The United Arab Emirates announced $544 million to repair the homes of Emirati families on Wednesday after last week's record rains caused widespread flooding and brought the oil-rich Gulf state to a standstill.

"We learned great lessons in dealing with severe rains," said Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum after a cabinet meeting, adding that ministers approved "two billion dirhams to deal with damage to the homes of citizens".

Palestinian militant group Hamas released Wednesday a video of an Israeli-American man held hostage in Gaza who is seen alive and saying that the captives are living "in hell".

He identifies himself as Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, one of the hostages abducted from the Nova music festival in southern Israel during the Hamas attack on October 7.

His parents said in a statement they were "relieved to see him alive" but worried for his wellbeing.

Spiraling pro-Palestinian protests that are rocking universities across the United States spread to more campuses Wednesday, triggering suggestions from a senior Republican leader that the National Guard could be brought in.

The comments from House Speaker Mike Johnson are likely to evoke strong emotions in a country where the 1970 killing by National Guardsmen of unarmed students protesting the Vietnam war lives on in folk memory.

Saudi Arabia's ageing King Salman entered hospital for "routine examinations" on Wednesday, the Royal Court said, in a rare public statement about his health.

The tests were taking place at King Faisal Specialist Hospital in the Red Sea coastal city of Jeddah and were expected to last "a few hours", the Royal Court said, according to the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA).

King Salman, 88, has been on the throne since 2015, though his son, Mohammed bin Salman, 38, was named crown prince in 2017 and acts as day-to-day ruler.

Iran has reduced its military footprint in Syria after a succession of strikes blamed on Israel, a source close to Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah and a war monitor said Wednesday.

Iran has provided military support to Syrian government forces through more than a decade of civil war but a series of strikes targeting its commanders in recent months has prompted a reshaping of its presence, the sources said.

Israel said Wednesday its forces were carrying out "offensive action" in Lebanon after launching cross-border strikes targeting Hamas ally Hezbollah as Israeli aircraft and tanks pounded the Gaza Strip.

Since the Israel-Hamas war erupted on October 7, Lebanon's powerful Iran-backed Hezbollah group and Israeli forces have traded near-daily fire, heightening fears of a wider conflict breaking out.

Argentina has asked Interpol to arrest Iran's interior minister over the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people, the foreign ministry said Tuesday.

The foreign ministry said the Iranian minister, Ahmad Vahidi, was part of a delegation from Tehran visiting Pakistan and Sri Lanka, and Interpol has issued a red notice seeking his arrest at the request of Argentina.

Argentina has also asked those two governments to arrest Vahidi, it added in a statement.

Emergency doctor Amjad Alewah once saved lives at Al-Shifa hospital, the largest medical facility in the Gaza Strip.

But after 200 days of war between Israel and Hamas militants, he now stands in its ruins.

"We are now in the middle of the rubble of this great hospital," Alewah, who returned to inspect the now charred emergency reception room, told AFP.

Following the outbreak of war, Al-Shifa became a safe haven for the thousands injured or fleeing the Israeli onslaught on the Palestinian territory.

The director of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees hit back at Israel Tuesday, calling for a Security Council probe into the "blatant disregard" for UN operations in Gaza after some 180 staffers were killed.

Philippe Lazzarini also revealed that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) had been able to partly offset a funding shortfall by raising $100 million from online donations since the Israel-Hamas conflict broke out in October.

Humanitarian workers have no knowledge of plans to evacuate Palestinians from Gaza's southernmost city ahead of an expected Israeli assault, but such a transfer would not be "possible" under current conditions, a Red Cross official told AFP on Tuesday.

"The rumour is that the probability of a major operation in Rafah is increasing," Fabrizio Carboni, Middle East regional director for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), said on the sidelines of an aid conference in the United Arab Emirates.