A Lebanese couple and their son were killed Tuesday in an Israeli strike on a house in the southern border village of Hula, the Lebanese official National News Agency reported.

Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah movement and Israel have traded deadly cross-border fire on a near-daily basis since war broke out in October between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers, a Hezbollah ally.

"The three civilians, Hassan Hussein, his wife, Ruwaida Mustafa, and their 25-year-old son, Ali Hussein, were killed in the enemy raid on a three-storey house in Hula," NNA said.

The sinking of a bulk carrier off Yemen after a Huthi missile attack poses grave environmental risks as thousands of tonnes of fertiliser threaten to spill into the Red Sea, officials and experts warn.

Leaking fuel and the chemical pollutant could harm marine life, including coral reefs, and impact coastal communities that rely on fishing for their livelihoods, they said.

The Belize-flagged, Lebanese-operated Rubymar sank on Saturday with 21,000 metric tonnes of ammonium phosphate sulfate fertiliser on board, according to US Central Command.

The United Nations on Tuesday called on the international community to "flood" Gaza with aid amid reports that children are dying of starvation in the war-torn Palestinian territory.

"With children starting ... to die from starvation, that should be an alarm like no other," Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN humanitarian agency, told reporters in Geneva.

Iran executed at least 834 people last year, the highest number since 2015, as capital punishment in the Islamic republic surged to a "staggering" level, human rights groups said on Tuesday.

The number of executions, which Iran has always carried out by hanging in recent years, was up some 43 percent on 2022.

It marked only the second time in two decades that more than 800 executions were recorded in a year, after 972 executions in 2015, Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) and Paris-based Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM) said in the joint report.

US President Joe Biden on Tuesday called on Hamas to accept a Gaza ceasefire deal by the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, while the Palestinian militant group warned talks for a truce and hostage release cannot go on "indefinitely".

As famine threatens Gazans, US and Jordanian planes again airdropped food aid into the besieged territory of 2.4 million people in a joint operation with Egypt and France.

Gazans detained by Israeli forces are coming back "completely traumatized" upon release and reporting abuses while in captivity, the head of the UN's Palestinian refugee agency said Monday.

Detainees reported being subjected to a "broad range of ill treatment" including threats of electrocution, being photographed naked, sleep deprivation and having dogs used to intimidate them, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini told a media briefing.

Gaza's hospitals have been wracked by strikes, sieges and raids, but on a day-to-day basis, it is the Palestinian territory's acute power shortages that pose an enduring risk to life-saving care.

"Power means life or death in hospitals," said Hiba Tibi, country director for the occupied West Bank and Gaza at the international aid group Care.

At Kamal Adwan hospital's maternity ward in northern Gaza, solar panels are the only thing keeping incubators running, five months into the gruelling war.

Israel recalled its ambassador to the UN on Monday as tensions erupted over the handling of allegations of sexual assault by Hamas militants during the October 7 attacks.

Israel has accused the United Nations of taking too long to respond to the claims, a charge the UN has robustly defended itself against as it published a report detailing evidence of Hamas rapes and assaults.

US Vice President Kamala Harris expressed "deep concern" over the situation faced by Gaza's civilians in talks Monday with Benny Gantz, an Israeli war cabinet member and top rival of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

A day after she delivered some of the most stinging US criticism of Israel since the war began, Harris called for Israel to let in more aid to the Palestinian territory, while also urging Hamas to accept a six-week ceasefire deal.

Iran's conservatives and ultra-conservatives secured a large majority in parliamentary elections, officials said Monday, in a vote marked by a turnout of 41 percent, the lowest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

"Around 25 million people participated, with a turnout of 41 precent" in Friday's elections, Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi told a Tehran press conference.

Candidates categorised as conservative or ultra-conservative on pre-election lists won more than two-thirds of the seats, with around 15 percent of contests headed for a second round.