Israel's military bombed targets in Gaza on Monday and Hamas again demanded a permanent end to fighting, a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the "intense phase" of Gaza's war is winding down.

The conduct of the war has led to growing tensions between Netanyahu and United States President Joe Biden, but on Monday Israel's defence minister was in Washington urging close cooperation.

In the buzz of a trendy Beirut neighbourhood, the din of bars and laughter blend together, far from the border violence with Israel further south and fears of all-out war.

"I'm 40 years old, and each year they tell us that war will break out this summer," Elie, a financial consultant who did not give his last name, said in a bar in the Lebanese capital with other locals chatting beside him.

"What we see in the street is different from what we hear in the media," he said. "What the foreign press is reporting makes people think that Lebanon is at war."

Saudi Arabia said Sunday that more than 1,300 faithful died during the hajj pilgrimage which took place during intense heat, and that most of the deceased did not have official permits.

"Regrettably, the number of mortalities reached 1,301, with 83 percent being unauthorised to perform hajj and having walked long distances under direct sunlight, without adequate shelter or comfort," the official Saudi Press Agency reported.

An AFP tally last week, based on official statements and reports from diplomats involved in their countries' responses, put the toll at more than 1,100.

Teenagers across the Gaza Strip should have been taking their final exams this month, a last hurdle before university and lifelong dreams, but the war in the Palestinian territory has crushed those hopes.

According to the education ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, 85 percent of educational facilities in the territory are out of service because of the war.

"I was eagerly awaiting the exams, but the war prevented that and destroyed that joy", said Baraa al-Farra, an 18-year-old student displaced from Khan Yunis in southern Gaza.

Surrounded by a sea of rubble, the Palestinian Al-Balawi family in northern Gaza hang blankets above the ruins of their home to create a makeshift tent that provides shade from the searing summer heat.

The family are struggling to feed themselves in the Jabalia refugee camp after the nearly nine months of war that have followed Hamas's October 7 attack.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that "intense" fighting against Hamas militants in the southern Gaza city of Rafah is nearly over, more than eight months into the devastating war.

"The intense phase of the fighting against Hamas is about to end," Netanyahu told Israel's Channel 14 network, without providing a clear timeline.

"It doesn't mean that the war is about to end, but the war in its intense phase is about to end in Rafah."

Ibtissem Mahtout and Amira Messous pick fresh strawberries and tomatoes on the eco-friendly smallholding the two women are working near Algiers, a pioneering initiative in Algeria's male-dominated agricultural sector.

After graduating from university four years ago, they left the capital and started working on the small patch of land in Douaouda, some 30 kilometres (18 miles) to the west.

"As soon as I'm in the field I'm happy," said Messous, 28, holding a bundle of fresh beetroot.

"From morning to night, we're here. To me, it's the most beautiful job in the world."

Tens of thousands of protesters waving Israeli flags and chanting slogans against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government rallied in Tel Aviv Saturday, demanding new elections and the return of hostages held in Gaza.

Large protests have occurred in the Israeli city on a weekly basis over Netanyahu's handling of the nearly nine-month-old war in Gaza started by Hamas's October 7 attack on southern Israel.

Many protesters held signs reading "Crime Minister" and "Stop the War" as people poured into the biggest Israeli city's main thoroughfare.

A senior Red Cross official in Gaza on Saturday told reporters of the horrific scenes after an Israeli strike in the Gaza Strip.

It was around 3:30 pm when three explosions rocked the walls of the Red Cross compound in Gaza on Friday, William Schomburg, the local chief for the ICRC told reporters in Geneva via video link.

Then came the "flood of wounded people" seeking help, said the international charity's chief in Rafah.

"There were piles of dead bodies, blood everywhere," he added.

Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly ordered 16 tourism companies stripped of their licences and referred their managers to the public prosecutor Saturday over illegal pilgrimages to Mecca, the cabinet said.

The order came after countries whose citizens performed this year's hajj reported more than 1,100 deaths, many attributed to the oven-like summer heat in Saudi Arabia.

An AFP tally on Friday, compiling official statements and reports from diplomats involved in the response, put the toll at 1,126, more than half of them from Egypt.