A German navy frigate set sail for the Red Sea on Thursday with the aim of protecting commercial ships from attacks by Yemeni rebels, as part of a planned European Union mission.

The deployment marked "the most serious engagement of a unit of the German navy in many decades," navy chief Jan Christian Kaack told reporters in Berlin.

Yemen's Iran-backed Huthi rebels have launched a series of attacks on ships crossing the Red Sea since November, saying their campaign was in solidarity with Palestinians in the war between Israel and Hamas.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday sought to advance a deal to free Gaza hostages in talks with Israeli moderates as he closed a Middle East tour without securing a pause in fighting.

US officials had tempered expectations that Blinken would achieve a breakthrough during his latest visit to the region since the October 7 attack on Israel, and few expected Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree immediately to a Qatari-mediated offer.

The United States warned Israel Thursday that it risks "disaster" if it sends troops into Gaza's far-southern city of Rafah, where more than one million Palestinians have sought refuge.

The warning came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered troops to "prepare to operate" in Rafah, the last major town in the Gaza Strip Israeli ground troops have yet to enter.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday discussed ways to secure the release of Gaza hostages with moderates in the Israeli war cabinet a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected Hamas demands.

Blinken met in Tel Aviv with Benny Gantz and Gabi Eisenkot, two former military chiefs who joined Netanyahu's war cabinet after the October 7 attack in Israel by Hamas fighters.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered troops to prepare to enter the overcrowded Gazan city of Rafah, even as a new round of talks aimed at securing a truce with Hamas were set to open Thursday in Cairo.

Netanyahu announced the order after rejecting Hamas's response to a ceasefire proposal at the centre of intense recent diplomatic efforts, though visiting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken insisted on Wednesday that he still saw "space for agreement to be reached".

Earth has endured 12 consecutive months of temperatures 1.5C hotter than the pre-industrial era for the first time on record, Europe's climate monitor said Thursday, in what scientists called a "warning to humanity".

Storms, drought and fire have lashed the planet as climate change -- supercharged by the naturally-occurring El Nino weather phenomenon -- stoked record warming in 2023, making it likely the hottest in 100,000 years.

Iraq on Thursday condemned a US air strike that killed a senior commander from a pro-Iran armed group accused of having been involved in attacks on American troops in the region.

The US attack on Wednesday came after a wave of strikes on Iran-linked targets in Iraq and Syria last week following the killing of three American troops in neighbouring Jordan on January 28.

The US Central Command (CENTCOM) said the commander killed Wednesday was targeted "in response to the attacks on US service members".

A drone strike on Wednesday hit a vehicle in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, killing two commanders of a pro-Iran group, a security source and a group member said.

The attack comes as tensions soar with the United States carrying out strikes on pro-Iran groups in Iraq and Syria amid the war in the Gaza Strip.

One of those killed was a commander of the Kataeb Hezbollah group in charge of military affairs in Syria, a member of the pro-Iran Iraqi group told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The source named the commander as Abu Baqr al-Saadi.

Hosts and holders Qatar squeezed into an Asian Cup final with Jordan after beating Iran 3-2 with an 82nd-minute winner in a frenetic encounter on Wednesday.

Almoez Ali struck in Doha to send Qatar into their second consecutive final, further exorcising the demons of their first-round exit at the 2022 World Cup.

Qatar lost all three of their World Cup games on home soil just over a year ago, the worst record of any host in the competition's history.

Israeli strikes on a southern Lebanese village killed one civilian and wounded two others on Wednesday, Lebanon's state media said.

Since the outbreak of war between Israel and Gaza-based Palestinian militant group Hamas on October 7, the Lebanese-Israeli border has seen near-daily exchanges of fire between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah group, a Hamas ally.

"Two civilians were wounded and a third killed in an enemy drone strike on a house in Khiam" about six kilometres (around four miles) from the border, Lebanon's National News Agency (NNA) reported.