Children have begun starving to death in Gaza, where the United Nations has warned a famine is "almost inevitable."

Here's what to know about the hunger crisis engulfing the war-torn Palestinian territory.

- Emaciated children -

At least 15 children have died from starvation and dehydration in a single hospital, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

Media including AFP have captured haunting images of emaciated infants with sunken eyes and gaunt faces.

Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump expressed his support for Israel's war in Gaza Tuesday, in his most explicit comments yet on the fighting, as international pressure grows on the United States to rein in its ally.

"Yes," Trump responded, when asked during an interview on Fox News if he was "in Israel's camp."

The interviewer then asked if the former president was "on board" with the way Israel was executing its offensive in Gaza.

"You've got to finish the problem," Trump responded.

US President Joe Biden warned Tuesday of a "very, very dangerous" situation without a Gaza ceasefire deal by Ramadan, adding that it was up to Hamas to accept a deal as talks continue in Cairo.

As the US military made its second airdrop of aid to Gaza, Biden also told ally Israel there were "no excuses" for failing to allow more aid into the Palestinian enclave where the UN warns famine is looming.

A Lebanese couple and their son were killed Tuesday in an Israeli strike on a house in the southern border village of Hula, the Lebanese official National News Agency reported.

Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah movement and Israel have traded deadly cross-border fire on a near-daily basis since war broke out in October between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers, a Hezbollah ally.

"The three civilians, Hassan Hussein, his wife, Ruwaida Mustafa, and their 25-year-old son, Ali Hussein, were killed in the enemy raid on a three-storey house in Hula," NNA said.

The sinking of a bulk carrier off Yemen after a Huthi missile attack poses grave environmental risks as thousands of tonnes of fertiliser threaten to spill into the Red Sea, officials and experts warn.

Leaking fuel and the chemical pollutant could harm marine life, including coral reefs, and impact coastal communities that rely on fishing for their livelihoods, they said.

The Belize-flagged, Lebanese-operated Rubymar sank on Saturday with 21,000 metric tonnes of ammonium phosphate sulfate fertiliser on board, according to US Central Command.

The United Nations on Tuesday called on the international community to "flood" Gaza with aid amid reports that children are dying of starvation in the war-torn Palestinian territory.

"With children starting ... to die from starvation, that should be an alarm like no other," Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN humanitarian agency, told reporters in Geneva.

Iran executed at least 834 people last year, the highest number since 2015, as capital punishment in the Islamic republic surged to a "staggering" level, human rights groups said on Tuesday.

The number of executions, which Iran has always carried out by hanging in recent years, was up some 43 percent on 2022.

It marked only the second time in two decades that more than 800 executions were recorded in a year, after 972 executions in 2015, Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) and Paris-based Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM) said in the joint report.

US President Joe Biden on Tuesday called on Hamas to accept a Gaza ceasefire deal by the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, while the Palestinian militant group warned talks for a truce and hostage release cannot go on "indefinitely".

As famine threatens Gazans, US and Jordanian planes again airdropped food aid into the besieged territory of 2.4 million people in a joint operation with Egypt and France.

Gazans detained by Israeli forces are coming back "completely traumatized" upon release and reporting abuses while in captivity, the head of the UN's Palestinian refugee agency said Monday.

Detainees reported being subjected to a "broad range of ill treatment" including threats of electrocution, being photographed naked, sleep deprivation and having dogs used to intimidate them, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini told a media briefing.

Gaza's hospitals have been wracked by strikes, sieges and raids, but on a day-to-day basis, it is the Palestinian territory's acute power shortages that pose an enduring risk to life-saving care.

"Power means life or death in hospitals," said Hiba Tibi, country director for the occupied West Bank and Gaza at the international aid group Care.

At Kamal Adwan hospital's maternity ward in northern Gaza, solar panels are the only thing keeping incubators running, five months into the gruelling war.