, have reduced much of the Lebanese capital's once densely-packed southern suburbs to rubble and sent many of its residents fleeing.