Israel on Saturday hit parts of Gaza including Rafah where it expanded an evacuation order, as the UN warned an outright invasion of the crowded city risked an "epic" disaster.

AFP journalists, medics and witnesses reported strikes across the coastal territory, where the UN says humanitarian relief is blocked after Israeli troops defied international opposition and entered eastern Rafah this week.

That effectively shut a key aid crossing and suspending traffic through another.

A long-awaited State Department report on Friday said that Israel likely violated norms on international law in its use of US weapons but it did not find enough evidence to block shipments.

The report said it was "reasonable to assess" that Israel, which receives some $3 billion in US weapons a year, has used the arms in ways inconsistent with standards on humanitarian rights but that the United States could not reach "conclusive findings."

Jerusalem native Bashar Murad was determined to compete in the Eurovision Song Contest, but with no option to represent Palestinians, he opted to try his luck singing for Iceland.

"I'm an artist, I make pop music, and Eurovision is like the Olympics of pop music", the up-and-coming pop singer told AFP in a recent telephone interview.

Unlike Israel, a member of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) that oversees Eurovision and therefore can participate in the competition, Palestinians are not granted a spot.

Police carried out pre-dawn swoops Friday on students protesting the war in Gaza at two prestigious US universities, in the latest unrest on campuses across the country.

And late Thursday, police broke up a pro-Palestinian protest at the University of Calgary in western Canada using tear gas.

The police action at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) near Boston in the northeast resulted in around 10 arrests, according to university president Sally Kornbluth, who said she had "no choice" but to dismantle the "high-risk flashpoint."

Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah group said it fired Katyusha rockets at Israel on Friday in retaliation for strikes, which state media said killed two people in the south of the country.

Israel and Hamas ally Hezbollah have exchanged near-daily cross-border fire following the Palestinian group's October 7 attack on southern Israel that sparked war in Gaza.

Hezbollah fighters fired "a salvo of Katyusha rockets" at Israel's north "in response to the Israeli enemy's attacks on... civilians, most recently in Tayr Harfa," the group said in a statement.

UN chief Antonio Guterres warned Gaza risked an "epic humanitarian disaster" Friday as Israel pressed military operations around its far-southern city of Rafah crippling the work of aid agencies.

Earlier this week, Israeli ground troops seized eastern areas of the city, including the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza, but they have yet to enter its main built-up area.

AFP journalists witnessed artillery strikes on the city Friday and the Israeli army said operations were continuing in the east of the city.

Israel's presence in the Eurovision song contest triggered fierce debate Friday amid protests in the host city, while the Dutch contestant was mysteriously pulled from rehearsals on the eve of the final.

Thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched through Malmo on Thursday before Israeli singer Eden Golan made it through to the final on Saturday when more protests are expected.

German Culture Minister Claudia Roth and other governments denounced calls to boycott Israeli artists over their country's actions in Gaza however.

The UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly Friday to grant the Palestinians additional rights in the global body and backed their drive for full membership, which is blocked by the United States.

Israel's UN ambassador Gilad Erdan reacted angrily to the largely symbolic vote, while Palestinian ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour said it was historic.

With the war in Gaza raging, the Palestinians in April relaunched a request dating back to 2011 to become full members of the United Nations, where their current status is that of a "nonmember observer state."

Days after the October 7 attack, Joe Biden walked onto the tarmac in Tel Aviv and offered a warm bear hug to Benjamin Netanyahu, a sign both of solid support for Israel and the US president's long, if not uncomplicated, relationship with the prime minister.

Seven months into the devastating conflict, the gentle approach is over. Biden, who memorably once wrote to Netanyahu "I love you," has for the first time raised the ultimate leverage the United States has on Israel -- military aid, which totals $3 billion a year.

Israel's closure of key crossings into Gaza has cut off the main entry point for aid, and particularly fuel, rendering humanitarian operations all but impossible, a senior UN official warned Thursday.

"We lost the main entry point for all humanitarian aid," said Andrea De Domenico, who heads the United Nations humanitarian office, OCHA, in the occupied Palestinian territories.