Israelis stood still and flags flew at half-mast on Sunday as the country marked an especially painful Memorial Day following the carnage of the October 7 attack.

At 8:00 pm local time (1700 GMT), sirens sounded across Israel, prompting a minute's silence in honour of its fallen soldiers and civilian victims of attacks.

"Tonight, we have no peace, and there is no silence," President Isaac Herzog said at a special ceremony on Sunday evening at Jerusalem's Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews can pray.

An all-out Israeli offensive on the Gaza city of Rafah would provoke "anarchy" without eliminating Hamas, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday, as Washington stepped up a pressure campaign against such an assault.

Separately, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan emphasized Washington's concerns about an offensive in a call with his Israeli counterpart, Tzachi Hanegbi.

War-weary Gazans flooded towards coastal areas of the Gaza Strip's southern city of Rafah on Sunday, fleeing heavy bombardment in eastern zones after Israel ordered them to evacuate.

"We endured three days that can be considered hell," said Mohammed Hamad, a 24-year-old resident of eastern Rafah who was among the 300,000 Palestinians that Israel says have fled the fighting.

Despite international opposition to any major military operation in Rafah, Israel has shifted its focus to the heavily populated area in what it says is an effort to destroy the last bastion of Hamas.

A conference of international donors in Kuwait pledged over $2 billion in aid to Gaza Sunday as UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an "immediate" ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war.

The conference, organised by the International Islamic Charitable Organization (IICO) and UN humanitarian coordination agency OCHA, said the funds would be dispersed over two years, with the possibility of an extension.

Israel struck Gaza on Sunday and troops battled militants in several areas of the Hamas-run territory, where the health ministry said the death toll in the war had exceeded 35,000 people.

More than seven months into the Israel-Hamas war, UN chief Antonio Guterres urged "an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, the unconditional release of all hostages and an immediate surge in humanitarian aid" into the besieged Gaza Strip.

Music fans who gathered in Tel Aviv on Saturday to watch the Eurovision contest decried juries' snubs of Israel as "obviously political".

The mood was electric at the packed Layla bar in Tel Aviv as the show got underway, with the crowd going wild when Israel's contestant Eden Golan appeared on screen.

Arriving with her long lavender-streaked hair and matching nails, Golan performed her song "Hurricane" wearing a white chiffon gown billowing in the artificial wind and smoke filling the stage.

Thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched through Madrid on Saturday to demand a ceasefire in war-torn Gaza and a severing of ties between Spain and Israel.

Numbering around 4,000 according to the authorities, protesters held up banners and signs condemning a "genocide" in Gaza and lauding the "resistance" of the Palestinian people.

Iraq, one of the world's biggest oil producers, aims to boost its crude reserves to more than 160 billion barrels, Oil Minister Hayan Abdel Ghani said on Saturday.

The minister's comment came during the launch of new licensing rounds for 29 oil and gas fields.

According to the World Bank, Iraq has 145 billion barrels of proven oil reserves amounting to 96 years' worth of production at the current rate.

These are among the largest crude reserves in the world.

Switzerland promised a joyous celebration Sunday for Nemo, the first non-binary performer to win the Eurovision Song Contest at the end of one of the most politically-charged competitions ever.

"The Code", a song about the 24-year-old Nemo's discovery of a non-binary gender, garnered backing from national juries and popular votes to triumph in the annual pan-European contest of kitsch.

Croatian Baby Lasagne came second, while Ukrainian duo Alyona Alyona were third.

Israel on Saturday hit parts of Gaza including Rafah where it expanded an evacuation order, as the UN warned an outright invasion of the crowded city risked an "epic" disaster.

AFP journalists, medics and witnesses reported strikes across the coastal territory, where the UN says humanitarian relief is blocked after Israeli troops defied international opposition and entered eastern Rafah this week.

That effectively shut a key aid crossing and suspending traffic through another.