Qatar's chief negotiator voiced frustration over talks for a truce in Gaza in an interview with AFP, a month after Israel resumed its strikes on the Palestinian territory and another round of negotiations ended without a deal.

"We're definitely frustrated by the slowness, sometimes, of the process in the negotiation. This is an urgent matter. There are lives at stake here if this military operation continues day by day," Mohammed Al-Khulaifi said on Friday.

The fate of a US-Israeli hostage who Hamas said had featured in an Israeli truce proposal remains unknown, the group said on Saturday, separately releasing a video of another captive alive.

The body of a guard assigned to the American-Israeli, Edan Alexander, had been recovered from the site of a recent Israeli strike, Hamas's armed wing the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades said in a statement.

"But the fate of the prisoner and the rest of the captors remains unknown," the militants said.

With food scarce in the besieged and war-battered Gaza Strip, some desperate families have turned to eating sea turtles as a rare source of protein.

Once the shell has been removed, the meat is cut up, boiled and cooked in a mix of onion, pepper, tomato and spices.

"The children were afraid of the turtle, and we told them it tasted as delicious as veal," said Majida Qanan, keeping an eye on the chunks of red meat simmering in a pot over a wood fire.

"Some of them ate it, but others refused."

The United States and Iran made progress in a second round of high-stakes talks on Tehran's nuclear programme on Saturday and agreed to meet again next week, both sides said.

The Oman-mediated talks in Rome lasted about four hours, Iranian state television and a senior US official said. Tehran's top diplomat Abbas Araghchi declared it a "good meeting" that yielded progress.

"This time we managed to reach a better understanding on a series of principles and goals," he told Iranian state TV.

The United States will roughly halve the number of troops it has deployed in Syria to less than 1,000 in the coming months, the Pentagon said Friday.

Washington has had troops in Syria for years as part of international efforts against the Islamic State (IS) group, which rose out of the chaos of the country's civil war to seize swaths of territory there and in neighboring Iraq over a decade ago.

The brutal jihadists have since suffered major defeats in both countries, but still remain a threat.

The deaths of three Tunisian sixth-formers in a school wall collapse in the small inland town of Mezzouna has fuelled anger over underinvestment and neglect in the nation's hinterland.

Since Monday's accident, angry residents have blocked roads leading to the town's National Guard post with burning tyres, as young men clashed repeatedly with security forces.

"We're asking for the most basic things: healthcare and education," said Najet Messaadi.

"Instead, they sent us 112 police cars. What are we? Terrorists?"

Gaza's civil defence rescue agency said Friday that Israeli strikes killed at least 24 people, including 10 from the same family, after Hamas signalled its rejection of Israel's latest ceasefire proposal.

The Palestinian militants' chief negotiator dismissed what he called Israel's "partial agreements" and called for a "comprehensive deal" to halt the 18-month-long war.

Khalil al-Hayya also urged international pressure to end Israel's complete blockade of Gaza that began on March 2.

Hamas on Friday urged the international community to exert immediate pressure to end Israel's complete blockade of the Gaza Strip that has been in place since March 2.

The appeal from the militants comes after the United Nations warned of worsening conditions and shortages of medicine and other essentials.

"The international community is required to intervene immediately and exert the necessary pressure to end the unjust blockade imposed on our people in the Gaza Strip," Hamas's chief negotiator Khalil al-Hayya said in a statement.

Iran staged military parades on Friday to mark its annual Army Day celebrations, showcasing a wide array of its latest domestically built drones, missiles, tanks, and other hardware.

The events coincided with the eve of the second round of nuclear talks between Iran and the United States, which will be held in Rome on Saturday.

Domestically developed drones, including the jet-powered Karrar, Arash, and Mohajer models, were shown in the parade in Tehran, state television reported.

In addition to the capital, military parades were also staged in other major cities.

The new US ambassador to Israel prayed at the Western Wall in Jerusalem on Friday, delivering a handwritten message from President Donald Trump calling for peace in Israel.

Mike Huckabee, a former Republican governor, has long been an outspoken supporter of Israel, backing calls to annex the Israeli-occupied West Bank before such talk became increasingly mainstream.

He presented his diplomatic credentials to Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Thursday, as Israel's 18-month war against Hamas Palestinian militants continues in the Gaza Strip.