It seems an incongruous question in the middle of Israel's war with Hamas, but asked who wanted to return home, these Gazans stuck in the occupied West Bank responded as one: "Me, to be with my family."

"My wife is alone in Gaza City, under the bombs, with our four children. They are scared. They have nothing, no water, no food. I must go back to try to help them," said a desperate Abdelazim al-Arifi, whose children are aged between seven months and nine years old.

Israel has agreed to humanitarian "pauses" in its offensive on Hamas in Gaza after pressure from the United States, President Joe Biden said on Thursday.

Biden said they were a "step in the right direction" that would help civilians flee the fighting and get more aid into stricken areas.

The White House said there would be daily, four-hour pauses in northern Gaza, with warning given three hours beforehand.

France hosted a conference Thursday on humanitarian aid for Gaza calling for a "humanitarian pause" so countries can "work towards a ceasefire", as the Palestinian territory remained under bombardment by Israel following Hamas' October attack.

"In the immediate term, we need to work on protecting civilians. To do that, we need a humanitarian pause very quickly and we must work towards a ceasefire," President Emmanuel Macron told delegates in Paris.

As Turkey's relations with the European Union come under strain over its democratic standards, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's outspoken pro-Palestinian stance on the war between Israel and Hamas is further testing ties.

After a bloody October 7 raid by Hamas fighters triggered Israel's relentless bombardment of Gaza, Erdogan initially sought to position Turkey as a mediator.

But this apparent ambition evaporated last month after the Turkish leader portrayed Hamas not as a terrorist group but as "liberators" or "mujahideen" fighting for their land.

Before he fled his home in northern Gaza, where intense fighting now rages between Israel and Hamas, Mahmud al-Masri had a grim job to do: bury his three brothers and their five children in a nearby citrus orchard.

With his home area turned into a war zone, the bereaved 60-year-old farmer had no choice but to dig makeshift graves and hastily bid farewell to his relatives killed in an Israeli strike.

"We had to bury them there in the orchard because the cemetery is in the border zone where tanks are coming in, and it's very dangerous," Masri said.

UK interior minister Suella Braverman's position looked increasingly precarious on Thursday after she criticised policing of pro-Palestinian marches in comments made without Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's approval.

Sunak was facing mounting calls to sack his home secretary after she suggested officers "play favourites" when policing protests and claimed they largely ignored "pro-Palestinian mobs" during recent demonstrations against the Israel-Hamas war.

Israel has agreed pauses in its offensive in northern Gaza that will allow some civilians to flee heavy fighting, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ruled out any broader ceasefire as a "surrender" to Hamas.

US President Joe Biden welcomed the pauses, which formalise an arrangement that has already seen tens of thousands of Palestinians flee devastation in northern Gaza, but also said there was "no possibility" of a ceasefire.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday opened a conference on humanitarian aid for Gaza by calling for a "ceasefire", echoed by other delegates looking to support the Palestinian territory under bombardment by Israel since the October 7 attack by Hamas.

"In the immediate term, we need to work on protecting civilians. To do that, we need a humanitarian pause very quickly and we must work towards a ceasefire," Macron told delegates in Paris.

Israeli forces on Thursday killed 18 Palestinians across the occupied West Bank, the territory's health ministry said, most of them shot dead during an army raid on Jenin.

AFP journalists saw black smoke rising over the city of Jenin, a militant stronghold in the northern West Bank, and heard multiple explosions and gunfire.

The health ministry said in a statement 14 Palestinians were killed in Jenin -- the highest West Bank death toll from a single Israeli raid since 2005, according to United Nations records.

Saudi Arabia is hosting Arab leaders and Iran's president for two summits this weekend on the ongoing war in Gaza, which is raising fears of a regional escalation.

The emergency meetings of the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation come after over one month of Israeli bombardment has killed more than 10,000 people in Gaza, many of them children, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.