Hamas said Monday it had accepted a new ceasefire proposal by US envoy Steve Witkoff, presented by mediators, but a spokesman for Witkoff later denied the Palestinian group had accepted.

The outline of the new potential deal was revealed as Israel ramped up its offensive in the Palestinian territory, and follows previous rounds of talks that have failed to reach a breakthrough.

Paris, France -- Under five percent of Gaza's farmland is useable due to war, further exacerbating the risk of famine in the devastated Palestinian territory, the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization said Monday. Israel has stepped up a renewed offensive to destroy Hamas in Gaza, drawing international condemnation as...

The Israeli military has stepped up its Gaza offensive in recent days in what it has described as a renewed push to destroy Hamas.

"For nearly 80 days, Israel blocked the entry of life-saving international aid," Guterres said. "The entire population of Gaza is facing the risk of famine.

Elias Rodriguez faces murder and other charges after allegedly gunning down two Israeli embassy staffers outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington.

Cannes, France - Director Nadav Lapid said his new film "Yes" about a musician asked to re-write the Israeli national anthem is a response to his country's "blindness" to suffering in Gaza. Lapid has previously dissected his country's ills in "Synonyms", which won the Golden Bear in Berlin in 2019,...

Their solidarity came to the fore on Wednesday, when Austria and Germany broke ranks with European Union peers to argue against a review ordered by Brussels of an EU-Israel cooperation deal.

Gaza's civil defence agency said that more than 20 air strikes hit Khan Yunis and its surroundings overnight, with the targets including encampments for Palestinians displaced by the war, now in its 20th month.

Israel has again warned the population of Gaza -- nearly entirely displaced since the war broke out over the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas -- to move ahead of a new offensive, which comes after it has blockaded food and supplies for more than two months.

After more than two months of a total blockade, the World Health Organization issued a stark warning on the humanitarian crisis in the besieged Gaza Strip, saying "two million people are starving".

The announcement came hours after the military said it had begun "extensive ground operations" in a newly intensified campaign in Gaza, and as Israel and Hamas engaged in indirect talks on a deal to potentially halt the fighting.

Since a two-month ceasefire collapsed in March as Israel resumed its offensive, negotiations mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States have failed to reach a breakthrough.

Arab leaders meeting Saturday at a summit in Baghdad urged the international community to press for a Gaza ceasefire, as Israel launched an expanded military offensive in the Palestinian territory.

The Arab League is meeting in Baghdad on Saturday to discuss Gaza and other regional crises, but some key leaders are expected to miss the talks that come straight after US President Donald Trump's Gulf tour.

The operation is part of "the expansion of the battle in the Gaza Strip, with the goal of achieving all the war's objectives, including the release of the abducted and the defeat of Hamas", Israel's army said in a statement in Arabic on Telegram.

Aid to Gaza has been cut off since March 2, a tactic Israel has said is intended to force concessions from Hamas, but the group insisted on Thursday that the restoration of humanitarian assistance to the war-ravaged territory was "the minimum requirement" for talks.

Palestinian rescuers reported more than 100 people killed Thursday in Israeli strikes on blockaded Gaza, where a US-backed organisation said it intends to begin distributing aid by the end of the month.

Gaza rescuers said at least 80 people were killed in Israeli bombardment across the Palestinian territory on Wednesday, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with US envoy Steve Witkoff about the release of hostages.

Ramallah, Palestinian Territories - Al Jazeera's Ramallah bureau chief said on Monday the news channel could resume working in the Palestinian territories after president Mahmud Abbas lifted a ban in place since January. "Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has decided to lift the ban on the Al Jazeera network and allow...

Israel's military said it struck a Gaza hospital housing militants, in a raid on Tuesday that, according to Hamas, killed a journalist being treated after an Israeli attack last month.

Cannes, France - More than 350 figures from the cinema world including Hollywood stars Richard Gere and Susan Sarandon condemned "genocide" in Gaza in an open letter published Monday on the eve of the Cannes Festival. "We cannot remain silent while genocide is taking place in Gaza," read the letter...

Ramallah, Palestinian Territories - An Israeli rights group denounced Monday a government decision to launch extensive land registration for parts of the occupied West Bank, saying it could help advance annexation of the Palestinian territory. "It is a tool for annexation," said Yonatan Mizrachi of the Settlement Watch project at...

In a joint statement Egypt and Qatar, who along with the US have mediated talks between Hamas and Israel, also welcomed the development as a "a gesture of goodwill and an encouraging step toward a return to the negotiating table".

The hospital was established in 2006 to treat victims of the sectarian violence that erupted in Iraq in the aftermath of the US-led invasion, but has since expanded its mission.

Hamas's armed wing released a video on Saturday showing two Israeli hostages alive in the Gaza Strip, with one of the two men calling to end the 19-month-long war.

Israel has imposed a blockade for two months on Gaza, leading UN agencies and other humanitarian groups to warn of dwindling supplies of everything from fuel to medicine to the territory of 2.4 million Palestinians.

