Gaza Aid Ship Unloads Cargo

A first aid ship playing a new maritime corridor from Cyprus began unloading its cargo of desperately needed food in Gaza as Hamas proposed a new six-week truce in the war.

The Open Arms, towing a barge that the Spanish charity operating it says is loaded with 200 tonnes of food for Gazans threatened with famine after more than five months of war.

"World Central Kitchen is unloading the barge connected now to the jetty," said Linda Roth, a spokesperson for the US charity that is working with Open Arms.

The Hamas-ruled territory's health ministry said Israeli fire had earlier killed 20 people waiting to receive aid. Israel blamed "armed Palestinians" it said had opened fire on civilians.

The ministry said at least 149 people had been killed in the past 24 hours.

Air strikes and fighting in the southern Gaza Strip's main city Khan Yunis as well as areas of the north where humanitarian conditions have been particularly dire.

With tensions soaring over the Gaza war, Israel deployed thousands of police across Jerusalem's Old City.

In southern Gaza's Rafah, the last major population center yet to be subjected to a ground assault but still pounded by Israeli strikes,  footage showed worshippers praying by the rubble of a destroyed mosque.

In negotiations aimed at securing a new truce and hostage deal, Hamas has put forward a new proposal for a six-week ceasefire and the exchange of several dozen Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, an official from the militant group said.

The United Nations has repeatedly warned of looming famine, with only a fraction of the supplies needed to sustain Gaza's 2.4 million people being let in.

Cyprus, the nearest European Union member country to Gaza, has said a second, bigger vessel is being readied for the fledgling maritime air corridor after the Open Arms completes its mission.