Dozens of Muslim worshippers gathered in New York's Times Square Sunday to mark the start of the holy month of Ramadan, with some displaying Palestinian flags in solidarity with people in Gaza.

They performed Taraweeh, special Ramadan night prayers, against the backdrop of the bright LED advertising billboards that illuminate the Manhattan landmark.

The Muslim holy month of Ramadan begins on Monday, Middle Eastern nations have announced, with the king of Saudi Arabia using the occasion to call for an end to the "heinous crimes" taking place in war-torn Gaza.

Saudi Arabia said through its official SPA news agency on Sunday that the Supreme Court had announced "Monday, March 11, 2024, the beginning of the blessed month of Ramadan for this year".

Military planes parachuted aid over Gaza on Sunday, an AFP photographer said, the latest airdrop over the besieged territory's north where famine looms more than five months into the Israel-Hamas war.

The photographer, on board a Jordanian military plane, saw hundreds of Palestinians rushing to receive the falling pallets of basic supplies.

The Jordanian army said in a statement that US, French, Belgian and Egyptian planes also participated in the relief operation that included "six joint airdrops in the northern parts of Gaza".

Ramadan will begin on Monday, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE announced, with the Muslim holy fasting month taking place against a backdrop of devastating war in Gaza.

Saudi Arabia, which is home to Islam's holiest sites, said through its official SPA news agency on Sunday that the Supreme Court had announced "Monday, March 11, 2024, the beginning of the blessed month of Ramadan for this year".

The United Arab Emirates and Qatar also announced the start date for Ramadan through their own official news outlets after the sighting of the crescent moon.

Iraqi forces have killed 10 jihadists during an operation against Islamic State group remnants in a vast desert area northwest of Baghdad, authorities said Sunday.

An Iraqi security source told AFP the operation was "a pre-emptive measure" to thwart attacks allegedly planned for the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which starts in the coming days.

The army said in a statement that troops have killed "10 terrorists in the past 24 hours".

Dutch King Willem-Alexander officially opened the country's first Holocaust Museum Sunday, as demonstrators angry at Israel's military campaign in Gaza protested against the Israeli president, who also addressed the ceremony.

"This museum shows us what devastating consequences anti-Semitism can have," said the king at a solemn gathering at a nearby synagogue, attended also by Dutch Holocaust survivors.

Along with cumbersome border checks and relentless Israeli bombardment, the humanitarian response in war-ravaged Gaza faces a new challenge: a de facto freeze on visas for many international aid workers.

Israeli authorities have stopped issuing new visas or renewing old ones for foreign employees of international NGOs, most of whom occupy senior positions, according to three senior humanitarian officials and a body representing more than 80 groups.

The Muslim holy month of Ramadan begins Monday in Gaza with no truce in sight, as fighting rages between Israeli forces and Hamas militants and a dire humanitarian crisis grips the besieged Palestinian territory.

A Spanish charity ship with food aid prepared to sail from Cyprus to the coastal Gaza Strip, where the UN has repeatedly warned of famine.

Aid groups say only a fraction of the supplies required to meet basic humanitarian needs have been allowed into Gaza since October, when Israel placed it under near-total siege.

Huddled in the back of a van, Rebin Pishtiwan carefully scans one yellowed page after another, as part of his mission to digitise historic Kurdish books at risk of disappearing.

Seen as the world's largest stateless people, the Kurds are an ethnic group of between 25 and 35 million mostly spread across modern day Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey.

In Iraq, the Kurds are a sizeable minority who have been persecuted, with thousands killed under the rule of late dictator Saddam Hussein and many of their historic documents lost or destroyed.

Joe Biden said Benjamin Netanyahu's approach to the war in Gaza was "hurting Israel more than helping Israel" in an interview aired Saturday, as the US leader's impatience with his Israeli counterpart grows increasingly visible.

With Gaza's humanitarian crisis growing more dire and Biden's left flank in uproar, the US president made contradictory remarks as to the question of a "red line" over Israel's threatened offensive on Rafah in southern Gaza.