Accepting a ceasefire deal with Israel should be a "no-brainer" for Hamas, but the motivations of the militants' elusive Gaza-based leadership remain unclear, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.

Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, has announced that its delegation will return Saturday to Cairo to resume long-running talks brokered by Egypt and Qatar that would temporarily halt Israel's offensive in return for freeing hostages.

"We wait to see whether, in effect, they can take yes for an answer on the ceasefire and release of hostages," Blinken said late Friday.

US President Joe Biden will host Jordan's King Abdullah II next week, the White House said Friday, as negotiations continue in the Middle East for a ceasefire in Gaza.

The meeting will be "private" and will be followed by a readout, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters, without giving a date for the encounter.

The meeting comes against the backdrop of talks for a deal to release hostages and secure a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza after nearly seven months of war.

Floods caused by torrential rainstorms killed four hikers in the Sulaimaniyah region of northern Iraq on Friday, local officials told AFP.

"Four members of a hiking team drowned because of heavy rains and flooding in Awaspi village" in Qaradah district, local official Rouf Kamal said.

Civil defence spokesperson Aram Ali confirmed the toll, and said eight other hikers survived the incident south of Sulaimaniyah, the autonomous Kurdistan region's second city.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday said Turkey's move to halt trade with Israel was designed to force the country to a ceasefire in Gaza.

The decision, announced on Thursday, is the latest indication of deteriorating relations between the two countries.

"We have taken some measures to force Israel to agree to a ceasefire and increase the amount of humanitarian aid to enter" Gaza, Erdogan told a group of businessmen in Istanbul.

"We will oversee the consequences of this step we have taken in coordination and consultation with our business world."

The International Criminal Court prosecutor warned on Friday against unspecified threats and intimidation, amid reports that Israel is concerned the tribunal could issue arrest warrants over the war in Gaza.

The Hague-based ICC did not say if the comment related to its investigation into possible war crimes by Israel or Palestinian groups in Gaza and the West Bank.

The office of ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan said on X, formerly Twitter, that it was aware of "significant public interest" in its activities and said it sought to "engage constructively with all stakeholders."

Yemen's Huthi rebels on Friday threatened to extend their attacks on Israel-bound shipping to the Mediterranean after months of strikes on vessels in the Red Sea.

The Iran-backed Huthis, who say they are acting in support of Palestinians during the Israel-Hamas war, said the escalation would take effect "immediately".

It involves "the targeting of all ships that violate the ban (on) Israeli navigation and that head to the ports of occupied Palestine from the Mediterranean Sea in any reachable area within our ample zone", military spokesman Yahya Saree said in a statement.

Student protests against the Israeli military assault on Gaza following the unprecedented October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel have spread to several countries.

Here is a round-up of the main campaigns.

- United States -

Demonstrators have gathered on at least 40 US university campuses since April 17, often erecting tent camps to protest against the soaring death toll in the Gaza Strip.

Nearly 2,000 people have been detained, according to US media, in demonstrations reminiscent of protests against the Vietnam War.

Tunisian journalists and opposition figures have voiced alarm about a surge of prosecutions since President Kais Saied issued a decree outlawing what authorities deem to be "false news".

Rights groups and lawyers say the measure stifles dissent in the North African country that was the birthplace of the Arab Spring protests and for years after was considered a regional beacon of free speech.

Police on Friday entered the Sciences Po university in Paris to remove dozens of students staging a pro-Gaza sit-in in the entrance hall, AFP journalists saw, as protests fired political debate about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Demonstrations have struck education institutions in several French cities in recent weeks, echoing the mass Gaza protests that have led to clashes in US universities.

Hundreds of supporters of Israel and Gaza faced off at a Sydney university Friday, bringing echoes of US college protests and Middle East tumult to a campus and continent on the other side of the world.

Rival demonstrators came eye-to-eye shouting slogans and waving flags. Still, except for a few heated exchanges, the protest and counterprotest passed off peacefully.

But it was another sign that the war in Gaza, approaching its seventh month, and the long-rumbling US culture wars are roiling politics oceans away.