Students in Paris protested again Thursday after police broke up a pro-Palestinian solidarity demonstration the night before at one of France's most prestigious universities.

The protests come as Israel's bombardment of Gaza sparks a wave of anger across college campuses in the United States.

Students at Sciences Po have accused management of calling in police to break up a pro-Palestinian protest by dozens of students gathered on a central Paris campus on Wednesday night.

Pro-Palestinian protests spread to more college campuses in the United States on Thursday as authorities appeared to be running out of patience and police began to push back forcefully.

Riot officers used chemical irritants and tasers at one university as administrators at some of the country's most prestigious institutions battled to prevent occupations taking hold.

US-led coalition forces shot down four drones and an anti-ship missile launched by Yemen's Houthi rebels, American authorities said Thursday, as the Iran-backed group announced strikes against US and Israeli ships.

A Greek vessel deployed in the Gulf of Aden as part of an EU naval coalition also shot down a drone off Yemen's coast early on Thursday, the Greece general staff said in a statement.

Palestinian woman Reem Zidan had been searching for her son for months, and finally found his body on Wednesday as a bulldozer unearthed human remains outside a Gaza hospital.

"They told me to move away, but I said, 'my son is on the bulldozer'," Zidan told AFP from the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis, crediting her "maternal instinct" for "knowing" it was the body of 22-year-old Nabil.

Israel said Wednesday it is "moving ahead" with its planned operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, despite international outcry over fears for the 1.5 million Palestinians sheltering there.

"Israel is moving ahead with our operation to target Hamas in Rafah," government spokesman David Mencer told a press briefing.

"The four battalions which remain in Rafah cannot be shielded from Israel. They will be attacked."

Mencer added that "two reserve brigades" had been mobilised "for defensive and tactical missions in Gaza" against the Palestinian Islamist movement.

Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai on Thursday condemned Israel and reaffirmed her support for Palestinians in Gaza, after a backlash in her native Pakistan over a Broadway musical she co-produced with former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Yousafzai, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014, has been condemned by some for partnering with Clinton, an outspoken supporter of Israel's war against Hamas.

The musical, titled "Suffs," depicts the American women's suffrage campaign for the right to vote in the 20th century and has been playing in New York since last week.

The United Arab Emirates announced $544 million to repair the homes of Emirati families on Wednesday after last week's record rains caused widespread flooding and brought the oil-rich Gulf state to a standstill.

"We learned great lessons in dealing with severe rains," said Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum after a cabinet meeting, adding that ministers approved "two billion dirhams to deal with damage to the homes of citizens".

Palestinian militant group Hamas released Wednesday a video of an Israeli-American man held hostage in Gaza who is seen alive and saying that the captives are living "in hell".

He identifies himself as Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, one of the hostages abducted from the Nova music festival in southern Israel during the Hamas attack on October 7.

His parents said in a statement they were "relieved to see him alive" but worried for his wellbeing.

Spiraling pro-Palestinian protests that are rocking universities across the United States spread to more campuses Wednesday, triggering suggestions from a senior Republican leader that the National Guard could be brought in.

The comments from House Speaker Mike Johnson are likely to evoke strong emotions in a country where the 1970 killing by National Guardsmen of unarmed students protesting the Vietnam war lives on in folk memory.

Saudi Arabia's ageing King Salman entered hospital for "routine examinations" on Wednesday, the Royal Court said, in a rare public statement about his health.

The tests were taking place at King Faisal Specialist Hospital in the Red Sea coastal city of Jeddah and were expected to last "a few hours", the Royal Court said, according to the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA).

King Salman, 88, has been on the throne since 2015, though his son, Mohammed bin Salman, 38, was named crown prince in 2017 and acts as day-to-day ruler.