Christians celebrated a grim Easter in Gaza and Jerusalem Sunday, with the tiny Catholic community in the war-torn Palestinian territory holding their vigil service as fighting raged on outside.

Around 100 people gathered by candlelight on Saturday night at the Holy Family Church in Gaza City in the famine-threatened north to mark the resurrection, when Christians believe Christ rose from the dead.

The church is a short drive from Al-Shifa hospital where heavy combat has been raging for two weeks between Israeli troops and Hamas fighters.

Activists in Jordan called for further protests Sunday after days of demonstrations that have brought thousands onto the streets against the war in Gaza and the country's peace treaty with Israel.

Jordan, where nearly half the population is of Palestinian origin, has seen regular rallies in Amman and elsewhere in solidarity with Gaza since Israel's military onslaught in response to Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack.

Recent protests have seen rare clashes between demonstrators and security forces in the capital and in Jordan's largest Palestinian refugee camp.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was to undergo hernia surgery on Sunday, his office said, as protesters stepped up pressure on his government nearly six months into the Gaza war with Hamas.

Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Minister Yariv Levin will stand in while Netanyahu, 74, undergoes full anaesthesia, his office said.

It added that doctors had discovered the hernia on Saturday during a routine checkup, and that after consultations the decision was made for the premier to undergo surgery after completing his daily schedule.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan conceded defeat on Sunday in the country's local elections, saying the vote was a "turning point" for his party after two decades in power.

Partial results from across the nation of 85 million people showed major advances for the Republican People's Party (CHP) at the expense of Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Istanbul's mayor, the opposition's Ekrem Imamoglu, claimed re-election with nearly all ballot boxes opened, telling a euphoric crowd of supporters: "Tomorrow is a new spring day for our country."

A bomb exploded in a shopping area in a northern Syrian city held by pro-Turkish forces Sunday, killing eight people and wounding more than 20, a war monitor said.

The blast in Azaz, Aleppo province, occurred not long after midnight as crowds were out shopping late during the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan, an AFP correspondent said.

The group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that "eight people were killed and 23 others wounded" when "a car bomb exploded in the middle of a popular market".

Thousands of Palestinian citizens of Israel rallied Friday for an end to the Gaza war as they marked Land Day, an annual commemoration of a deadly 1976 crackdown on protests against Israeli land seizures

The protesters, led by Arab members of the Israeli parliament, marched through the northern town of Deir Hanna waving Palestinian flags and carrying banners reading: "Stop the war on Gaza".

Protesters blocked Tel Aviv's ring road Saturday after two demonstrations in Israel's biggest city called for the release of hostages held in Gaza and criticised the government's handling of the war.

Police used water cannon against protesters who lit fires and used lorries to block both carriageways of the motorway.

In Jerusalem, hundreds picketed the home of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanding he resign. Israeli media reported smaller anti-government protests across the country.

Some 9,000 patients in the Gaza Strip require evacuation for emergency care, with the war-torn Palestinian territory down to just 10 barely functioning hospitals, the head of the WHO said Saturday.

"With only 10 hospitals minimally functional across the whole of #Gaza, thousands of patients continue to be deprived of health care," World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X.

Before the war, Gaza had 36 hospitals, according to the WHO.

A second vessel carrying aid to war-torn Gaza set sail from Cyprus on Saturday, an AFP correspondent reported, more than two weeks after the last shipment arrived by sea.

Almost 400 tons of aid is being carried to Gaza on a flotilla organised by two charities -- the US-based World Central Kitchen and the Spanish Open Arms.

The barge and two salvage vessels left the port of Larnaca following diplomacy by Cyprus to try to open a maritime corridor to the territory, under siege by Israeli forces since last October.

The US Treasury Department pushed back on Friday against claims it had eased sanctions against West Bank settlers after pressure from Israel's finance minister.

The US recently sanctioned seven Israeli settlers and two farming outposts in the West Bank in response to a surge in violence, freezing their assets and preventing them from carrying out financial transactions with US banks and individuals.