Hunger is everywhere at Rafah zoo, in Gaza's far south, as internally displaced Palestinians seek shelter from the war between cages and animals die of starvation.

"The situation is very tragic, there's no food, water, medicine, or anything," its owner Ahmed Jumaa said, a parrot perched on his shoulder.

The World Health Organization has warned of the risk of famine and disease, with only a minimal amount of aid entering the Palestinian territory nearly three months into the fighting between Israel and Hamas militants.

The Dakar Rally roars into life on Friday in Saudi Arabia with Qatari Nasser Al-Attiyah seeking a sixth title and third in a row in the mythic motorsport marathon.

A 425-strong colourful caravanserai made up of cars, bikes, quads and trucks sets out from Al-Ula on a treacherous 4,900-mile odyssey around the Gulf kingdom with a January 19 finish in Yanbu on the Red Sea.

This year's route includes a first ever 48-hour stage in the Empty Quarter, a vast sea of sand with dunes as far as the eye can see.

The chief of Lebanon's powerful Hezbollah movement, Hassan Nasrallah, warned Israel on Wednesday against waging war on Lebanon, a day after a strike killed Hamas's deputy leader in the southern Beirut stronghold of Hezbollah.

"If the enemy thinks of waging a war on Lebanon, we will fight without restraint, without rules, without limits and without restrictions," Nasrallah said in a televised speech.

"We are not afraid of war," he said, adding that "for now, we are fighting on the frontline following meticulous calculations".

Near Israel's tense northern border with Lebanon, residents fear the killing of the deputy leader of Palestinian militant group Hamas in Beirut could spark a war with their neighbour.

During nearly three months of fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, the Israeli army has also been exchanging cross-border fire with Lebanon's Hezbollah, which is allied with Hamas.

While the violence had already dampened the mood in the coastal city of Nahariya, the anxiety level shot up with the death of Hamas number two Saleh al-Aruri in a strike in a Beirut suburb on Tuesday.

Nearly three months after Hamas's bloody attack on Israel, stray dogs roam amid bullet-riddled cars at the country's shuttered Erez crossing with the Gaza Strip.

Surrounded by high fences and with security cameras at every turn, the Erez crossing was once under constant guard by heavily-armed Israeli security forces.

But on October 7, the only crossing which enabled people to travel between Israel and Gaza was one of dozens of sites to come under attack by Hamas militants.

In rare images taken by AFP journalists on Wednesday, the fallout of that battle remains.

Casi tres meses después del sangriento ataque de Hamas contra Israel, perros callejeros deambulan entre autos acribillados a balazos en el cerrado cruce de Erez con la Franja de Gaza.

Rodeado de altas vallas y con cámaras de seguridad en cada esquina, el cruce de Erez alguna vez estuvo bajo vigilancia constante por fuerzas de seguridad israelíes fuertemente armadas.

Pero el 7 de octubre, el único cruce que permitía a la gente viajar entre Israel y Gaza fue uno de las docenas de sitios que fueron atacados por militantes de Hamas.

哈马斯对以色列发动血腥袭击近三个月后，在该国与加沙地带之间的埃雷兹过境点，流浪狗在满是弹孔的汽车中游荡。

埃雷兹过境点周围环绕着高高的栅栏，每个转弯处都有安全摄像头，曾经受到全副武装的以色列安全部队的严密把守。

但 10 月 7 日，人们能够在以色列和加沙之间旅行的唯一过境点是遭到哈马斯武装分子袭击的数十个地点之一。

在法新社记者周三拍摄的罕见照片中，这场战斗的余波依然存在。

废弃停车场里的汽车布满弹孔，大部分停机坪都被撕毁。

一块标牌上用希伯来语、阿拉伯语和英语写着“欢迎来到埃雷兹过境点”，下面是一堆废墟。

流浪狗和鸟类在航站楼外的泥泞地上觅食，这里曾经熙熙攘攘地挤满了数千名经过以色列严格的背景调查获得工作许可后进入以色列的加沙人。

在埃雷兹因战争爆发而被关闭之前，持有医疗许可证的巴勒斯坦人、外交官和人道主义工作者也能通过。

过去，从加沙过境的人会接受全身扫描仪，他们的随身物品会在幕后接受搜查，最后检查他们的证件。

埃雷兹过境点毗邻一个军事基地，周三有人看到装甲车驶近该基地。

10月7日，以色列军方对该地区发动空袭，并表示“恐怖分子在埃雷兹过境点被挫败”。

Argentina's government said Wednesday that three foreigners, citizens of Syria and Lebanon, had been arrested under suspicion of planning a "terrorist act", as the country hosts a major Jewish sporting event.

Security Minister Patricia Bullrich told the media that authorities had been on high alert as Buenos Aires hosts the Pan-American Maccabiah Games, bringing together some 4,000 athletes.

She said the country had received intelligence from the United States and Israel on the potential threat, and that the three suspects had booked a hotel near the Israeli embassy.

Palestinian mourners broke into sobs as they huddled around defiant family members of slain Hamas deputy Saleh al-Aruri in his village in the occupied West Bank Wednesday, a day after his death in Lebanon.

Aruri, exiled from his village Arura since he was released from an Israeli jail in 2010, was killed in a drone strike on a southern Beirut suburb that Lebanese officials said was carried out by Israel.

Holding a photograph of her son framed in gold, Aisha al-Aruri, 81, said she struck a note of defiance when weeping village women informed her of the 57-year-old's death.

Iran blamed Israel and the United States on Wednesday for twin bomb blasts that killed at least 95 people in the country's south, ripping through a crowd commemorating Revolutionary Guards general Qasem Soleimani four years after his death in a US strike.

The two explosions -- labelled a "terrorist attack" by state media and regional authorities -- came amid high Middle East tensions over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and the killing of a Hamas senior leader in Lebanon on Tuesday.