At least 13 Palestinians were killed in deadly Israel strikes in Gaza Tuesday as the Muslims marked Eid al-Adha.
The deaths came despite an Israeli announcement at the weekend of a daily "pause" of military activity to facilitate aid flows coincided with the Islamic holiday.
In central Gaza, witnesses reported gunfire and artillery shelling near the Nuseirat refugee camp, where the civil defense agency said at least 13 people died in two separate strikes on a family home and a commercial building.
Witnesses and the Hamas government media office said there were some strikes and fighting elsewhere in northern and central Gaza.
An Agence France-Presse (AFP) correspondent reported Israeli strikes near Gaza City, though the intensity had decreased recently.
In Rafah, where the Israeli military has said it would pause fighting along a key route in the city's east, witnesses saw Israeli military vehicles and reported shelling in other areas.
The war was triggered by the Oct. 7 Hamas incursion that caused the death of nearly 1,200 people and seized more than 250 as hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel's genocidal war on Gaza, in comparison, has killed more than 37,347 Palestinians, the Gaza Health Ministry said, and reduced most of the narrow, coastal enclave to wasteland, with malnutrition widespread.
The United Nations said that aid access to Gaza has been severely hindered by factors including insecurity, the closing of crossing points to the territory and Israeli procedural delays.
The vital Rafah crossing with Egypt has been shut since Israeli forces seized its Palestinian side in early May.
"The idea behind the tactical pause in general is to allow for the U.N. to collect and distribute more aid," said Shimon Freedman, spokesman for COGAT, the Israeli Defense Ministry body overseeing Palestinian civilian affairs, at Kerem Shalom crossing near Rafah.
Displaced Palestinian Ali Hassan, sheltering in a tent in central Gaza's Deir al-Balah, told AFP that "Eid al-Adha this year is not like previous holidays."
"There is no meat or sacrificial animals, we don't even have clothes for the children," he said.
In Jerusalem on Monday, thousands of Israelis protested against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government over its failure to negotiate the release of scores of hostages held in the Palestinian territory since the Oct. 7 incursion.
Demonstrators rallied outside the parliament and near Netanyahu's residence, demanding early elections and chanting "All of them! Now!" calling for the hostages' release, as U.S., Qatari and Egyptian mediation efforts toward a truce deal have stalled for months.
"We need to shut down the country in order to make the government fall," said Yaacov Godo, whose son Tom was killed during the incursion, at the start of what activists describe as a week of anti-government action across the country.
The war should have stopped "a long time ago," and the return of the captives would "end this story," Godo said.
Israeli media said another rally was planned in front of the parliament building late Tuesday.
Meanwhile, in a message for Eid al-Adha, U.S. President Joe Biden has called for the implementation of a cease-fire plan he outlined last month, saying it was "the best way to end the violence."
Biden's proposal, which he has described as Israeli, would bring an initial six-week pause to fighting and Hamas would free hostages in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
An Israeli negotiator told AFP that tens of hostages "are alive with certainty," stressing that Israel could not commit to ending the war until all the captives were released.
The Israeli official, requesting anonymity to discuss the negotiations, said Israel had approved Biden's plan though Netanyahu has not endorsed it publicly.
Hamas has insisted on the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces and a permanent cease-fire. Netanyahu's far-right coalition partners strongly oppose a cease-fire.
