Ministers from Muslim and European countries along with the European Union's foreign affairs chief gathered Friday in Madrid to discuss how to advance a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"Together, we want to identify the concrete actions that will enable us to make progress towards this objective," Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez wrote on social network X.

"The international community must take a decisive step towards a just and lasting peace in the Middle East," the Socialist premier added.

Four people were killed and eight injured when a vehicle exploded in the central Israeli city of Ramla on Thursday in an apparent gangland hit, medics and police said.

Liad Aviel, spokesman for the Asaf Harofe Medical Center in central Israel, said it "mourns the deaths of four individuals injured in the Ramla incident", adding that six other casualties were receiving treatment there.

Israel's war against Hamas has decimated Gaza's economy, shrinking it to less than one-sixth of its 2022 level, amid an "alarming decline" in the West Bank, the UN said Thursday.

Since the war erupted in the Gaza Strip more than 11 months ago, the United Nations said economic devastation has taken place at a "staggering scale".

Masoud Pezeshkian arrived in Iraqi Kurdistan Thursday on a visit hailed by the regional president as the first by an Iranian president to the autonomous region.

Pezeshkian's visit to Iraq is his first trip abroad since he took office in July.

The Kurdistan leg is the latest sign of warming relations between Iran and the Kurds after years of tensions, most recently culminating in Iranian air strikes against Iranian-Kurdish rebels in the region two years ago.

Israel faced international condemnation Thursday after a strike killed 18 people at a school-turned-shelter for displaced Palestinians in war-torn Gaza, where the Israeli military said it targeted Hamas militants.

The attack flattened part of the UN-run Al-Jawni school in Nuseirat on Wednesday, leaving only a charred heap of rebar and concrete.

"For the fifth time, Israeli forces bombed the UNRWA-run Al-Jawni School, killing 18 citizens," Gaza civil defence spokesperson Mahmud Bassal wrote on Telegram, referring to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.

Sitting by their ruined home, Abu Ibrahim wept for his son and seven grandchildren killed by flash floods in Yemen, where increasingly severe downpours are piling more misery on the impoverished, war-torn country.

The greying, bearded villager gestured at the fallen stone walls, all that remains of their home after raging torrents and landslips cut great scars across the mountainside.

Abu Ibrahim, who lives nearby, fought back tears as he recalled the terrible sound of his son's dwelling collapsing in the deluge.

Jordan's leading Islamist opposition party has won 31 out of 138 seats in the kingdom's parliament, tripling its representation in legislative elections dominated by frustration over the ongoing Gaza war.

The Islamic Action Front (IAF), a political offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan, came ahead of other parties and factions in the legislature after Tuesday's vote, but was far from clinching a majority, according to official election results released on Wednesday.

A Pakistani man with ties to Iran has been charged for allegedly plotting to assassinate a US official in retaliation for the US killing of Revolutionary Guards commander Qassem Soleimani, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Asif Raza Merchant, 46, allegedly sought to hire a hitman to assassinate a politician or a US government official in the United States, the Justice Department and prosecutors said in a statement.

Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Salman met on Wednesday with visiting Chinese Premier Li Qiang to discuss bilateral ties, Saudi state media said.

Riyadh was Li's first stop in a regional Gulf trip that will also take him to the neighbouring United Arab Emirates.

In the Saudi capital, the two leaders discussed "the bilateral cooperation between the two countries, particularly in the fields of politics, security, commerce, energy, investment, culture and technology", the official Saudi Press Agency reported.

Israel's military said a soldier was killed Wednesday when the driver of "a Palestinian truck" rammed into "forces conducting operational activity" in the occupied West Bank.

The suspected assailant was "neutralised" by Israeli forces "and an armed civilian" at the scene of the attack near the Jewish settlement of Givat Assaf, north of Ramallah, an army statement said.

It later identified the dead soldier as 24-year-old Staff Sergeant Geri Gideon Hanghal.