Palestinians with relatives in Israeli prisons have been deprived of visiting rights during the Israel-Hamas war, opting instead to send messages to loved ones on a radio programme.

"Hello, this message is for my brother Islam. How are you, my brother?" said one greeting sent via a Palestinian radio show called Messages for the Prisoners.

"Your house is ready. When you get out, you will be all set to find someone to marry!"

After the Gaza war ends, new Palestinian leaders are needed who could helm a future independent state, opposition figure Nasser al-Kidwa, the nephew of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, told AFP.

They should also seek a "peaceful divorce" with 88-year-old Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, who should assume a purely ceremonial role, argued Kidwa, a former Palestinian foreign minister.

Brazil criticized the "paralysis" of the UN Security Council on the wars in Gaza and Ukraine as it opened a G20 meeting Wednesday where the international community's deep divisions were on display.

The outlook is bleak for progress on the thorny agenda of conflicts and crises gripping the planet as foreign ministers from the world's biggest economies gather in Rio de Janeiro for the Group of 20's first high-level meeting of the year.

The United States told the UN's top court on Wednesday that Israel should not be legally forced to withdraw from occupied Palestinian territory without security guarantees.

The International Court of Justice is holding a week of hearings after a request from the United Nations, with an unprecedented 52 countries giving their views on Israel's occupation.

Most speakers have demanded that Israel end its occupation, which came after a six-day Arab-Israeli war in 1967, but Washington came to its ally's defence at the court.

The United States told the UN's top court on Wednesday that Israel should not be legally forced to withdraw from occupied Palestinian territory without security guarantees.

The International Court of Justice is holding a week of hearings after a request from the UN, with an unprecedented 52 countries giving their views on Israel's occupation.

Most speakers have demanded that Israel end its occupation, which came after a six-day Arab-Israeli war in 1967, but Washington came to its ally's defence at the court.

An Israeli air strike on south Lebanon killed a woman and a girl on Wednesday, prompting Lebanon's powerful Hezbollah movement to retaliate with rocket fire.

The Iran-backed Hezbollah movement and its arch-foe Israel have been exchanging near-daily fire across the border since the Israel-Hamas war broke out on October 7.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said that Khadija Salman was killed and her daughter seriously wounded in the "enemy" strike on the southern village of Majdal Zun.

A Saudi women's rights activist detained over social media posts has been out of contact with the outside world since November, Amnesty International said Wednesday, accusing Saudi authorities of "enforced disappearance".

Manahel al-Otaibi was arrested in November 2022 for social media posts challenging the country's male guardianship laws and requirements for women to wear the customary body-shrouding abaya.

Israeli troops killed three Palestinian militants during an overnight raid in the northern West Bank city of Jenin, the military said on Wednesday.

The Palestinian health ministry confirmed at least one death in the Israeli operation, the latest in a months-long military crackdown across the occupied West Bank since Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel.

"In a joint counterterrorism activity in the city of Jenin, IDF soldiers apprehended 14 suspects, killed three terrorists and struck additional terrorists," the army said in a statement.

An Israeli strike on a residential area of Damascus killed at least two people Wednesday, Syrian state media reported, the latest deaths from an escalating Israeli air campaign since the Gaza war erupted.

Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes in Syria since civil conflict broke out in 2011, but has increased pressure on its Iran-backed neighbour since Hamas's unprecedented attack from the Gaza Strip on October 7.

Dancers and drummers swarmed the Saudi delegation from the moment they touched down in Somalia's capital to launch new aid projects, part of the kingdom's ramped-up outreach to the African nation.

Yet as they politely applauded agreements to provide stationery for schoolchildren and watering points for livestock, some Somali officials made clear they hoped Saudi engagement would go much further, including deeper into the security sphere.