The United States on Friday accused Iran of close involvement in attacks on commercial ships by Yemen's Huthi rebels, stepping up the tone as Washington considers tougher measures including possible force.

The White House publicly released US intelligence as the Iranian-linked Yemeni insurgents persist with ship strikes they say are in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, where Israel is battling Hamas militants.

The White House said that Tehran's clerical state has provided drones and missiles to the Huthis as well as tactical intelligence.

Awaiting inspection by Israeli soldiers, a miles-long queue of aid trucks bound for the war-battered Gaza Strip is held up for hours at a recently reopened but since bombarded crossing.

The trucks arrive from Egypt, loaded with crucial food and humanitarian supplies for Gaza's besieged and hungry population.

The vehicles wait on the Israeli side of Kerem Shalom crossing, which on Thursday was hit by a deadly Israeli strike more than two months into war with Gaza's Hamas rulers, triggered by deadly attacks on Israel.

Israel pressed its Gaza offensive Saturday, with Hamas authorities reporting heavy shelling in several cities hours after world powers demanded more aid be allowed into the besieged Palestinian territory.

The Hamas-controlled health ministry said 18 people were killed in a strike on a house in Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, as other targets were hit up and down the strip.

In a falafel joint in south Lebanon, Hussein Murtada prepared flat-bread snacks for his few remaining customers as an Israeli surveillance drone buzzed above the border village of Kfar Kila.

"We work under the bombs. A few days ago, a shell fell 200 metres (650 feet) from here. Shrapnel hit the shopfront and the wall," said Murtada, 60, pointing to the damage.

"I hid behind the fridge in the restaurant" during the bombardment, he told AFP.

The United Nations warned the Israel-Hamas war was pushing Gaza towards famine, ahead of an expected Security Council vote Friday on a resolution to boost aid to the Palestinian territory but not call for a ceasefire.

Separate diplomatic efforts were also under way for a fresh pause in the worst-ever Gaza war, which was triggered by an unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel in October.

With conditions deteriorating in the territory, the UN Security Council has been locked in negotiations on a resolution that would boost aid deliveries.

The United Nations Security Council approved on Friday a watered-down resolution that demands all sides in the Israel-Hamas conflict allow the "safe and unhindered delivery of humanitarian assistance at scale."

After days of delays, the resolution also called for the creation of "conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities" but did not call for an immediate end to fighting.

Russia and the United States, which both could have vetoed the measure as permanent members of the council, abstained, meaning it passed with 13 votes in favor.

The United Nations Security Council once again pushed back a vote for a much-delayed resolution on the war between Hamas and Israel, diplomatic sources said Thursday.

The postponement to Friday came even as the United States, which has opposed a number of proposals during the resolution's drafting, said it was ready to support it in its current form.

There are no longer any functional hospitals in the north of the Gaza Strip, the World Health Organization said Thursday, describing "unbearable" scenes of largely abandoned patients begging for food and water.

The UN health agency said it had led missions to two badly damaged hospitals, Al-Shifa and Al-Ahli, in the north of the Palestinian territory on Wednesday.

In the damp December cold, a blue bus stops near Weymouth town centre in southwest England. A few men get off, relieved to be spending a few hours away from what they call their "prison" -- a barge housing asylum seekers.

Hasan James, a 38-year-old Nigerian, is one of around 200 migrants staying on the Bibby Stockholm in the port of Portland, around 20 minutes' drive from Weymouth on the Dorset coast.

The impacts of the Israel-Hamas war are set to push crisis-hit Lebanon's economy back into recession, the World Bank said Thursday, blaming mainly a "shock to tourism spending".

Lebanon's southern border has seen regular exchanges of fire, mainly between the Israeli army and Hamas ally Hezbollah, since the Gaza conflict erupted on October 7.

The impact of the conflict had reversed a slight recovery for Lebanon, which has battled a deep economic crisis for years, the Washington-based bank said in a report.