Hundreds of Palestinian journalists have had to flee south from Gaza City and work in fear for their lives in appalling conditions as Israeli air raids pound the territory.

Tents in a hospital courtyard have become their newsroom by day and dormitory at night.

Some work for local media outlets and others for international news organisations. But all suffer the same ordeal as they try to do their jobs amid the violence and suffering caused by the Israel-Hamas war.

US President Joe Biden called Wednesday for world leaders to develop plans for a "path toward peace" including two-state solution when the Israel-Hamas war is over.

Biden also said during a visit by the Australian prime minister that while Israel has the right to respond to the October 7 Hamas attack it must do everything it can to protect civilians.

But as international pressure mounts for a ceasefire, Biden added that he "did not demand" that Israel delay a ground invasion of Gaza, which Israel has been pounding since the attacks.

Nearly two decades after Israeli settlers left Gaza, the October 7 attacks and war against Hamas militants have rekindled a wish among some of a return to the Palestinian territory.

"It cannot be more dangerous to have our families inside Gaza than next to Gaza," said Zevulun Kalfa, 61, recalling the bloody assault earlier this month that hit his kibbutz and other Israeli communities near the border of the blockaded Strip.

Kalfa has fond memories of his years in the former Israeli settlement of Atzmona, just north of Rafah in the southern Strip.

American and allied forces deployed in Iraq and Syria as part of an international anti-jihadist coalition have been repeatedly targeted by drone and missile attacks this month.

Although the attacks have not been claimed by a known group with documented links to Iran, Washington says Tehran is involved and has threatened to respond "decisively" to strikes by its proxies.

- Why have attacks increased? -

The UN Security Council on Wednesday failed again to take action on the Israel-Hamas war, with Russia and China vetoing a US-led draft resolution and a text led by Moscow drawing insufficient support.

The rival powers went ahead and put forward texts doomed to defeat despite what diplomats said was a last-ditch effort led by France to delay a vote and work toward consensus.

Polish-born Israeli historian Alex Dancyg has dedicated his life to passing on the memory of the Holocaust. Now the 75-year-old is feared to be among the hostages Hamas in holding in war-torn Gaza.

Desperate for his safe return, friends and family have launched a campaign to build pressure for his release -- echoing similar efforts for captives from Israel to the United States and Thailand.

The world's top management consultancy McKinsey & Company is using its position as a key advisor to the UN's COP28 climate talks to push the interests of its big oil and gas clients, undermining efforts to end the use of the fossil fuels driving global warming, according to multiple sources and leaked documents.

Behind closed doors, the US-based firm has proposed future energy scenarios to the agenda setters of the summit that are at odds with the climate goals it publicly espouses, an AFP investigation has found.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday rejected the "misrepresentations" of his remarks a day earlier on Palestinian grievances that infuriated Israel, which has vowed to retaliate against the world body.

"I am shocked by misrepresentations by some of my statement yesterday in the Security Council -- as if I was justifying acts of terror by Hamas," Guterres told reporters, without naming Israel.

Jordan's Queen Rania accused Western leaders of a "glaring double standard" for not condemning Israel's killing of Palestinian civilians in its bombardment of Gaza, in an interview aired Wednesday.

The royal, born to Palestinian parents in Kuwait, blasted Western nations for opposing a blanket ceasefire and said their silence gave the impression they were "complicit" in Israel's attacks on the Gaza Strip.

The foreign ministers of Turkey and Qatar accused the international community of "double standards" Wednesday in its reaction to the escalating conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

Qatar's top diplomat Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said the two governments -- both Western allies -- "reaffirm our complete rejection of responding to the crisis with double standards when it comes to human life".

"It is not permissible to condemn the killing of civilians in one context and justify it in another." Al-Thani, who also serves as Qatar's prime minister, said.