The Hamas-run Gaza Strip health ministry has claimed Israeli military struck a refugee camp on Saturday night, killing at least 38 people, while calls by the Arab world for a ceasefire were rejected by the United States and Israel. 

With the death toll in Gaza mounting, pro-Palestinian demonstrators staged protests in cities around the world on Saturday, calling for an end to the nearly month-old conflict. 

Gaza health officials said on Saturday more than 9,488 Palestinians have been killed in the conflict, which began when Hamas fighters launched a surprise attack on southern Israel on October 7, killing 1,400 people and taking more than 240 others hostage. 

Israel continued to strike the Gaza Strip by air, sea, and ground overnight. Gaza health officials said Israeli air strikes destroyed a cluster of houses in the Maghazi refugee camp. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Israel says it is targeting Hamas, not civilians, and that the Palestinian group is using residents as human shields. The Palestinian Red Crescent said there was also intense bombardment, violent artillery explosions, and air strikes in the vicinity of the Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza's Tal Al-Hawa area. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday rejected growing calls for a ceasefire in Gaza until all of the more than 240 hostages captured by militant Palestinian group Hamas are returned. "There will be no ceasefire without the return of the hostages. This should be completely removed from the lexicon," he said.

Efforts were under way on Sunday to resume evacuations of injured Gazans and foreign nationals through the Rafah crossing to Egypt, suspended since Saturday after a deadly attack on an ambulance, Egyptian, U.S. and Qatari officials said.

Blinken visits West Bank 

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah on Sunday despite the stop-off not being announced in the initial itinerary for his diplomatic tour. 

Blinken said the Palestinian Authority (PA) should play a central role in the future of the Gaza strip, a U.S. official said after a visit to the occupied West Bank on Sunday, as Blinken tours the region amid spiraling tensions over Israel's conflict with Hamas.

Blinken passed through Israeli checkpoints to meet PA President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah on his second visit to the region since Palestinian Hamas fighters launched a surprise attack on southern Israel on October 7.

He is trying to kickstart discussions on how Gaza could be governed after the complete destruction of Hamas that Israel says is its aim. Blinken told Abbas Washington believes the PA "should play a central role in what comes next in Gaza," said a senior State Department official, who added the future of Gaza was not the focus of the meeting but that PA officials appeared willing to play a role.

More than 300 Americans and their family members have left Gaza but U.S. citizens remain in the besieged enclave and difficult negotiations continue on securing the release of hostages taken by Hamas, a White House official said on Sunday.

Those released included U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents and their family members, Jonathan Finer, deputy national security adviser, said.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators staged protests on Saturday in cities including London, Berlin, Paris, Istanbul, Jakarta and Washington, calling for a ceasefire. Tens of thousands gathered in Washington to denounce President Joe Biden's policy on Gaza and demand a ceasefire. 

In Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi told tens of thousands gathered in Jakarta on Sunday that the government reaffirmed its support for the struggle of the Palestinian people and would send a second shipment of aid. 

'A serious problem that has only worsened' 

Worsening violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank has fuelled concerns that the flashpoint Palestinian territory could become a third front in a wider escalation, in addition to Israel's northern border, where clashes with Lebanese Hezbollah forces have mounted. 

In Abu Dis, a Palestinian village near Jerusalem, Israeli police conducting an arrest raid were fired on by a gunman and killed him, a police spokesperson said. 

The Palestinian health ministry said three Palestinians were killed in the incident. Another Palestinian was killed by Israeli troops in the West Bank city of Hebron, the ministry said. The Israeli military did not immediately comment. 

"This has been a serious problem that's only worsened since the conflict," Blinken said, adding that he raised it on Friday in his meetings with Israeli officials. "Perpetrators must be held accountable." 

This year had already been the deadliest for West Bank residents in at least 15 years, with some 200 Palestinians and 26 Israelis killed, according to UN data. Since the conflict in Gaza began, 121 West Bank Palestinians have been killed.

Palestinian telecommunications company Paltel said on Sunday that all communications and internet services have been cut again within the Gaza Strip.

"The main routes that were previously reconnected (were) cut off again from the Israeli side," it said.

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Israeli minister suspended 

An Israeli minister was suspended from government meetings "until further notice" on Sunday, Netanyahu's office said, after suggesting in an interview dropping a nuclear bomb on Gaza. 

Heritage Minister Amichay Eliyahu, an ultranationalist politician and part of Netanyahu's ruling coalition, told Israel's Kol Barama radio he was not entirely satisfied with the scale of Israel's retaliation in the Palestinian territory after Hamas fighters carried out a deadly attack on October 7 inside southern Israel. 

When the interviewer asked whether the Israeli minister advocated dropping "some kind of atomic bomb" on the Gaza Strip "to kill everyone," Eliyahu replied: "That's one option". 

Netanyahu's office quickly responded to the minister's remarks, issuing a statement in which it described them as "disconnected from reality," adding that Israel was trying to spare "non-combatants" in Gaza.  

Following the outcry over his remarks Eliyahu later said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that his statement about the atomic bomb was "metaphorical." 

Zelenskyy: 'Focus is now not on Ukraine' 

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has insisted the escalation in Gaza is "taking away the focus" away from his own ailing nation's conflict with Russia. 

Zelenskyy insisted this was "one of the goals" of neighboring Russia, whose conflict with Ukraine began in February 2022. The Ukrainian leader also denied that fighting in the country had reached a stalemate. 

Speaking at Saturday's briefing in Kyiv with visiting European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Zelenskyy said: "It's clear that the war in the Middle-East is taking away the focus" from Ukraine. He added: "Everyone is getting tired and there are different opinions. But this is not a stalemate."

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