The Gaza Strip is filled with more war debris and rubble than Ukraine, the head of UN demining operations for the narrow Palestinian territory said Wednesday.

And the danger for clearance work is restricted not just to unexploded ordnance but includes possible exposure to toxic substances such as asbestos.

The United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) estimated the amount of debris in Gaza at 37 million tonnes in mid-April, or 300 kilogrammes per square metre.

US top diplomat Antony Blinken urged Hamas on Wednesday to accept a Gaza truce plan despite an Israeli warning that the army will keep fighting the Palestinian militant group after any ceasefire.

"There is a very strong proposal on the table right now," said Blinken, in Israel on his seventh Middle East crisis tour since the war broke out in October. "Hamas needs to say yes and needs to get this done."

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Wednesday on Hamas to accept a "very strong" ceasefire-for-hostages offer as he vowed to put a priority on families seeking to reunite with loved ones.

In rare scenes for the top US diplomat, who has faced furore at home and abroad over President Joe Biden's support for Israel in its campaign against Hamas, Blinken was greeted outside his Tel Aviv hotel by Israelis waving US flags and chanting, "Thank you, Biden! Thank you, Blinken!"

An esteemed economist, Minouche Shafik was thrilled to become president of one of America's most prestigious colleges.

But her name will now be tied with dramatic images of New York police arresting pro-Palestinian students at the Columbia University campus.

Less than a year after taking up the role, 61-year-old Shafik finds herself at the heart of a storm over her handling of the protests that spread to other colleges in the United States.

Columbia University normally teems with students, but a "Free Palestine" banner now hangs from a building where young protesters have barricaded themselves and the few wandering through campus generally appear tense.

Students here were among the first to embrace the pro-Palestinian campus encampment movement, which has spread to a number of universities across the United States.

Brown University on Tuesday reached an agreement with students protesting the war in Gaza that would see them remove their encampment from school grounds in exchange for the institution considering divesting from Israel.

The move represents a first major concession from an elite American university amid relentless student protests that have paralyzed campuses across the country, divided public opinion and led to hundreds of arrests.

French-Iranian artist Marjane Satrapi, whose graphic novel "Persepolis" tells the story of a girl growing up in post-revolutionary Iran, was Tuesday awarded Spain's prestigious Princess of Asturias communications and humanities prize.

The prize jury praised the 54-year-old as "one of the most prominent names in international comics, author of what is, for many, one of the best graphic novels ever published."

"Satrapi is a symbol of civic engagement led by women," it added, calling her "an essential voice in the defence of human rights and freedom".

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres on Tuesday urged Israel not to invade southern Gaza's Rafah city, after the Israeli prime minister said an offensive would go forward regardless of a pending hostage deal with Hamas.

With the war roiling the region, international outrage mounting over the human toll, and mediators ramping up diplomatic efforts to ease the crisis and reach a truce, Guterres implored Israel not to go ahead with its operation.

Protesters from a Palestinian university chased a group of European diplomats out of a museum in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday over what activists said was their position on the Gaza war.

Video posted on social media showed Italian consul general Domenico Bellato hurrying away from the Palestinian Museum near the city of Ramallah followed by a crowd of demonstrators.

"The student's movement refused those visitors to come to the museum because of their position on the genocide in Gaza. For that we asked them to leave," student representative Omar Kayed told AFP.

US forces were expected to complete a floating pier on Gaza's coast later this week, allowing more aid deliveries into the besieged Palestinian territory, the president of Cyprus said Tuesday.

The Mediterranean island nation hopes to be a hub for a "maritime corridor" to ship relief goods to the 2.4 million people of Gaza, who have been under Israeli bombardment and siege since Hamas launched its October 7 attack.