The Israeli military said it renewed strikes on Gaza Wednesday, killing one person according to the Palestinian territory's health ministry.

In a statement, the military said it was "currently striking Islamic Jihad terrorist organisation rocket launching infrastructure in the Gaza Strip".

A Gaza health ministry official told AFP one person was killed.

An AFP journalist saw air strikes hit north of Gaza City, with smoke billowing from the densely-populated territory.

Israel's army and Gaza militants traded heavy cross-border fire Wednesday, with 22 Palestinians killed over two days amid the worst escalation of violence to hit the coastal territory in months.

Smoke billowed from the densely populated coastal enclave after Israel announced it was targeting rocket launch sites of the militant group Islamic Jihad.

Gaza's health ministry said seven people were killed, a day after Israeli strikes on the Palestinian territory left 15 dead.

Tunisia's small Jewish community was in shock and mourning Wednesday after a bloody shooting rampage in which a police officer killed five people outside Africa's oldest synagogue.

The shooting Tuesday sparked mass panic during an annual Jewish pilgrimage at the historic Ghriba synagogue on the resort island of Djerba, which was quickly locked down by security forces.

"I never believed that I would experience such terror," recounted one survivor, Raoudha Seibi.

In a dimly lit Damascus cafe, Sharief Homsi kicked off comedy night with a quip about war-battered Syria's modern-day prince charming: an eligible bachelor with attractive supplies of fuel and electricity.

"Marry me, I have a bright future: 100 litres of petrol, solar panels to generate electricity and three gas canisters," he said, performing a mock proposal that had the audience howling.

Forty years after the discovery of HIV, AFP looks at how far we have come in fighting a deadly virus that was once shrouded in fear and shame but is now treated as a manageable chronic condition.

- 1981: First alert -

In June 1981, US epidemiologists report five cases of a rare form of pneumonia in gay men in California.

It is the first alert about Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), still unknown and unnamed.

Doctors then identify "opportunistic infections" among intravenous drug users and in haemophiliacs and Haitian residents in the United States.

Syria's President Bashar al-Assad cemented his return to the Arab fold Tuesday when leading Sunni power Saudi Arabia, which long supported Syria's opposition, said its diplomats would resume work in the country.

The restoration of diplomatic ties, later confirmed by Damascus, came more than a decade after Riyadh withdrew its representatives during Syria's civil war, and two days after the Arab League bloc ended Syria's years-long suspension.

The war between Sudan's generals is having increasingly severe consequences for civilians, with a doubling over the past week of the number uprooted from their homes, the United Nations said on Tuesday.

Hundreds have been killed so far. New worries emerged as separate ethnic clashes claimed at least 16 lives in the country's south, and a powerful group in the east -- so far untouched by the war -- demonstrated in support of the army.

More than 700,000 people are now internally displaced by battles since April 15, according to the International Organization for Migration.

Calls grew Tuesday for a halt of an auction of jewels that belonged to Austrian billionaire Heidi Horten whose German husband made his fortune under the Nazis.

Calling the auction in Geneva, which opened online last week and begins in person on Wednesday "indecent", the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (CRIF) called for proceedings to be suspended.

Lionel Messi's uninspiring two-year stint at Paris Saint-Germain is set to come to an acrimonious end with a move to join long-time rival Cristiano Ronaldo in Saudi Arabia, just months after his crowning glory at the 2022 World Cup.

For his legions of admirers, the debate about Messi's right to be regarded as the greatest footballer in history was officially put to bed when he led Argentina to the title in Qatar in December.

But his career at the highest level in Europe appears to have finished on a low note.

Oil giant Saudi Aramco announced first-quarter net profit of $31.9 billion on Tuesday, down 19.25 percent from a year earlier after a drop in crude prices.

The result was lower than the $39.5 billion reported in the same period in 2022, when Russia's invasion of Ukraine caused oil prices to surge.

It is more than three-quarters of the $40.5 billion in combined first-quarter profits reported by the five oil majors: BP and Shell in Britain, ExxonMobil and Chevron in the United States, and TotalEnergies in France.