Lebanon's Hezbollah said it attacked 19 Israeli positions along the border simultaneously Thursday, prompting a "broad" retaliatory assault, on the eve of a speech by the Iran-backed group's leader on the Israel-Hamas war.

The Israel-Lebanon border has seen escalating tit-for-tat exchanges, mainly between the Israeli army and Hamas ally Hezbollah, since the Palestinian militants launched a shock attack on Israel on October 7, stoking fears of a regional conflagration.

Israeli ground troops fighting a war to destroy Hamas had surrounded Gaza City on Friday as top US diplomat Antony Blinken arrived in Israel and declared that the country has right and a duty to defend itself.

Israel, meanwhile, began expelling thousands of Palestinian workers back to Gaza, despite ongoing fighting and air strikes that have killed thousands of civilians in the territory.

In Geneva, the United Nations launched an emergency aid appeal seeking $1.2 billion to help some 2.7 million people facing a humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the West Bank.

Egypt will help evacuate "about 7,000" foreigners and dual nationals from the war-ravaged Gaza Strip, the foreign ministry said, with the health ministry announcing hundreds of new arrivals were processed Thursday.

The health ministry said 21 wounded Palestinians were brought out for treatment in Egyptian hospitals Thursday, and "344 foreign nationals, including 72 children" also passed through the Rafah border crossing.

It was the second day that Egypt had opened the crossing to let people out of Gaza after a first on Wednesday.

In a small village in the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan, solar panels adorn most homes, part of a small but growing effort to harness the sun's energy in Iraq, where electricity is scarce.

"Solar covers all our needs: the refrigerator, television, air cooler, washing machine, vacuum cleaner," said Daniar Abdallah, 33, a resident of Hazar Merd who converted to solar and hasn't looked back.

"It has helped us a lot," said the father of two, who spent $2,800 in 2018 to install photovoltaic panels for his family home.

President Joe Biden, when responding to a heckler at a Minnesota campaign event Wednesday night, said he thinks there should be a humanitarian "pause" in the Israeli-Hamas war to get "prisoners" out of Gaza.

The 80-year-old Democrat was delivering remarks to some 200 supporters in the northern US state when a member of the audience shouted out to him.

"As a rabbi, I need you to call for a ceasefire right now," she said, referring to the deadly conflict between Israel and Hamas.

It's hard to miss the former United States embassy in the centre of Iran's capital Tehran, because it is daubed with striking anti-American murals.

The building, today known as the "Den of Spies" museum, encapsulates the hostility of Iran-US relations marred by decades of mistrust and crises, including the current Israel-Hamas war.

Visitors to the site are greeted by a tattered Stars and Stripes flag and a mural of the Statue of Liberty, her arm carrying a crumbled-away torch of freedom, while another depicts her with a skull face.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Japan, South Korea and India after his latest crisis visit to the Middle East, the State Department said Wednesday, keeping a US focus on Asia.

On the three stops next week, Blinken will "advance collaborative efforts to support a free and open Indo-Pacific region that is prosperous, secure, connected and resilient," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.

Pope Francis on Wednesday said he would attend the crucial COP28 climate talks starting in Dubai on November 30, weeks after warning that time is running out to act on global warming.

It will be the first time a pope has attended a COP meeting in person since the process began in 1995.

"I will go to Dubai. I think that I will leave on December 1 through the 3rd. I'll spend three days there," the pontiff told Italy's Rai 1 television.

The 86-year-old has made the environment one of the main themes of his papacy since being elected pope by cardinals in 2013.

President Joe Biden said Wednesday that the first US citizens were able to leave the war-hit Gaza Strip after weeks of diplomacy and mounting frustration by hundreds of US citizens trapped in the conflict.

Since Israel launched retaliatory strikes following a bloody assault by Hamas, the impoverished Gaza Strip has seen limited food, water and medicine, leading Palestinian-Americans to file lawsuits alleging double-standards on efforts to evacuate them.

"Victory is not easy, but it is certain," imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize winner and women's rights activist Narges Mohammadi, said in a message smuggled out of her Tehran cell and published late Tuesday.

In the message, read out in French by her daughter, Kiana Rahmani, and posted on the official Nobel website, the 51-year-old activist and journalist expressed "sincere gratitude" to the Norwegian Nobel committee.