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.

The government of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has denounced Israeli strikes on southern Gaza, urging the world not to "remain silent in the face of this endless massacre."

"The most recent bombing in the Gaza Strip, which claimed the lives of hundreds of innocent people, is unacceptable," read a statement from the presidency.

Israel hammered the Gaza Strip from the air, sea and land Monday as the war in the Palestinian territory showed no sign of abating, with Hamas saying it was pulling out of truce talks.

Shells rained down on the neighborhoods of Tal Al-Hawa, Sheikh Ajlin and Al-Sabra in Gaza City, AFP correspondents reported, while eyewitnesses said the Israeli army had shelled the Al-Mughraqa area and the northern outskirts of the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.

A suspected attack by Yemen's Houthi rebels targeted a ship in the Red Sea on Monday, as a new U.S. aircraft carrier approached the region to provide security for the key international trade route that has been under assault since the Israel-Hamas war erupted nine months ago.

The captain of the ship reported being attacked by three small vessels, two of which were crewed and another uncrewed, off the coast of Al Hudaydah, Yemen, the British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said.

Syrians were voting for members of a new parliament in an election Monday that was expected to hold few surprises but could pave the way for a constitutional amendment to extend the term of President Bashar Assad.

The vote is the fourth in Syria since mass anti-government protests and a brutal crackdown by security forces spiraled into an ongoing civil war in 2011.

Hamas said that Gaza cease-fire talks were ongoing and the group's military commander was in good health, a day after the Israeli military targeted Mohammed Deif with a massive airstrike that local health officials said killed at least 90 people, including children.

Deif's condition was still unclear after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday night "there still isn't absolute certainty" he was killed. Army chief Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi told journalists Israel attacked a compound where Deif "was hiding" but added: "It's still too early to summarize the results of the attack, which Hamas is trying to hide."

The new British foreign secretary has called for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza during a visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories, his second international trip since Labour's resounding victory in elections earlier this month.

David Lammy said Sunday the ongoing war in Gaza is "intolerable" and stressed in meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leadership that Britain wants to assist with diplomatic efforts "securing a cease-fire deal and creating the space for a credible and irreversible pathway towards a two-state solution."