Freezing funds to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees risks "aiding" the deaths of civilians in Gaza, the head of Saudi Arabia's humanitarian agency told AFP on Tuesday.
Several countries -- including the United States, Britain, Germany and Japan -- have suspended funding to the UNRWA agency in response to Israeli allegations that some of its staff members participated in the October 7 attack by Hamas militants.
Passers-by call Tali Haddad a heroine when she shows them the place in the Israeli town of Ofakim where she saved 12 people from Hamas fighters on October 7, including her own son.
The attack that day caught residents by surprise in her normally peaceful neighbourhood, where some walls are still riddled with bullet holes.
More than 40 people were killed by Hamas fighters who drove from Gaza 25 kilometres (15 miles) away, cutting them down in the street, inside their homes or as they fought back.
That morning, Haddad, 49, refused to stay at home.
Israel faced growing international pressure Tuesday to agree to a ceasefire with Hamas, as it prepared for an incursion into the crowded southern Gaza city of Rafah where more than a million Palestinians are trapped.
CIA director William Burns met Mossad chief David Barnea in Cairo for talks on a Qatari-brokered plan to temporarily halt fighting in exchange for Hamas freeing hostages.
Ten months after war erupted in Sudan sending hundreds of thousands fleeing, many of those who sought refuge in neighbouring Egypt face a grim choice between homelessness and returning home at their own peril.
Single mother Rehab has been in Egypt for seven months, fighting to build a life for her children.
"I have a daughter who was born here, and I can't work to provide for her," the 28-year-old told AFP.
Majida has been working from a central Damascus cafe almost every day for a year, depending on it for reliable electricity and wifi in a country plagued by debilitating power cuts.
"Without cafes, I would have been unable to work because of the long blackouts at home," said the graphic designer, 42, declining to provide her surname.
Enterprising owners have upgraded their businesses with generators and batteries to guarantee power and draw in Damascenes plagued by Syria's war-battered and crumbling infrastructure.
Jordan's King Abdullah II appealed for a full ceasefire to end the Gaza war after talks with Joe Biden, striking a discordant note with the US president who is seeking a shorter six-week pause to give Israel time to defeat Hamas.
Speaking at the White House, the two leaders both warned however against any indiscriminate Israeli ground incursion into Gaza's southern city of Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians are trapped.
A top Emirati diplomat on Monday defended her country's decision to maintain ties with Israel despite its mounting concern over the war in Gaza.
The United Arab Emirates and Israel established diplomatic ties in 2020 as part of the US-brokered Abraham Accords, making it one of the few Arab countries to recognise Israel.
Despite maintaining its ties with Israel since the Israel-Hamas war began in October, the UAE has been at pains to express solidarity with Palestinians as anger mounted in the Arab world over the conflict.
The IMF and World Bank warned on Monday that the Gaza war and the related attacks on shipping through the Red Sea pose threats to the global economy.
The Israel-Hamas war raging since October has already hit the Middle East and North Africa region's economy, said the International Monetary Fund's managing director Kristalina Georgieva.
Its knock-on effects could impact the world the longer the fighting drags on, Georgieva told the World Governments Summit, an annual gathering of business and political leaders in Dubai.
As Huthi attacks roil the Red Sea and Western air raids target the rebels, moves to end Yemen's long-running war are at a standstill, threatening further woe for a country on its knees.
As recently as December, painstaking negotiations were gaining ground and the United Nations said the warring parties had agreed to work towards "the resumption of an inclusive political process".
Since she moved to Israel, Marie-Lyne Smadja had been confident the state would protect her, but Hamas's October 7 attack made her doubt whether she can count on the authorities to keep her safe.
The plight of relatives and supporters of hostages held by Gaza militants as well as of residents of the border area has haunted Israeli society, threatening to unravel what many view as the fundamental contract between the government and its citizens.
