UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday described Gaza as “hell on earth” for children, appealing to Israel for rapid and unhindered aid access and telling the 193-member General Assembly he would launch an appeal for humanitarian funding.

Israeli fighter jets continued to pound the Gaza Strip on Thursday, killing at least one Palestinian and wounding several more as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defied calls for a de-escalation.

A senior Hamas official predicted a ceasefire within days after U.S. President Joe Biden urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to seek a “de-escalation”.

Israel today said it was not setting a timeframe for an end to hostilities with Gaza as its military pounded the Palestinian enclave with air strikes and Hamas unleashed new cross-border rocket attacks.

Suzy Ishkontana hardly speaks or eats. It's been two days since the 7-year-old girl was pulled from the rubble of what was once her family's home, destroyed amid a barrage of Israeli airstrikes. She spent hours buried in the wreckage as her siblings and mother died around her.

The 110 migrants from different countries, including 10 Bangladeshis, who were abducted in Libya for ransom, have been rescued from a remote town in the country.

More than 52,000 Palestinians have been displaced by Israeli air strikes that have destroyed or badly damaged nearly 450 buildings in the Gaza Strip, the UN aid agency said on Tuesday.

Dozens of air strikes pounded Gaza today even as US President Joe Biden expressed support for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in a phone call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, reports Al Jazeera.

Rockets fired by Palestinians against Israel are part of a “resistance” which is supported by international law, a group of writers and artistes led by Arundhati Roy and Nayantara Sahgal has declared, The Hindu said on Monday.

President Joe Biden and aides worked behind the scenes on Monday pressing for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas amid what one source said was frustration over Israel's bombing of a Gaza building that housed some news organisations.

Gruesome scenes of blood-soaked men, women, children; homes destroyed, evacuated; faces with fear, grief, revolt; missiles raining down on debris -- these overwhelming pictures and videos have once again stirred up the humanity. But for millions of Palestinians, this has always been the only reality they know. As of May 17, at least 192 people, including 58 children and 34 women in Gaza have died in the recently escalated conflict.

The recent escalation of violence with the Palestinians, which has stoked nationalist passions, has made it more difficult for opposition parties in Israel to come together and form a coalition government against Benjamin Netanyahu, reports the American international relations magazine Foreign Policy.

Saudi Arabia plans to soon reopen to foreign tourists, a senior tourism official said on Monday after the kingdom announced the lifting of quarantine restrictions for certain foreign arrivals.

India has condemned “indiscriminate rocket firings from Gaza targeting the civilian population in Israel and the retaliatory strikes into Gaza” and called for immediate de-escalation of tensions in the region.

The Associated Press's top editor wants an independent investigation into Israel's bombing of a building in Gaza that was home to her news organisation as well as broadcaster Al Jazeera.

Bangladesh has urged the UN Security Council to take up the issue of violence and breach of security in the occupied land of Palestine and work for a durable solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City flattened three buildings and killed at least 42 people Sunday, medics said, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signaled the fighting between Israel and Palestinians in Gaza would continue despite international efforts to broker a cease fire.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has called on the UN Security Council to seek an early de-escalation of violence between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers. He also blamed the US for the council's lack of action so far.

US President Joe Biden urged calm between Israel and Gaza on Saturday and affirmed his support for a two-state solution in his first phone call with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas since taking office, the official Palestinian news agency said.

An Israeli air raid on a densely populated refugee camp in Gaza City killed at least 10 Palestinians from an extended family, mostly children, early Saturday in the deadliest single strike of the current battle with Gaza’s Hamas rulers.