An Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank that lasted more than a day left at least seven Palestinians dead, the Palestinian health ministry said Wednesday, raising an earlier toll.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said its medics treated multiple others wounded in the military raid on Jenin, including a 27-year-old woman shot in the chest in the city's refugee camp.

The Israeli military said forces "confiscated approximately 30 weapons, ammunition, military equipment and weapon parts", without commenting on those killed.

Students and professors at Harvard are feeling bruised but hoping for a return to calm after claims of anti-Semitism linked to fury over the war in Gaza ripped through the famous institution and other elite US universities.

The historic campus in the heart of Cambridge, Massachusetts, was roiled in October by pro-Palestinian marches. The anger mirrored widespread concern among young, liberal American students over the civilian costs of Israel's war against Hamas after the militant group launched a bloody, surprise attack on October 7.

Family members of American hostages held by Hamas militants in Gaza said they had a "terrific" meeting Wednesday with US President Joe Biden and were still hoping for a "Christmas miracle."

Biden held his first in-person meeting at the White House with about a dozen family members. Secretary of State Antony Blinken also attended, the White House said.

US officials say an estimated eight US hostages are still being held since Hamas militants' October 7 attack on Israel and four have been released so far.

Cold winter rains lashed war-battered Gaza on Wednesday, compounding the suffering of Palestinians forced from their homes and now huddling in flooded tents.

Aziza al-Shabrawi tried in vain to get the rainwater out of her family's tent, pointing to her two children living in such precarious conditions.

"My son is sick because of the bitter cold and my daughter is barefoot. It's like we're beggars," said the 38-year-old. "No one cares, and no one helps."

The World Food Programme warned on Wednesday that Sudan faces a "hunger catastrophe" if it cannot deliver regular food aid there, eight months after fighting erupted between rival generals.

"Parts of war-ravaged Sudan are at a high risk of slipping into catastrophic hunger conditions by next year's lean season," the WFP said in a statement.

It said this could happen if the UN agency is unable to expand access and deliver regular food assistance to people trapped in conflict hotspots including the capital Khartoum.

The spike in attacks claimed by Iran-backed Huthi rebels in the Red Sea is dangerously increasing tensions in a bottleneck for international maritime trade and fuelling fears of an uncontrolled regional spillover of Yemen's longstanding conflict.

Since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza, Yemen's Huthi rebels have threatened to attack any ship heading to Israeli ports and stepped up their raids.

Many Gazans already lived in poverty before the war. Now, even those with money have found the conflict to be a terrible equaliser as they hunt in vain for shelter and basic supplies.

Since fleeing to the south of Gaza, Mohammed al-Mahdun, 36, has been looking for an apartment in Rafah near the Egyptian border for his two young children and 11 members of his extended family.

He would happily spend $1,000 a month -- a small fortune by Gazan standards -- but nothing is available.

The proud president of COP28 had no time left to lose.

After two nights of fraught final negotiations, it took just five minutes for Sultan Al Jaber, with the nervous bang of his gavel, to adopt a historic deal calling for a transition from fossil fuels.

"I hear no objection? It is so decided," he announced at 11:15 am (0715 GMT) on Wednesday, to applause and a standing ovation from delegates, despite the disappointment expressed by some small island states about the final language.

Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said Wednesday it had exhausted its supply of children's vaccines and warned of "catastrophic health repercussions".

The announcement came more than two months into the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza as international aid organisations have warned about the dire conditions in the crowded Palestinian territory.

The ministry did not specify which vaccinations had run out, and its claim could not be independently verified.

The UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the Palestinian territories, Lynn Hastings, said that UNICEF was looking into the issue.

Sultan Al Jaber, the UAE oil chief who headed COP28 in Dubai, promised that this year's UN climate talks would be "different". He did not disappoint.

The towering Emirati, 50, was beaming in his grey dishdasha after he brought down the hammer on the first United Nations agreement calling for a transition away from fossil fuels.

It ended a Conference of the Parties (COP) of contradictions in the oil-rich United Arab Emirates, which is one of the world's biggest producers of crude.