A video of bloodied Syrian school children shrieking after an explosion was misrepresented online as an atrocity in Gaza, throwing a spotlight on a disinformation trend researchers say dehumanises victims of both wars.

A flood of real images from Israel and Gaza has been revealing the horrors of the conflict that broke out on October 7 when Hamas militants launched an unprecedented attack on southern Israel, but they can vie for attention with misappropriated scenes from Syria's civil war.

Israel pounded Gaza on Friday, nearly 12 weeks into the war started by the October 7 attacks, as Egypt hosted a Hamas delegation for talks aimed at ending the conflict that has devastated much of the besieged Palestinian territory.

With vast areas of northern Gaza in ruins and largely deserted, Israeli air strikes and ground combat have focussed on central and southern districts, driving ever more displaced families into crowded areas around Rafah near the Egyptian border.

Residents of Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem's historic Armenian quarter rapidly mobilised when bulldozers rolled in to start work on a luxury hotel, a project they fear threatens the ancient but dwindling community.

The real estate deal which gives an Australian-Israeli investor roughly 25 percent of the Old City's Armenian quarter has sparked anger and concern among its residents.

"The youth arrived in large numbers and positioned themselves in front of the bulldozers," recalled resident Kegham Balian of the escalation last month.

Israel pounded south and central Gaza on Friday as Egypt was to host a high-level Hamas delegation for talks to try and end the nearly 12-week war that has devastated the besieged Palestinian territory.

The Israeli military said its forces "are extending operation in Khan Yunis" in the coastal territory's south, and had "eliminated dozens of terrorists" across Gaza over the past 24 hours.

AFPTV footage showed smoke billowing over Rafah, near Egypt, following fresh strikes early Friday.

Hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters took to the streets of New York on Thursday, staging a mock funeral in a demonstration against Israel's continued heavy bombardement of the besieged Gaza strip.

Holding banners demanding an immediate ceasefire, the activists gathered in Manhattan's Bryant Park while some briefly stood in the middle of the busy Sixth Avenue in the heart of New York's Midtown district.

Several women shrouded in black held baby dolls swaddled in white cloths to represent the toll the fighting has taken on children in the coastal territory.

The Palestinian Freedom Theatre in the occupied West Bank will welcome actors back this weekend, just over a fortnight after an Israeli raid on the centre sparked an international outcry.

Its artistic director Ahmed Tobasi told AFP the theatre in Jenin refugee camp had become a symbol of Palestinian resistance against Israel's occupation of the West Bank.

A US-Israeli woman seized in the October 7 Hamas attack was killed on the same day and her body remains in the Gaza Strip, her kibbutz community said on Thursday.

Judith Weinstein Haggai, 70, had been thought to be the oldest woman among the hostages still held in Gaza by the Palestinian militant group.

Her kibbutz of Nir Oz said that Haggai was "murdered in the massacre", and that her body remains in the war-torn Palestinian territory.

Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Thursday he supported Iraq's "sovereignty and stability", during a visit to Baghdad where he also met with Spanish troops.

"My country, always at the request of the Iraqi authorities, will support the unity, sovereignty and stability of Iraq," said Sanchez during a press conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohamed Shia al-Sudani.

Spain has deployed more than 300 soldiers as part of an international anti-jihadist coalition and NATO's mission in Iraq, commanded since May by Spanish General Jose Antonio Aguero Martinez.

The rapid advance of Sudanese paramilitaries has intensified calls on civilians to carry arms, raising the spectre of the eight-month conflict between rival generals transforming into full-blown civil war.

The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have seized most of Sudan's southern Al-Jazira state including its capital Wad Madani and begun pushing further south into Sennar state in their war against the army.

Turkey's parliament is unlikely to hold a full vote on Sweden's bid to join NATO before mid-January, parliamentary sources told AFP Thursday.

Sweden's accession to the US-led Western alliance was approved by the foreign affairs committee on Tuesday, bringing an end in sight to a 19-month standoff that drew the wrath of Turkey's Western partners.

It must now be voted by the full 600-seat parliament, where President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling alliance holds the majority. The president would then need to sign it into law.