Restrictions on speech and protest in the United Arab Emirates are complicating UN approval of an Amnesty event at COP28 demanding the release of Emirati political prisoners, the group's secretary-general said Tuesday.

Speaking on the sidelines of the United Nations climate talks in Dubai, Agnes Callamard said the obstacles hampering activist actions within a UN-managed Blue Zone at the COP venue are slightly larger than previous years despite no changes to the guidelines.

Message after message, the brief WhatsApps tell a poignant and chilling story of encroaching terror with people making increasingly desperate pleas for help, some of them with only minutes to live.

"People documented their last moments, they sent selfies before they were murdered," said Yaniv Hegyi, a former secretary-general of kibbutz Beeri.

Beeri was the worst-hit community in the Hamas attacks of October 7 on southern Israel, second only to the Supernova music festival for the number of victims. Out of a population of 1,100, more than 80 were killed.

President Vladimir Putin will visit Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday, the Kremlin has announced, as Moscow courts allies abroad despite being isolated by the West over the Ukraine conflict.

Putin has limited his international travel since deploying troops to Ukraine and the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for him, accusing the Russian leader of deporting Ukrainian children.

"President Putin will go on a working visit to the UAE and Saudi Arabia tomorrow," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday.

Israeli forces battled Hamas militants in southern Gaza on Tuesday, prompting a UN warning of an "even more hellish scenario" as fighting pushes civilians into a steadily shrinking area of the besieged territory.

After an air and ground assault that has displaced hundreds of thousands and reduced much of northern Gaza to rubble, Israel has now sent tanks and troops into the south as well, including the second-largest city Khan Yunis.

Israel says it aims to destroy Hamas and free hostages taken in unprecedented October 7 cross-border attacks.

Qatar's ruler hit out at "shameful" international inaction over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza as he opened a Gulf Cooperation Council meeting in Doha on Tuesday.

"It is shameful for the international community to allow this heinous crime to continue for nearly two months, during which the systematic and deliberate killing of innocent civilians continues, including women and children," Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani said.

Battle lines on coal, oil and gas hardened at the UN climate talks on Tuesday where activists said a record number of fossil fuel lobbyists outnumber nearly every delegation in Dubai.

The divide is so stark that a new draft agreement included options to phase out fossil fuels or not addressing the issue at all, setting the stage for tough negotiations due to end next week.

Saudi Arabia -- the world's biggest oil exporter -- took a hardline stance, saying it would "absolutely not" agree to phasing down fossil fuels, let alone phasing them out.

A record almost 2,500 fossil fuel lobbyists have been accredited for UN climate talks in Dubai, as negotiators wrestle with calls to end all new oil, gas and coal projects to curb global warming, campaign groups said Tuesday.

The COP28 meeting is being hosted by oil-rich United Arab Emirates, which has made no secret of its plan to include fossil fuel interests and has boosted overall attendance to more than 80,000, making this year's meeting the largest COP.

Israeli troops battled Hamas militants in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday after expanding their offensive deeper into the besieged territory, with warnings that an "even more hellish scenario" was unfolding for trapped civilians.

Israel had initially focused its offensive on the north of the territory, but the army has now also dropped leaflets on parts of the south, telling Palestinian civilians there to flee to other areas.

When Yuval Kestelman saw gunmen firing at a Jerusalem bus stop, he acted swiftly to stop the attack -- but was killed by Israeli soldiers who likely mistook him for an assailant.

Kestelman, a former Israeli police officer, has been hailed as a hero for stopping the deadly shooting last week, later claimed by Palestinian militant group Hamas.

But for many Israelis, the 37-year-old's death has raised potent questions over the proliferation of weapons in society, particularly since Hamas's October 7 attacks, and over the rules of engagement for members of security forces.

The world may cross the crucial 1.5C global warming threshold in seven years as fossil fuel CO2 emissions continue to rise, scientists warned Tuesday, urging countries at the COP28 talks to "act now" on coal, oil and gas pollution.

Battle lines are being drawn over the future of fossil fuels at the UN climate summit in Dubai, with big polluters trying to see off calls for an agreement to phase out the carbon-intensive energy responsible for most of human-caused greenhouse gas.