No ceasefire, fuel to Gaza until hostages freed, says Netanyahu

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday there will be no fuel delivered to the Gaza Strip and no ceasefire in Israel's fighting with Hamas unless hostages seized by the Palestinian militants are freed.

In a televised statement marking the first month of Israel's war with Hamas he said there would be "no entry of gasoline... no ceasefire without the release of our hostages".

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Monday that Israel will take control of "overall security" of besieged Gaza after the war, as the Hamas-run health ministry said the death toll has surged past 10,000.

The Palestinian militant group also took more than 240 people hostage, including children and elderly people, in an attack that prompted Israel's intensifying ground offensive.

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One month since the war began, the Hamas-run health ministry said the death toll in Gaza had surpassed 10,000 people -- more than 4,000 of them children.

With international criticism of Israel's conduct of the war mounting, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Gaza was becoming a "graveyard for children".

More than 1.5 million people in densely packed Gaza have fled their homes for other parts of the territory in a desperate search for cover, with critical aid only trickling in.