Israel's war cabinet, seen as a symbol of national unity in the war against Hamas, has been shaken by political rivalry between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and centrist Benny Gantz, analysts say.
A former military chief and ex-defence minister, Gantz visited Washington Monday before heading to London on Wednesday for high-level talks in a trip which was not authorised by Netanyahu.
Like her ancestors before her, Emirati astronaut Nora AlMatrooshi has spent much of her life gazing up at the stars and dreaming of flying to the Moon.
This week, she became the first Arab woman to graduate from NASA's training program, ready to blast off into the cosmos.
AlMatrooshi, 30, remembers an elementary school lesson about space in which her teacher simulated a trip to the lunar surface, complete with arts-and-crafts spacesuits and a tent for a rocket ship.
Tears in his eyes, Mohammed al-Sabbagh shouts into a mobile phone, imploring his niece on the other end to "be strong" as she languishes under rubble in Gaza.
The call was made near the start of a three-day ordeal for the girl, 15-year-old Hala Hazem Hamada, who was finally rescued on Tuesday after a deadly encounter with Israeli soldiers that claimed the lives of six relatives including her parents.
South Africa on Wednesday petitioned the International Court of Justice to impose fresh emergency measures on Israel over what it described as the "widespread starvation" resulting from its Gaza offensive.
It is the second time Pretoria has asked the court for additional measures -- its first request in February was denied.
South Africa said it was "compelled to return to the Court in light of the new facts and changes in the situation in Gaza -- particularly the situation of widespread starvation" during the offensive.
If and when the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza are released under any deal, they face the risk of lasting psychological trauma, experts warned, citing the suffering of people freed previously.
"There are some that are living dead. As if they were frozen in time and place in Gaza, and haven't returned," said Merav Roth, a clinical psychologist who treated some of those former hostages and their families.
A missile fired by Yemen's Huthi rebels hit a bulk carrier in the Gulf of Aden on Wednesday, with the crew reporting three people killed and at least four wounded, the US military said.
The Iran-backed Huthis have been targeting merchant vessels transiting the vital Red Sea trade route for months but Wednesday's deaths were the first reported fatalities resulting from such an attack.
Francis Ngannou once toiled in a sand mine, scavenged for food to avoid starvation and slept rough in a car park, so facing former two-time world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua on Friday is just another stop on his epic rags-to-riches journey.
"I've had a lot of experience in life," the softly-spoken Cameroon-born fighter says with characteristic understatement.
"I've built my fighting spirit as high as anyone else."
Ngannou has crammed a lot into his 37 years.
Hezbollah on Wednesday held a funeral in southern Lebanon for two of its fighters and a woman, all members of the same family, who were killed in an Israeli strike the day before.
An AFP photographer saw hundreds of people turning up for the funeral in Hula, near the border with Israel that has seen deadly exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and Israeli forces since the start of the Gaza war.
Tuesday's strike on Hula killed a man and his son who were initially identified as civilian victims but later claimed by Hezbollah as fighters "martyred in battle".
Whether directing traffic or controlling prices, a group of vigilantes is determined to uphold order as five months of war have shattered any semblance of normalcy in Gaza's southernmost city of Rafah.
Their faces covered with black balaclavas, the so-called "Popular Committees of Protection" patrol Rafah where vast numbers of displaced people have sought refuge.
"We are hundreds of individuals and volunteers maintaining security and protecting citizens from high prices, organising public markets and transport," said 28-year-old Abu Mahmud.
Fear stalks the usually quiet Palestinian small town of Dura in the occupied West Bank, which has seen a rise in Israeli military operations since the Gaza war broke out.
Shaken by several violent deaths, the 48,000 people of the town west of Hebron always wonder when the next army raid will come, said its mayor Muhannad Amro.
"We don't know when it will happen nor what will happen," he told AFP. "We can only stay out of the way" of the soldiers and "stay away from windows", he said.
