Israel faced growing calls Saturday to protect civilians in Gaza as combat with Hamas intensified around hospitals where Palestinians have sought refuge from intense bombardment and gun battles.
The director of the besieged territory's largest hospital, Al-Shifa, said the compound was struck repeatedly overnight Friday-Saturday and lost power for hours after its generator was hit.
Arab and Muslim leaders on Saturday condemned Israeli forces' "barbaric" actions in Gaza but declined to approve punitive economic and political steps against the country over its war against Hamas.
The outcome of a joint summit of the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation in the Saudi capital highlighted regional divisions over how to respond to the war even as fears mount that it could draw in other countries.
A prestigious US university has suspended two student groups that organized protests against Israel's bombing campaign in Gaza, saying they violated campus policies.
Gerald Rosberg, Columbia University's chair of the special committee on campus safety, said Friday that Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace would be suspended throughout the fall semester.
At Gaza's largest hospital, a sheltering Palestinian said Friday he felt "under siege" as the facility was encircled by fighting between Israeli soldiers and Hamas militants.
"We need help from the international community, people are dying here due to lack of treatment," said Atef, who has taken refuge at Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, surrounded by patients on trolleys.
The hospital was hit earlier on Friday by an Israeli strike, the facility's director and Gaza's Hamas government said, with the latter giving a death toll of 13.
Like most others his age, Uriel Balas was just excited to celebrate his 26th birthday with friends, having saved up for his ticket to Israel's much-anticipated Supernova music festival.
But excitement would soon give way to horror.
The two-day festival in the fields around Kibbutz Reim, just beyond the Gaza border in southern Israel, drew more than 3,000 people on October 6 and 7.
Nearly one in 10 people would never come back.
Balas scrolled through his last photos from the party, showing his friends giving a thumbs up and the festival in full force.
France on Friday expelled a Palestinian activist to Egypt after a protracted court battle over her presence, police said.
Mariam Abu Daqqa, 72, is a leading member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) which is considered a "terrorist" organisation by the European Union.
Abu Daqqa was detained by police on Wednesday night after the State Council, France's highest administrative court, overturned a lower court ruling that had suspended an interior ministry expulsion order.
At Gaza's largest hospital, a sheltering Palestinian said Friday he felt "under siege" as the facility was encircled by fighting between Israeli soldiers and Hamas militants.
"We need help from the international community, people are dying here due to lack of treatment," said Atef, who has taken refuge at Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, surrounded by patients on trolleys.
The hospital was hit earlier on Friday by an Israeli strike, the facility's director and Gaza's Hamas government said, with the latter giving a death toll of 13.
Streets in Gaza City lay in ruins as residents were forced to flee Friday, with gunfights between Israeli soldiers and Hamas militants raging and basic supplies severely depleted.
Heavy gunfire, explosions and the buzz of Israeli military drones could be heard as night fell over Gaza City, where the only glow of light comes from Al-Shifa hospital, which is overwhelmed with casualties.
"I wasn't optimistic that any of my children or I would come out unharmed, given the intensity of the bombing and gunfire," said resident Jawad Haruda.
The arrest in Brazil this week of two people accused of planning "terrorist attacks" has put a spotlight on alleged South American operations by Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which Israel says orchestrated the plot.
Brazilian authorities reacted angrily after Israel said it had helped foil a "Hezbollah cell" planning attacks on Israeli and Jewish targets in Brazil. Justice Minister Flavio Dino condemned a "rush to conclusions" for "propaganda" purposes.
Drone and missile attacks by Huthi rebels in Yemen have barely troubled Israel but the Iran-backed group's overriding target is strategic rather than military, analysts say.
A series of launches over most of the Arabian Peninsula targeting Israel from war-torn, impoverished Yemen have either been shot down by missile defences or fallen short.
However, experts say the Huthis, who seized the capital Sanaa in 2014 and control much of country, have a different goal in mind: regional and domestic legitimacy.
