The Gaza war between Israel and Hamas is a “powder keg” with the potential to spark broader conflict in the Middle East, UN human rights chief Volker Turk said yesterday.

Iran yesterday announced a turnout of 41 percent in last week’s elections for parliament and a key clerical body -- a record low since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, according to voting records.

Mediators in Cairo yesterday made a renewed push for a Gaza ceasefire, but differences remained as fighting raged on in the Palestinian territory gripped by desperate food shortages.

Turnout for Iran’s parliamentary election, seen as a test of the clerical establishment’s legitimacy, appears to have hit a historic low of around 40 percent, according to unofficial reports in Iranian media yesterday. Heavyweight moderates and conservatives stayed away from Friday’s election and reformists called it unfree and unfair as it was mainly a contest between hardliners and low-key conservatives loyal to Islamic revolutionary ideals.

World leaders yesterday called for an investigation and a ceasefire nearly five months into the Gaza war, a day after dozens of desperate Palestinians were killed rushing an aid convoy.

Israeli forces shot dead 104 people when a crowd rushed towards aid trucks yesterday, the health ministry in Gaza said, in one of the worst single incidents of a nearly five-month war. 

Iran announced yesterday the launch of a remote sensing and imaging satellite into orbit from Russia, according to state media.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki said yesterday he did not expect “miracles” at talks in Moscow to discuss the formation of a unified Palestinian government and the rebuilding of Gaza.

After surviving on bitter loaves made from animal feed instead of proper flour, three young brothers who fled their home in Gaza City for a tent further south were tucking into a tub of halawa, a sweet crumbly paste.

Israel and Hamas, as well as Qatari mediators, all sounded notes of caution yesterday about progress towards a truce in Gaza, after US President Joe Biden said he believed a ceasefire could be reached in under a week to halt the war for Ramadan.

Israel said yesterday its army had readied a plan to evacuate Gazans ahead of a feared invasion of far-southern Rafah, which the UN chief warned would “put the final nail in the coffin” of aid operations.

Israel struck Hezbollah targets near the city of Baalbek yesterday, killing two group members, security sources said, the first such attack on Lebanon’s east since hostilities began after the Gaza invasion.

Dozens of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have been killed in the latest Israeli strikes, the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry said yesterday, after Israel’s spy chief joined talks in Paris seeking to unblock negotiations on a truce.

At the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, Abu Gibril was so desperate for food to feed his family that he slaughtered two of his horses.

Iran denied on Friday that it had provided ballistic missiles to Russia, after the United States said there would be a severe international response to any such move.

Saudi Arabia has issued a warning to visitors and residents not to participate in the upcoming Hajj in 2024 without the required permits

Israeli air strikes targeted homes in the southern Gaza Strip, witnesses said yesterday, adding to what aid groups describe as an increasingly hopeless humanitarian situation despite efforts towards new truce talks.

Israeli bombs on Rafah flattened a mosque and destroyed homes in what residents called one of their worst nights yet, while the Hamas chief was in Cairo for talks Gazans hope could bring a truce in time to head off a full-blown assault on the city.

Yemen’s Houthis yesterday sent shippers and insurers formal notice of what they termed a ban on vessels linked to Israel, the US and Britain from sailing in surrounding seas, seeking to reinforce their military campaign in support of Palestinians.

Iran said yesterday that Israel was behind twin sabotage attacks against gas pipelines that disrupted supplies in at least three provinces last week.