The United States on Wednesday conducted multiple B-2 bomber strikes on weapons storage facilities in areas of Yemen controlled by the Iran-backed Huthi rebels, according to the US military and defense department.

The Huthis vowed to retaliate after their Al-Masirah television network reported some 15 strikes at dawn on Thursday local time targeting sites north and south of the capital Sanaa, as well as farther north in Saada governorate, a Huthi stronghold.

Inaction on the water crisis could put more than half of the world's food production at risk by 2050, experts warned in a major report published Thursday.

"Nearly 3 billion people and more than half of the world's food production are now in areas where total water storage is projected to decline," said the report by the Global Commission on the Economics of Water (GCEW).

The report also warned the water crisis could lead to an eight percent drop in GDP on average for high-income countries by 2050 and as much as 15 percent for lower-income countries.

French President Emmanuel Macron has further strained tense relations with Israel with a comment referring to the creation of the Israeli state, a verbal jab that was rapidly denounced by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as distorting history.

Macron has sought to take a more uncompromising stance on the conflicts in the Middle East after Israel launched an offensive against targets of the Shiite militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon, a former French protectorate.

The potholed streets of the Lebanese capital, sometimes plunged into darkness at night due to regular state power outages, were already busy before the displacement crisis sparked by the Israel-Hezbollah war.

Now, with tens of thousands of people having fled to Beirut in their cars and on their motorbikes due to Israeli bombardment, parts of the city and its roads have become overwhelmed.

"Before there were traffic problems" but now "Beirut has become a parking lot," said Jamal Adada, who has worked as a taxi driver for 25 years.

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday urged Israel to ensure the necessary conditions to finish the job of vaccinating Gaza's children against polio, after reaching more than 150,000 with the required second dose.

Despite continuing Israeli military operations in some areas of the Palestinian territory, the second round of a polio vaccination campaign, aiming to reach more than 590,000 children under the age of 10, got under way on Monday.

Israeli delegations taking part in the major defence show Euronaval in France next month will not be permitted to set up a stand or exhibit hardware following a decision by the French government, organisers said Wednesday, prompting outrage from Israel.

The decision comes as tensions are rising between Israel and France following comments by President Emmanuel Macron criticising the civilian casualties in the Israeli campaigns against Shiite militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon and Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian farmers in the occupied West Bank are facing "the most dangerous olive season ever", UN experts said Wednesday, urging Israeli settlers and forces not to interfere with the harvest.

They also recommended a "foreign presence" to act as a buffer between the two sides.

A dozen United Nations experts said farmers were facing intimidation, restriction of access to lands, severe harassment and attacks by armed Israeli settlers and Israeli security forces.

Israel carried out dozens of strikes on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon on Wednesday, killing a city mayor, toppling buildings and causing widespread destruction in several southern areas.

The latest exchanges came as Israel faced increasing international pressure after UN peacekeepers in Lebanon were wounded, as well as over the escalating humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

The Israeli military said its warplanes struck dozens of Hezbollah targets in the southern Lebanese city of Nabatiyeh, where the Iran-backed militant group and its ally Amal hold sway.

Gulf leaders including Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met with EU counterparts in Brussels Wednesday for talks they hoped could help defuse an "extremely dangerous escalation" in the Middle East.

The 27-nation European Union is seeking to work more closely with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) -- Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates -- over conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine.

Iraqi Kurdish seamstress Sanaa will, like many other voters, boycott an election later this month, a signal of growing disillusionment with the political class that has long dominated the autonomous region.

Iraqi Kurdistan is seen as a relative oasis of stability in the turbulent Middle East and has historically been attractive to foreign investors thanks to its close ties to the United States and Europe.