A second ship loaded with aid for Gaza could depart as early as Saturday, Cyprus said, as the first vessel returned from the war-ravaged territory after successfully delivering its cargo.

The Jennifer was set "to depart for Gaza today or tomorrow," foreign ministry spokesperson Theodoros Gotsis told state radio.

US charity World Central Kitchen said the Jennifer had been loaded with 240 tonnes of food but that rough weather made it hard to predict when it would set sail for Gaza or when the first vessel, the Open Arms, might make a return trip.

In the shadow of the war raging in Gaza, record numbers of Palestinian detainees are filling Israeli prisons, where they face "systemic abuse" and torture, rights advocates warn, calling for international action.

Members of several Israeli NGOs travelled to Geneva this week to raise concerns before the United Nations about a major "crisis" inside the country's prisons.

"We are extremely, extremely concerned," said Tal Steiner, the executive director of the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI).

"What we're looking at is a crisis," she told AFP.

The humanitarian situation in Gaza is a "nightmare" for mothers and babies, with doctors reporting small and sickly newborns, stillbirths and women forced to undergo C-sections without adequate anesthesia, a UN official said Friday.

"I'm personally leaving Gaza this week terrified for the one million women and girls of Gaza... and most especially for the 180 women who are giving birth every single day," Dominic Allen, UN Population Fund (UNFPA) representative for the state of Palestine, said in a video news conference from Jerusalem.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah party hit back at criticism on Friday by Hamas and other factions over his appointment of a new prime minister they said could deepen divisions as the war with Israel in Gaza rages.

Abbas appointed Mohammed Mustafa, a long-trusted adviser on economic affairs, as prime minister on Thursday and tasked him with forming a new government.

The US Treasury Department unveiled sanctions against a network of companies and individuals Friday for facilitating illegal technology transfers from dozens of US firms to Iranian entities, including the country's central bank.

The sanctions relate to Informatics Services Corporation (ISC), the technology arm of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), the Treasury Department said in a statement.

The Irish premier's annual Saint Patrick's Day visit to the White House is normally a joyful affair -- but this year the war in Gaza cast a shadow darker than a rainy Dublin sky.

Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar and President Joe Biden -- who loves to celebrate his Irish ancestry -- found themselves having to paper over a deep split over Israel's handling of the conflict.

Israel's intelligence chief is expected to participate in negotiations on Monday in Doha about a potential new Gaza truce and hostage exchange deal, a source with knowledge of the talks told AFP.

The meeting would come three days after a Hamas official said the Palestinian militant group had put forward a proposal for a six-week truce in Gaza, to be followed by a durable ceasefire.

Here is what we know about the demands of both Hamas and Israel as mediators push for a deal to end, or at least pause, the more than five-month-old war.

- What does Hamas want? -

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said on Friday he had approved the military's plan for an operation in Rafah, where most of war-battered Gaza's population has sought refuge.

Netanyahu "approved the plans for action in Rafah," his office said in a statement, without giving details or a timeline.

The statement said the military was "prepared for the operational side and for the evacuation of the population."

Thousands took to the streets of Syria's rebel-held northwest on Friday to mark 13 years since pro-democracy protests swept the country, chanting against President Bashar al-Assad and the region's jihadist rulers.

The government's brutal suppression of the 2011 uprising triggered a civil war that has killed more than half a million people, drawn in foreign armies and jihadists, and divided the country.

Under a heavy police presence, tens of thousands of Muslims attended the first Friday prayers of Ramadan in east Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound, a gathering weighed down by the war in Gaza.

Old men leaning on canes, veiled women and smartly dressed children flowed through the gates of the Israeli-annexed Old City for the midday prayer, which unfolded peacefully, though some younger men were turned away by police conducting security checks.