Qatar's prime minister on Tuesday rejected criticism of the wealthy Gulf country's offer to U.S. President Trump of a $400 million luxury aircraft to serve as a new Air Force One.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani defended the gift as "an exchange between two countries", adding that he viewed the issue as a "normal thing that happens between allies".

EU countries on Tuesday gave a green light to lifting all economic sanctions on Syria in a bid to help the war-torn country recover after the ouster of Bashar al-Assad, diplomats said.

Ambassadors from the EU's 27 member states struck a preliminary agreement for the move, which should be formally unveiled by foreign ministers meeting in Brussels later in the day, diplomats said.

A 28-year-old man was remanded in custody in Denmark on Monday on suspicions of purchasing drones to be used in a Hamas "terrorist attack", Danish intelligence said Monday.

Qatar's prime minister on Tuesday said Israel's military offensive in Gaza had undermined peace efforts after the release of U.S.-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander and amid expanded operations in the Palestinian territory.

"When Israeli American soldier Aidan Alexander was released, we thought that moment would open a door to end this tragedy, but the response was a more violent wave of strikes," said Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani.

Palestinians in Gaza say Israeli forces disguised as civilians and under heavy air cover shot and killed a man and detained his wife and child in a raid Monday on a house in the enclave's south.

The Israeli forces drove a civilian vehicle and raided the home in the city of Khan Younis as airstrikes pounded the surrounding area, residents said.

A senior Hamas official said Israel insists on a partial deal to release some hostages without committing to ending the war.

Hamas will only release the remaining hostages in return for more Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. The official was not authorized to brief media and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Israel has said it would allow a limited amount of humanitarian aid into Gaza even as its “extensive” new ground operations are underway there. But despite the announcement, no aid had gone in by mid-afternoon Monday.

Aid trucks that were briefly parked on the Israeli side of a border crossing turned back and drove off into Israel. The developments come after a nearly three-month blockade and warnings by global experts of impeding famine.

Gaza's civil defense agency said Israeli attacks on Monday killed at least 52 people, as the military pressed a newly intensified campaign in the war-ravaged territory.

"The Israeli bombardment on Gaza has continued since midnight and throughout the early morning hours, resulting in 52 martyrs," civil defense spokesman Mahmoud Bassal told AFP, adding that the bombing was ongoing in the afternoon and that Israeli forces had "expanded their ground operation".

The head of the World Health Organization said Monday that two million people were starving in the Gaza Strip while tons of food was being blocked at the border.

"Two million people are starving" while "tons of food is blocked at the border, just minutes away," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told opening of the World Health Assembly in Geneva, adding: "The risk of famine in Gaza is increasing with the deliberate withholding of humanitarian aid."

Israeli forces will "take control of all" of the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday, as his military pressed a newly expanded offensive in the territory.

"The fighting is intense and we are making progress. We will take control of all the territory of the Strip," he said in a video posted to his Telegram channel. "We will not give up. But in order to succeed, we must act in a way that cannot be stopped."