Paris, France - Yemen's Iran-backed Huthi rebels have emerged bruised but defiant from a blistering US bombing campaign, cementing their role as one of the Middle East's most powerful non-state actors after a truce with Washington. US President Donald Trump said the rebels had "capitulated" after the intense, seven-week campaign...

Gaza City, Palestinian Territories - First responders in Gaza said Thursday that their operations were at a near standstill, more than two months into a full Israeli blockade that has left food and fuel in severe shortage. Israel denies a humanitarian crisis is unfolding in the Gaza Strip, where it...

Israel drew international condemnation over its plans for an expanded Gaza offensive, as the country's far-right finance minister called Tuesday for the Palestinian territory to be "destroyed".

Hamas on Tuesday dismissed as pointless ceasefire talks with Israel, accusing it of waging a "hunger war" on Gaza, where famine looms, as the Israeli military prepared for a broader assault.

The armed wing of Hamas, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, released a video Saturday showing an Israeli-Russian hostage who appeared to have been injured in a strike on the Palestinian territory.

"We are breaking the bodies and the minds of the children of Gaza. We are starving the children of Gaza, because if we don't do something about it we are complicit in what is happening," WHO emergencies director Mike Ryan told reporters in Geneva.

He renewed calls for an immediate and lasting ceasefire, the unconditional release of all hostages, and full humanitarian access. He also underscored the need to uphold international law, protect UN personnel and facilities, and ensure accountability for attacks on aid workers.

"As the complete blockade of assistance essential for survival enters its ninth week, there must be concerted international efforts to stop this humanitarian catastrophe from reaching a new, unseen level," Volker Turk said in a statement. Israel strictly controls all inflows of international aid vital for the 2.4 million Palestinians...

Paris, France - Amnesty International on Tuesday accused Israel of committing a "live-streamed genocide" against Palestinians in Gaza by forcibly displacing most of the population and deliberately creating a humanitarian catastrophe. In its annual report, Amnesty charged that Israel had acted with "specific intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza, thus...

The meeting comes at a critical moment for the world economy after the International Monetary Fund this week slashed growth forecasts over the impact of the American leader's sweeping new tariffs. Foreign ministers from the 10-member trading bloc -- which includes current-chair Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa --...

After 18 months of war, the situation in Gaza "is probably the worst" now, the United Nations' humanitarian agency OCHA said on Tuesday. WFP, one of the main providers of food assistance in Gaza, said it had "delivered its last remaining food stocks to hot meals kitchens in the Gaza...

"Saudi Arabia will go into the Abraham accords," Trump said, referencing the historic agreement struck at the end of his first term in 2020, which saw United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco normalize relations with Israel.

"To all of the civilians of the Gaza Strip staying in the areas of Beit Hanoun and Sheikh Zayed. This is a preliminary and a final warning... move west immediately toward Gaza City," the military's Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee said on X.

Paris, France - The Cannes film festival said Wednesday that the screening of a documentary about Gaza photojournalist Fatima Hassouna at the event next month would honour her work after the "horror" of her death in an Israeli air strike last week. "Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk"...

Germany, France and Britain on Wednesday called on Israel to stop blocking humanitarian aid into Gaza, warning of "an acute risk of starvation, epidemic disease and death".

The new US ambassador to Israel on Monday called on Palestinian militant group Hamas to accept a deal that would secure the release of hostages, in exchange for the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza.

Jenin, Palestinian Territories - On deserted university grounds in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian children run outside nearly empty buildings, their playground after being driven from their homes by a major Israeli "counter-terrorism" operation. Between a stadium and flower fields where goats now graze, the children play to escape boredom....

Gaza City, Palestinian Territories -- Gaza's civil defense agency reported that Israeli air strikes since dawn on Sunday have killed at least 25 people across the Gaza Strip, including women and children. Israel resumed its aerial and ground assault on Gaza on March 18, reigniting fighting after a two-month ceasefire...

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia -- The United States slashing foreign aid risks piling pressure on already acute humanitarian crises across the globe, a World Health Organization official said Sunday, also warning against withdrawing from the UN agency. Since taking office in January, President Donald Trump has effectively frozen foreign aid funding,...

Gaza's civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal said early Friday that crews had "recovered the bodies of 10 martyrs and a large number of wounded from the house of the Baraka family and the neighboring houses" following Israeli strikes east of Khan Yunis in Gaza's south.

Jerusalem, Undefined -- By seizing large swathes of the Gaza Strip, Israel is redrawing the map of the Palestinian territory, one of the most densely populated places on Earth, making it increasingly "unlivable". On Wednesday, Defence Minister Israel Katz said the military has transformed vast areas representing 30 percent of...

Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal said two Israeli missiles hit several tents in the Al-Mawasi area of the southern city of Khan Yunis, resulting in at least 16 deaths, "most of them women and children, and 23 others were wounded". After Israel declared Al-Mawasi a safe zone in December 2023,...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered security chiefs and negotiators to keep pressing for the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, where Israel resumed air and ground attacks on March 18, ending a two-month ceasefire.