Israel's army said on Friday it had killed 17 militants the day before in an air strike on a UN school in central Gaza, raising its previous toll from nine.

Thursday's Israeli strike hit a school operated by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, in the Nuseirat area of central Gaza where thousands of displaced people were sheltering.

The nearby Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital said that at least 37 people were killed in the strike.

Israel's military said its forces struck Friday a UN-run school near Gaza City, the second such facility hit within two days, with the Hamas-run government media office reporting three fatalities.

The army said the strike targeted Hamas "terrorists" who were operating from a container on the premises of a school operated by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, in northern Gaza's Al-Shati refugee camp.

The media office said an Israeli aircraft had targeted the school, killing three and wounding seven.

The upcoming inclusion of Israel on a UN list of countries and armed forces determined to be failing to protect children in war prompted a furious Israeli response Friday.

The annual "Children and Armed Conflict" report from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is not due to be published until June 18, but Israel's UN ambassador, Gilad Erdan, spoke out after receiving private notification of the inclusion.

"I am utterly shocked and disgusted by this shameful decision," Erdan said in a statement.

A spokesman for the Nuseirat municipality in central Gaza said Friday that the town's mayor, Iyad al-Maghari, had been killed in an Israeli strike while visiting a water pumping station.

Maghari had been at the water management facility that serves Nuseirat when an air strike hit it at around 10:30 pm (1930 GMT) on Thursday, spokesman Muhammad al-Salhi told AFP at the nearby Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital, where mourners gathered ahead of the funeral.

Israeli leaders have increased their warnings to Lebanon's Hezbollah Islamist movement as cross-border violence escalates by the day, but experts believe that the risk of all-out war remains limited.

Is the violence intensifying?

Hezbollah says it is fighting in support of its ally Hamas, which is battling Israel in an eight-month-old war in the Gaza Strip triggered by the Palestinian Islamist group's unprecedented October 7 attack on southern Israel.

The United States on Friday reestablished a temporary pier to boost aid deliveries into Gaza after the structure suffered storm damage and underwent repairs in a nearby port, the country's military said.

Gaza has been devastated by Israeli operations against Palestinian militant group Hamas that are now entering their ninth month, uprooting the coastal territory's population and leaving them in dire need of humanitarian assistance.

Israeli forces bombarded a Gaza refugee camp Friday after a deadly strike on a UN-school there, as the war sparked by Hamas's unprecedented attack on Israel entered its ninth month.

Efforts to mediate the first ceasefire in the bloody conflict since a week-long pause in November appear to have stalled a week after US President Joe Biden offered a new roadmap.

Hamas has yet to respond to Biden's proposal, while Israel has expressed openness to discussions but remains committed to destroying the Palestinian Islamist group.

Hundreds of deadly landmines and unexploded ordnance still litter parts of Libya after years of fighting, posing a constant danger to civilians, especially children, long after the conflict.

"It's a disaster zone," said Saleh Farhat, describing his neighbourhood on the southern outskirts of the capital Tripoli, where his son Mohamed was being treated in a hospital intensive care unit after being severely injured in an explosion.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will address lawmakers in the US Congress on July 24, Republican party leaders announced Thursday.

The visit comes amid mounting pressure for the US ally and Hamas militants to agree to a permanent ceasefire as Israel faces growing diplomatic isolation over the rising death toll in Gaza.

President Joe Biden last week presented what he called an Israeli three-phase plan that would end the conflict, free all hostages and lead to the reconstruction of the devastated Palestinian territory without Hamas in power.

Saudi Arabia said the hajj will start on June 14 after astronomical observatories spotted the crescent moon Thursday evening, signalling the beginning of the month in which the annual pilgrimage falls.

The Supreme Court determined that Dhu al-Hijjah, the 12th and final month of the Islamic calendar, would begin on Friday, the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said.

The hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam and must be undertaken at least once by all Muslims with the means.