The UN Security Council meets on Gaza Friday under acute pressure from Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and will vote on urging an immediate ceasefire after weeks of ruinous war.
Even though the civilian death toll in the Palestinian territory is mounting and living conditions are described as catastrophic amid Israel's bombardment, the outcome of the session is up in the air.
Hollywood celebrities are paying the price for taking sides in the Gaza war -- plastering their social media accounts with slogans such as "Free Palestine" or "I stand with Israel".
Israeli actress Gal Gadot, best known for starring in "Wonder Woman", has expressed unyielding support for her country since October 7, when Hamas fighters burst out of Gaza, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 240 hostage, according to Israeli officials.
"I stand with Israel, you should too," she declared to her 109 million Instagram followers.
Israel pressed on with its offensive in and around Gaza's main cities on Friday, more than two months after Hamas's deadly attack sparked a war that has claimed thousands of lives and left the Palestinian territory in ruins.
The death toll in Gaza has risen 17,000, mostly women and children, the Hamas-run health ministry said, with vast areas reduced to a rubble-strewn wasteland of bombed-out and bullet-scarred buildings.
Early Friday, the health ministry reported another 40 dead in strikes near Gaza City, and "dozens" more in Jabalia and Khan Yunis.
Egypt is gearing up this month for a presidential election certain to win incumbent Abdel Fattah al-Sisi a third term in office, despite rising public discontent as the country faces its worst ever economic crisis.
From Sunday through Tuesday, Egyptians aged 18 and above will be able to cast their ballots for one of four candidates -- former army chief Sisi, in power since he deposed elected Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013, and three other relative unknowns.
Greece and Turkey on Thursday restarted high-level talks to reduce chronic tensions in their relations as the Turkish president visited Athens for the first time in six years.
"There is no problem that cannot be solved between us," Recep Tayyip Erdogan said during a media appearance with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, adding that he wanted to turn "the Aegean into a sea of peace and cooperation."
"We want to further develop the positive momentum in our relations," Erdogan said.
The address on the invitation to the winner of this year's Nobel Peace Prize to attend the awards ceremony says it all. "Ms Narges Mohammadi, c/o Evin Prison, Tehran province, Iran".
Mohammadi, 51, awarded the prize in October in recognition of two decades of work defending human rights in Iran, in defiance of constant persecution by the Islamic republic, remains in prison in Iran with no hope of release, let alone attending the glitzy event in Oslo on Sunday.
Heavy urban combat raged in and around Gaza's biggest cities on Thursday as the bloodiest-ever war between Israel and Palestinian group Hamas entered its third month since the militants' attack on October 7.
The death toll in Gaza has soared to 17,177 according to the Hamas-run health ministry, and vast areas of the besieged territory have been reduced to a rubble-strewn wasteland of bombed-out and bullet-scarred buildings.
Fatah, the largest Palestinian party, has seen its popularity plunge during the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, from where the Islamists violently ousted rivals Fatah in 2007.
Fatah's chosen path of negotiations has not brought about the Palestinian state promised by the Oslo Accords of 1993, and Hamas -- after choosing violence instead -- has seen its popularity soar.
Fatah chief Mahmud Abbas has led the Palestinian Authority -- which has partial administrative control in the Israeli-occupied West Bank -- since its creation in 1994.
Israeli troops battled Hamas militants Thursday in the heart of southern Gaza's main city where a suspected mastermind of the October 7 attacks is believed to be hiding, while pressing their offensive across the besieged territory.
Breaking through Hamas's defences of Gaza's second largest city, Israeli troops, tanks, armoured personnel carriers and bulldozers rolled into Khan Yunis, forcing already displaced civilians to flee again, witnesses said.
White-bearded and wearing a crocheted kippah on his head, Israeli settler Moshe Goldsmith is unshakeable in his support for the government, despite widespread criticism of its failure to prevent the bloody attack by Hamas on October 7.
"I'm a religious, Orthodox Zionist," he said, adding that "more than anything", what mattered to him was a political party's support for settlers' point of view.
To Goldsmith, 60, the unprecedented attack launched by Hamas from the Gaza Strip, which Israeli officials say left 1,200 people dead, was not a failure of those in power.
