As men searched for survivors beneath a Gaza home pummelled by an air strike, Rania Abu Anza gazed down on Sunday at two children who did not survive: her infant twins.

The Palestinian woman said she had gone through multiple rounds of fertility treatment to achieve her dream of becoming a mother, only to have it taken away by the carnage in the Gaza Strip.

"Who will call me mother from now on? Who will call me mother?" she said through tears on Sunday as she clutched her lifeless babies, the face of one still spattered with blood.

Mediators in Cairo made a renewed push for a Gaza ceasefire, but differences remained as fighting raged on Sunday between Israeli forces and Hamas militants in the Palestinian territory gripped by desperate food shortages.

Witnesses told AFP that an Israeli strike hit an aid truck in central Gaza, killing several people, but the military denied the truck carried relief.

Turkish Cypriots will not sit at any negotiating table unless their sovereignty and equal status is recognised, the leader of the breakaway self-declared state in northern Cyprus told AFP Sunday.

This year marks the 50th anniversary since an Athens-backed coup aimed at uniting Cyprus with Greece triggered a Turkish invasion that divided the island in 1974.

Only Ankara recognises the statehood of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which was proclaimed by Turkish Cypriot leaders in 1983.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas will visit Turkey next week for talks about the Gaza war and reconciliation efforts between Palestinian factions, the Turkish foreign minister said on Sunday.

The visit comes as intensive diplomacy is underway to pause the fighting in the almost five-month-old war between Israel and Hamas sparked by the Palestinian militant group's October 7 attacks.

Egypt, Qatar and the United States have mediated in weeks of talks to secure a truce by the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in a week.

Egypt on Sunday hosted envoys for talks on a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, the latest diplomatic effort as Gaza officials reported more deadly bombardment in the nearly five-month-old war.

A senior Hamas official told AFP that a delegation from the Palestinian group would discuss with mediators a proposal for a six-week truce, after a US official said Israel had broadly accepted its terms.

Far from the hustle and bustle of major cities, young Iraqis are increasingly taking advantage of a renewed sense of safety to explore the country's serene desert getaways.

Sheltering amidst the golden dunes, Ghadanfar Abdallah and his friends gather around a flickering campfire in the Samawah desert south of the capital, humming tunes, laughing and eating.

"When we post pictures, people do not believe that there are such places like the dunes in Iraq," the 35-year-old oil sector worker said.

Thousands of Israeli demonstrators thronged a Jerusalem square on Saturday, concluding a four-day march from the Gaza border intended to pressure the government to free hostages held in the Palestinian territory.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government has faced mounting calls to bring home the 130 captives Israel says remain in the Gaza Strip -- including 31 who are presumed dead.

They are among the 250 Israelis and foreigners abducted during Hamas's October 7 attack that triggered the ongoing war.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said an Israeli strike hit tents housing displaced civilians near a hospital in the southern city of Rafah Saturday, killing 11 and wounding dozens.

The Israeli army said it had carried out a "precision strike" in the area of the hospital that targeted militants from the Islamic Jihad group.

World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a post on social media platform X that the reported strike was "outrageous and unspeakable".

Israel has broadly accepted a ceasefire deal with Hamas, a senior US official said Saturday, as the first American airdrops of humanitarian aid were carried out over war-ravaged Gaza.

The framework agreement envisages a six-week cessation of hostilities, which could begin immediately if the Palestinian militant group signs off on the release of the most vulnerable hostages it holds, the official told reporters on a call.

"The Israelis have more or less accepted it," the administration official said. "Right now, the ball is in the camp of Hamas."

A cargo ship loaded with fertiliser has sunk in the Gulf of Aden less than two weeks after it was damaged by missiles from Yemen's Huthi rebels, Yemen's government said Saturday.

The Huthis claimed the February 19 attack against the Rubymar, a cargo ship flying a Belizean flag and operated by a Lebanese firm, which transported combustible fertilisers.

The crew abandoned the ship and evacuated to safety after it was hit by two missiles.

The vessel had departed the United Arab Emirates and was bound for the Bulgarian port of Varna.