Dozens of Jewish women and their supporters marched in front of UN headquarters Monday to highlight the brutal October 7 attacks on Israel by Hamas which saw dozens of women and children taken hostage.

Chanting "shame on UN", demonstrators sported banners reading "rape is rape", while speakers attacked the UN for inaction over the mistreatment of Israeli women.

"I call it the 'United Nothing'... why do we have to be here to tell the UN to protect people?" said demonstrator Hillary Larson, 64, a pediatric nurse from New York.

Saudi Arabia's energy minister has slammed the door shut to agreeing to phase down fossil fuels at the UN's COP28 climate talks, setting the stage for difficult negotiations in Dubai.

A tentative "phasedown/out" was included in a first draft of an agreement on climate action that delegates are haggling over during talks that are scheduled to finish on December 12.

But Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, a half-brother of de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, told Bloomberg that Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, would not agree.

The COP28 climate talks have been flooded with announcements hyping controversial carbon credits before rules for them have been hammered out, with environmental groups fearing "greenwashing" on a massive scale.

The concept behind the credits has taken a major hit recently as scientific research has repeatedly shown claims of reduced emissions under the schemes are often hugely overestimated -- or simply non-existent.

Carbon credits allow corporations -- or countries under certain conditions -- to offset their greenhouse gas emissions.

Inside the negotiating rooms and on the sidelines of the COP28 climate talks, simmering tensions over wealthy countries' "green trade" policies have been bubbling to the surface, with developing nations fearful they will be penalised.

A particularly sore point has been the European Union's new carbon border tax, which sets a price on imported goods based on the emissions involved in creating them.

Israel's army on Monday sent dozens of tanks into southern Gaza as part of expanded action against Hamas despite global concern over mounting civilian deaths, and as communications was cut across the besieged territory.

Weeks after Israel deployed ground forces in the north of the Gaza Strip, the army has been air-dropping leaflets in parts of the south, telling Palestinians to flee to other areas.

The Emirati president of the UN's COP28 talks said Monday he respects climate science, after a leaked video showed him declaring that no science says phasing out fossil fuel will achieve climate goals.

Sultan Al Jaber also repeated his past statements that a phase out of fossil fuels was "inevitable" as he hit out at "repeated attempts to undermine" the work of the COP28 presidency.

"We're here because we very much believe and respect the science," Jaber, who is also the head of UAE national oil company ADNOC, told reporters.

The United Arab Emirates is choking under "alarmingly high" air pollution levels fed by its fossil fuel industry, Human Rights Watch warned on Monday as the oil-rich country hosts the UN's COP28 climate talks in Dubai.

Air pollution is a "dirty secret" buried by a stifling of dissent in the UAE, the rights group said, adding that bad air created poses "major health risks" for its population.

Smog engulfed the city state after the climate talks began on Thursday and hit officially "unhealthy" levels over the weekend.

A group of human rights organisations took the Dutch government to court on Monday, arguing its supply of parts for F-35 fighters contributes to violations of international law in Gaza.

The case concerns US-owned F-35 parts stored at a warehouse in the Netherlands and then shipped to several partners, including Israel, via existing export agreements.

Oxfam Novib, one of the groups filing suit, said the export "made the Netherlands complicit in violations of the laws of war and the collective punishment of the civilian population of Gaza".

COP28 in Dubai is the biggest UN climate summit ever. But the victims of its success are the thousands of delegates, observers and lobbyists who have to wait in long winding queues every day at the entry to the giant site on the edge of the desert.

Even five days in, delegates are still running from the metro to try to lessen the wait at the security gate.

A staggering 88,000 people are accredited to COP28, with another 400,000 registered to visit the "green zone" around it in the old Dubai 2020 Expo site.

Israel expanded its offensive against Hamas militants in besieged Gaza on Monday, as international concern deepened over the mounting civilian death toll in a war sparked by the October 7 attacks.

The return to open warfare after a truce between Israel and Hamas broke down has had ripple effects around a region on the cusp of a wider conflagration.

Since the expiry of the truce on Friday, fighting in Gaza has resumed between Hamas and advancing Israeli troops, as have militants' rocket launches toward Israel and Israel's air strikes on the Palestinian territory.