Crowds fleeing Khan Yunis after an Israeli evacuation order gave way to empty streets on Friday as Palestinian residents tried to escape a new Israeli military operation in Gaza's main southern area.

"They threw leaflets at us, ordering us to evacuate", Reem Abu Hayya told AFP, referring to the flyers that Israeli forces drop from planes to order the evacuation of areas ahead of a military operation.

The Khan Yunis area had already seen evacuation orders in late July, and heavy fighting that devastated the area earlier this year.

Israel has agreed to resume Gaza ceasefire talks next week at the request of international mediators, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said, after intense diplomacy aimed at averting a region-wide conflagration.

The announcement followed an Iranian claim that Israel wants to spread war in the Middle East, as well as repeated accusations by Hamas officials, some analysts and critics in Israel that Netanyahu has prolonged the fighting for political gain.

Guards beat female inmates in clashes that erupted at Tehran's Evin prison following a spate of executions, the family of jailed Nobel peace prize winner Narges Mohammadi said, raising new concerns about her health.

Rights activist Mohammadi, 52, who won the 2023 prize for her campaigning including against the death penalty, has been jailed since November 2021, and has spent much of the past decade in and out of prison.

The Paris-based family of Mohammadi emphasised it had no direct contact with her since her right to make phone calls was cut in November.

A series of attempted attacks using missiles and a sea drone targeted a merchant vessel off areas of Yemen held by Iran-backed Huthi rebels, a British maritime security agency said Friday.

A rocket-propelled grenade exploded Thursday near the ship off the city of Mokha, which overlooks the strategic Bab al-Mandeb Strait linking the Gulf of Aden to the Red Sea, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said.

Since Hamas's unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, Yahya Sinwar has been at the top of Israel's most wanted list, but the newly appointed chief of the Palestinian group has remained elusive as ever.

Israeli commanders believe Sinwar, 61, is hiding in a labyrinthine maze of tunnels that Hamas has built under the Gaza Strip over the years.

In December, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that the army had surrounded Sinwar's house, but since then there has been little to no information on his whereabouts.

Kamala Harris does not support an arms embargo on US ally Israel, a top aide said Thursday, in one of the first substantive statements on her Gaza war policy since her July entry to the 2024 White House race.

The comment came a day after the US vice president was heckled by pro-Palestinian protesters at a rally for the first time since she became the Democratic candidate less than three weeks ago.

Harris also met with groups opposed to the war after the rally in Detroit, Michigan. Participants reportedly said they brought up the issue of halting US arms supplies to Israel.

Israel has agreed to resume Gaza ceasefire talks on August 15 at the demand of US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said on Thursday, as regional tensions skyrocket over the war.

Gaza's Hamas-controlled civil defence agency said Israeli bombardment killed more than 18 people in strikes on two schools on Thursday, as Iran accused Israel of wanting to spread war in the Middle East.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview published Thursday that he was "sorry" that Hamas was able to carry out its October 7 attack, without explicitly taking responsibility.

Netanyahu, who has resisted making an apology for security failures over Israel's worst-ever attack and focused on destroying Hamas, was asked if he would apologize during an interview with Time magazine.

"Apologize?" he was quoted as replying.

Israel committed a costly "strategic mistake" with its killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last week, Iran's acting foreign minister told AFP in an interview on Thursday.

"The act that the Zionists carried out in Tehran was a strategic mistake because it will cost them gravely," Ali Bagheri said one day after attending an extraordinary session of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in the Saudi coastal city of Jeddah.

Although Israel has not commented on Haniyeh's death, Iran has vowed to retaliate, setting the region on edge.

Rights advocates are alarmed by a bill introduced to Iraq's parliament that, they fear, would roll back women's rights and increase underage marriage in the deeply patriarchal society.

The bill would allow citizens to choose either religious authorities or the civil judiciary to decide on family affairs. Critics fear this will lead to a slashing of rights in matters of inheritance, divorce and child custody.