Israel is due to send a delegation to Qatar on Monday for a fresh round of talks on extending a fragile ceasefire in Gaza, after cutting off the electricity supply to ramp up pressure on Hamas.

The first phase of the deal expired at the beginning of March with no agreement on subsequent stages that should secure a lasting end to the war that erupted with Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

Syria's top diplomat and his counterparts from neighboring countries have called for the lifting of Western-led sanctions on Syria and post-war reconciliation.

The foreign ministers of Turkey, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon made their remarks alongside Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shibani following a meeting in the Jordanian capital Amman.

Syria's Druze minority has a long history of cutting their own path to survive among the country's powerhouses. They are now trying again to navigate a new, uncertain Syria since the fall of longtime autocrat Bashar Assad.

Members of the small religious sect find themselves caught between two forces that many of them distrust: the new, Islamist-led government in Damascus and Syria's hostile neighbor, Israel, which has used the plight of the Druze as a pretext to intervene in the country.

The death toll from two days of clashes between Syrian security forces and loyalists of ousted President Bashar Assad and revenge killings that followed has risen to more than 1,000, a war monitoring group said Saturday, making it one of the deadliest acts of violence since Syria's conflict began 14 years ago.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in addition to 745 civilians killed, mostly in shootings from close distance, 125 government security force members and 148 militants with armed groups affiliated with Assad were killed. It added that electricity and drinking water were cut off in large areas around the city of Latakia.

Hamas accused Israel of "cheap and unacceptable blackmail" over its decision on Sunday to halt the electricity supply to war-ravaged Gaza in an effort to pressure the Palestinian militants into releasing hostages.

"We strongly condemn the occupation's decision to cut off electricity to Gaza, after depriving it of food, medicine, and water," Izzat al-Rishq, a member of Hamas's political bureau said in a statement, adding it was "a desperate attempt to pressure our people and their resistance through cheap and unacceptable blackmail tactics."

Iran's foreign ministry on Monday rejected media reports accusing the country of involvement in the latest violence in Syria, which has left hundreds killed.

"This accusation is completely ridiculous and rejected, and we think that pointing the finger of accusation at Iran and Iran's friends is wrongly addressed, a deviant trend, and a hundred percent misleading," said foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei in a weekly press briefing.

A Syrian war monitor said Monday that security forces and allied groups had killed 973 civilians in a series of "massacres" in coastal areas and in the Latakia Mountains since March 6.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said "the total number of civilian martyrs who were liquidated amounted to 973, including women and children", adding the "killings, field executions and ethnic cleansing operations" were ongoing in the wake of deadly clashes between security forces and Alawite gunmen loyal to toppled president Bashar al-Assad.

Israel on Sunday prepared to send a delegation to Doha for further talks on the Gaza truce, as Hamas called for an immediate start to negotiations on the ceasefire's second phase, which it hopes will lead to a permanent end to the war.

France has condemned violence in Syria targeting "civilians because of their faith, and prisoners", as a war monitor said more than 500 Alawites have been killed in recent days.

A French foreign ministry statement called on Syria's new authorities "to ensure that independent investigations can shed light on these crimes, and that the perpetrators are sentenced".

The leaders of Syria's three main Christian churches have issued a joint statement condemning "massacres targeting innocent civilians", following reports of mass killings of Alawite civilians by the security forces.