US President Donald Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff said Sunday that he was "hopeful" on Gaza ceasefire negotiations.

Witkoff told reporters in Teterboro, New Jersey, that he planned to meet senior Qatari officials on the sidelines of the FIFA Club World Cup final.

Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli air strikes on Sunday killed more than 40 Palestinians, including at a market and a water distribution point, as talks for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas stalled.

Delegations from Israel and the Palestinian militant group have now spent a week in Qatar trying to agree on a temporary truce to halt 21 months of devastating fighting in the Gaza Strip.

But on Saturday, each side accused the other of blocking attempts to secure an agreement at the indirect talks in Doha.

On the ground, civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said at least 43 people were killed in the latest Israeli strikes, including 11 at a Gaza City market.

Elsewhere, six children were among the 10 victims of a drone strike at a water point in the Nuseirat refugee camp, in central Gaza, Bassal said.

Israel's military said it had been targeting a member of Hamas ally Islamic Jihad but "as a result of a technical error with the munition, the munition fell dozens of meters from the target", a statement read.

Hamas-run Gaza's health ministry says that at least 58,026 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed in Israel's campaign.

UN agencies on Saturday warned that fuel shortages had reached "critical levels", threatening to worsen conditions for Gaza's more than two mn people.

Talks to seal a 60-day ceasefire and hostage release were in the balance as

Hamas wants the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, but Israel had presented plans to maintain troops in more than 40 % of the territory.

A source said Israel wanted to force hundreds of thousands of Palestinians into the south of Gaza "in preparation for forcibly displacing them to Egypt or other countries".

Netanyahu on Sunday evening faced renewed calls to secure the release of all of hostages when protesters beamed images of captives onto buildings near his Jerusalem office.

New Gaza-bound aid boat leaves Italy

A Gaza-bound boat carrying pro-Palestinian activists and humanitarian aid left Sicily on Sunday, over a month after Israel detained and deported people aboard a previous vessel.

The Handala, operated by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, left the port of Syracuse shortly after 12:00 pm (1000 GMT), an AFP journalist saw, carrying about fifteen activists.

Several dozen people, some holding Palestinian flags and others wearing keffiyeh scarves, gathered at the port to cheer the boat's departure with cries of "Free Palestine".

The former Norwegian trawler -- loaded with medical supplies, food, children's equipment and medicine -- will sail for about a week in the Mediterranean, covering roughly 1,800 kilometres (1,120 miles), in the hope of reaching Gaza's coast.

In early March, Israel imposed a total aid blockade on Gaza amid an impasse in truce negotiations, only partially easing restrictions in late May.
The boat will make a stop at Gallipoli, in southeastern Italy, where two members of the hard-left France Unbowed party (LFI) are expected to join.