The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said Monday Israel had blocked him from entering the war-torn and besieged Gaza Strip where the United Nations has warned of impending famine.

Israel responded that UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini had not followed proper procedure.

Lazzarini, who last month said Israel "aimed at destroying UNRWA," said he had "intended to go into Rafah today, but was informed my entry had been declined." He spoke in a Cairo joint press conference with Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry.

The World Bank is planning to give Egypt more than $6 billion in financial assistance over the next three years to help it meet its development priorities, the Washington-based lender announced Monday.

"Over the coming three years, the World Bank Group intends to provide more than US$6 billion of support to Egypt," the development lender said in a statement.

This includes "US$3 billion for financial support to Government’s programs and US$3 billion for the private sector (including mobilization) – subject to Board approval," it added.

Several countries Monday condemned the extent of human rights violations in Iran during a UN meeting, denouncing the sharp increase in death sentences and executions.

A handful of nations, including Russia, China and Cuba, however, offered Tehran some support during sessions at the Human Rights Council putting Iran's record under the microscope.

"I remain very concerned at the ongoing executions and spike in death penalty sentences observed," said Javaid Rehman, the council's special rapporteur on the rights situation in Iran.

Half of Gazans are experiencing "catastrophic" hunger, with famine projected to hit the north of the territory by May unless there is urgent intervention, a United Nations-backed food security assessment warned Monday.

"People in Gaza are starving to death right now. The speed at which this man-made hunger and malnutrition crisis has ripped through Gaza is terrifying," said Cindy McCain, head of the UN's World Food Programme (WFP).

Millions of Iranians will travel to be with their families for Nowruz, the Persian New Year, on Wednesday but economic troubles in the sanctions-hit country are weighing on the festivities.

Iranians will celebrate the start of the year 1403 at exactly 26 seconds past 6:36am (0406 GMT) on March 20, matching the astronomical time of the spring equinox.

Globally, some 300 million people will wish each other "Happy New Year" ("Nowruz mobarak") including in Iran, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan and among Kurds in Turkey, Iraq, Syria and elsewhere.

Israel's military said 20 Palestinian militants were killed Monday and scores detained during a raid on Gaza City's Al-Shifa hospital that targeted "senior Hamas terrorists".

Soldiers rolled in with tanks and air strikes hit the area around the Hamas-ruled territory's biggest medical centre, a complex crowded with patients and displaced people.

"During the operation we arrested more than 200 suspected terrorists and they are currently in investigation," Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, Israel's military spokesman, said in a televised statement.

After a 27-year hiatus, an Iraqi TV programme banned by Saddam Hussein for its gritty depiction of life under sanctions has returned to portray drug lords thriving in the war-scarred country.

Television viewership in the Middle East traditionally peaks during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, when the faithful tune in to their favourite shows after breaking their daily fast at sunset.

This Ramadan, a revived "Wahiba's World" is one of several Iraqi shows focusing on social issues such as drug addiction, crime, divorce and unemployment.

Fighting raged Monday in and around the besieged Gaza Strip's largest hospital complex where Israel said its forces killed and arrested Hamas militants, as Palestinians fled by foot under heavy bombardment.

The United States separately said Israel had killed the deputy leader of Hamas's armed wing, making him the most senior militant killed inside the territory during the war.

The al-Hol camp is the largest of two in northeastern Syria holding the families of Islamic State fighters.

Run by US-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), its population spiked at more than 70,000 as the coalition began tightening its grip on the last IS holdout in Baghouz late in 2018.

Iraqis have always been "the dominant nationality" in the camp, with their numbers at one time reaching 30,000, according to Doctors Without Borders.

At its height, 11,000 "foreign" women and children -- that is non-Syrian or Iraqi -- were held there.

Ali is 12 and has survived things no child should see, spending half his life in what amounts to a prison camp for jihadist families in an arid corner of northeastern Syria.

He knows not to dream of freedom. Instead he fantasises about having a football. "Can you get me one?" he said, as if he was asking for the Moon.