By Lili Bayer

TEL AVIV/JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Thousands of Israelis took part in a nationwide strike on Sunday in support of families of hostages held in Gaza, calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reach an agreement with Hamas to end the war and release the remaining captives.

Demonstrators waved Israeli flags and carried photos of hostages as whistles, horns, and drums echoed at rallies across the country, while some protesters blocked streets and highways, including the main route between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

CAIRO (Reuters) -Palestinian militant group Hamas said on Sunday that Israel's plan to relocate residents from Gaza City constitutes a "new wave of genocide and displacement" for hundreds of thousands of residents in the area.

The group said the planned deployment of tents and other shelter equipment by Israel into southern Gaza was a "blatant deception".

The Israeli military has said it is preparing to provide tents and other equipment starting from Sunday ahead of its plan to relocate residents from combat zones to the south of the enclave "to ensure their safety".

Tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered on Sunday evening in Tel Aviv to call for an end to the war in Gaza and the release of hostages, one of the largest demonstrations in Israel since the start of the fighting in October 2023.

The rally was the culmination of a day of nationwide protests and a general strike to pressure the government to halt the military campaign.

"Bring them all home! Stop the war!" shouted the vast crowd which had converged on the so-called "Hostage Square" in Tel Aviv plaza -- a focal point for protesters throughout the war.

Demonstrators took to the streets across Israel Sunday calling for an end to the war in Gaza and a deal to release hostages still held by militants, as the military prepares a new offensive.

The protests come more than a week after Israel's security cabinet approved plans to capture Gaza City, following 22 months of war that have created dire humanitarian conditions in the Palestinian territory.

The war was triggered by Palestinian militant group Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel, during which 251 were taken hostage.

(Reuters) -Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held calls on Saturday with his Turkish and Hungarian counterparts, the Russian foreign ministry said, hours after a summit between the U.S. and Russian presidents yielded no deal on ending the warin Ukraine.

President Donald Trump, who hosted President Vladimir Putinin Alaska on Friday for bilateral talks aimed at ending the war that Russia launched with a full-scale invasion on Ukraine in early 2022, said that Kyiv should make a deal with Moscow because "Russia is a very big power, and they're not."

The US government said Saturday it is suspending visitor visas for Gazans after a far-right influencer with the ear of President Donald Trump complained that wounded Palestinians had been allowed to seek medical treatment in the United States.

The announcement came one day after a series of furious social media posts by Laura Loomer, who is known for promoting racist conspiracy theories and claiming that the 9/11 terrorist attacks were an inside job.

(Reuters) -The Israeli military will provide Gaza residents with tents and other equipment starting from Sunday ahead of relocating them from combat zones to "safe" ones in the south of the enclave, military spokesperson Avichay Adraee said on Saturday.

This comes days after Israel said it intended to launch a new offensive to seize control of northern Gaza City, the enclave's largest urban centre, in a plan that raised international alarm over the fate of the demolished strip, home to about 2.2 million people.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. State Department on Saturday said it was halting all visitor visas for individuals from Gaza while it conducts "a full and thorough review of the process and procedures used to issue a small number of temporary medical-humanitarian visas in recent days."

(Reporting by Jasper WardEditing by Tomasz Janowski)

Tens of thousands of Libyans voted in local elections on Saturday in areas controlled by the Tripoli government but opposition from a rival administration in the east prevented the polls going ahead elsewhere.

The elections were seen as a test of democracy in a nation still plagued by division and instability after years of unrest following the NATO-backed uprising that toppled longtime leader Moamer Kadhafi in 2011.

NAIROBI (Reuters) -South Sudan and Israel are discussing a deal to resettle Palestinians from war-torn Gaza in the troubled African nation, three sources told Reuters - a plan quickly dismissed as unacceptable by Palestinian leaders.

The sources, who have knowledge of the matter but spoke on condition of anonymity, said no agreement had been reached but talks between South Sudan and Israel were ongoing.