EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said Thursday that "the bloodshed in Gaza must stop now", adding that too many civilians in the Palestinian territory "have lost their lives as a result of Israel's response to Hamas brutal terror".

"The people of Gaza cannot bear any more, and humanity cannot bear any more," she told the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France. "We need an immediate and enduring ceasefire. We need the release of Israeli hostages, and we need to prepare for the day after."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to step up pressure on Hamas in war-torn Gaza, after the United States criticized the high civilian death toll in recent attacks.

Netanyahu, in remarks during a state commemorative event, defended Israel's approach during the more than nine-month war, saying "Hamas is under pressure."

Authorities in Hamas-run Gaza said dozens of Palestinians were killed Tuesday in three separate strikes, as Israel pounded the territory despite renewed U.S. criticism of the high civilian toll.

Israel's deadly strike on Al-Mawasi, one of the bloodiest attacks in more than nine months of war in Gaza, used massive payload bombs provided by the United States, according to weapons experts.

The bombing of the Israeli-declared "safe zone" transformed the tent city on the Mediterranean coast into a charred wasteland, with nearby hospitals overrun with casualties.

Israeli police said officers shot and killed a Palestinian after he stabbed a police officer Tuesday in the occupied West Bank.

Police said the officer was lightly wounded in the attack and identified the Palestinian as a 19-year-old from the Gaza Strip. It wasn’t immediately clear what he was doing in the West Bank.

Under American pressure, Israel has pledged to deliver large quantities of humanitarian aid into the war-ravaged Gaza Strip. But at the same time, the U.S. and Israel have allowed tax-deductible donations to far-right groups that have blocked that aid from being delivered.

Three groups that have prevented humanitarian aid from reaching Gaza — including one accused of looting or destroying supplies — have raised more than $200,000 from donors in the U.S. and Israel, The Associated Press and the Israeli investigative site Shomrim have found in an examination of crowdfunding websites and other public records.

Israeli strikes in the central Gaza Strip overnight into Tuesday killed 24 people, including women and children, according to hospital records, in deadly violence that continues to rage as Israel and Hamas weigh the latest cease-fire proposal.

The deaths in Nuseirat and Zawaida, which included 10 women and four children, came days after Hamas said cease-fire talks meant to wind down the nine-month-long war would continue even after Israel targeted the militant group's top military commander, Mohammed Deif, whose fate remained unclear. Israel says another senior Hamas militant was killed in that strike which, according to local officials, killed 90 Palestinians, including children.

Four people were killed and multiple others wounded in a shooting near a Shiite mosque in the Omani capital Muscat, police said Tuesday, a rare attack in the otherwise stable Gulf sultanate.

Shiites make up a small minority of Oman's overwhelmingly Muslim population. Most Omanis follow the Sunni or Ibadi branches of the faith.

An Israeli drone strike on a car Monday near the Lebanon-Syria border killed a prominent Syrian businessman who had been sanctioned by the United States and was close to the government of Syria's President Bashar Assad, pro-government media and other allied officials said.

Mohammed Baraa Katerji was killed instantly in his SUV on the highway linking Lebanon with Syria, according to an official from an Iran-backed group. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

An Israeli air strike has killed a Hezbollah fighter and his sister in south Lebanon, the National News Agency (NNA) and the group said.

Later, Hezbollah said it fired rockets at northern Israel in response.