Nearly 29,000 people have been displaced in Lebanon amid deadly exchanges between Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters and Israeli army, a United Nations agency said Friday.

The United States and China agreed Friday to work towards setting up a meeting between the two countries’ leaders next month, after President Joe Biden met Beijing’s top diplomat at the White House.

Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry released a statement yesterday condemning any ground operations by Israeli forces that may threaten the lives of Palestinian civilians.

Kazakhstan said yesterday that 32 people were killed in a fire in yet another deadly accident in a mine owned by ArcelorMittal, with over a dozen still missing, in the Central Asian country’s worst disaster in years.

Israel’s military has told international news organisations Reuters and Agence France Presse that it cannot guarantee the safety of their journalists operating in the Gaza Strip, under Israeli bombardment and siege for almost three weeks.

Gaza was largely cut off from the outside world yesterday as Israel rained more bombs from the air and suggested its long-promised ground offensive in the Palestinian enclave was underway

Israel's army relentlessly hammered Gaza on Saturday after a night of fierce bombardment that rescuers said destroyed hundreds of buildings three weeks into a war sparked by the deadliest attack in the country's history.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday called on Israel to "immediately stop this madness" and end its "attacks" on targets in Gaza after Israeli forces intensified strikes on the Palestinian territory.

Hamas pledged to confront Israeli attacks with "full force" after Israel's military widened its air and ground attacks on the Palestinian enclave, suggesting on Saturday that a long promised ground offensive had begun.

Families of Israeli hostages held by Hamas militants in Gaza on Saturday demanded an immediate government explanation about the fate of the captives after the army intensified strikes on the Palestinian territory

Israeli fighter jets struck 150 "underground targets" in northern Gaza during an intense night of raids, the army said Saturday, three weeks after the deadliest attack in the country's history.

Battles raged in Gaza on Saturday as Israel's army said it expanded ground operations after intensifying its bombardment of the Palestinian territory three weeks after the deadliest attack in the country's history.

Wang's meetings with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US national security advisor Jake Sullivan spanning over two days totaled nine hours, US officials said, describing these interactions as "candid and in-depth".

The body of Robert R. Card, 40, was discovered in the woods near the neighboring town of Lisbon Falls, near where police found his abandoned vehicle shortly after the shooting spree on Wednesday night.

The armed wing of Hamas said late Friday its fighters were battling Israeli forces inside Gaza, after Israel said it would expand its ground operations against the Palestinian militant group in the territory

Drones caused explosions that rocked two Egyptian towns on the Red Sea on Friday, the Egyptian army said, while Israel said Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi movement sent them to strike Israel

The United Nations General Assembly on Friday overwhelmingly called for an immediate humanitarian truce between Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas and demanded aid access to the besieged Gaza Strip and protection of civilians

The Israeli military said Friday it was expanding its ground operations in Gaza as it unleashed one of the fiercest bombardments in three weeks of war with the territory's Hamas rulers

Two US fighter jets struck weapons and ammunition facilities in Syria yesterday in retaliation for attacks on US forces by Iranian-backed militia as concerns grew that the Israel-Hamas conflict may spread in the Middle East.

The United Nations said yesterday it was concerned that war crimes were being committed on both sides in the conflict between Israel and Hamas.