For the past decade, Nasser Jabbar and his children have lived in a rundown house built of grey concrete blocks at a shantytown in southern Iraq.

Drought chased the father of 10 out of the countryside, where he had been a herder and farmer, and into a life of unemployment and urban poverty.

"We lost the land and we lost the water," said the father in his 40s, wearing a traditional white robe.

He spoke to AFP in his home on the edges of Nasiriyah, capital of Dhi Qar province.

Israel said a four-day Gaza truce and hostage release will not start until at least Friday, delaying a breakthrough deal to pause the brutal war with Hamas.

National security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi indicated the phased release of at least 50 hostages in return for 150 Palestinian prisoners would still go ahead but not on Thursday as expected.

"The contacts on the release of our hostages are advancing and continuing constantly," he said in a statement about the agreed deal to free mostly women and people aged 18 and under on both sides.

The emirate of Qatar has further boosted its status as a specialist power in resolving delicate hostage situations by using its influence to help secure the release of hostages by Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Analysts say Qatar has honed a careful balancing act, allowing it to marry warm relations with Western powers while keeping ties with radical groups and states regarded as pariahs even by close allies.

US fighter jets struck two targets in Iraq early on Wednesday, killing eight pro-Iran fighters in retaliation for repeated attacks on American troops, US and Iraqi sources said.

The twin strikes, which followed similar bombardment of Iran-backed forces on Tuesday, drew condemnation from the Iraqi government, which said it had not been consulted about the military action on its soil.

The US military "conducted discrete, precision strikes against two facilities in Iraq", US Central Command posted on X, previously Twitter.

Harry Souttar scored the only goal as Australia held off a plucky Palestine in their 2026 World Cup qualifying match played at Jaber Al-Ahmad International Stadium in Kuwait City on Tuesday.

Thousands of Palestinians and their sympathisers turned out at the 60,000-seat venue for the game against Australia, Palestine's first in front of fans since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.

Lionel Messi's Inter Miami will face Cristiano Ronaldo's Al Nassr next February in the Riyadh Season Cup for what could be the final showdown of the global football icons.

Eight-time Ballon d'Or winner Messi, who joined the US squad in July and sparked a championship run in the Leagues Cup against US and Mexican clubs, is expected to meet Ronaldo, a five-time Ballon d'Or winner.

Messi, 36, led Argentina to last year's World Cup crown and has long been a rival of Portugal captain Ronaldo, 38.

Palestinian flags and the black-and-white keffiyeh scarf flew high in Kuwait's Jaber Al-Ahmad International Stadium as football fans vented their emotions in a World Cup qualifier on Tuesday.

Thousands of Palestinians and their sympathisers turned out at the 60,000-seat venue for the game against Australia, Palestine's first in front of fans since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.

"Palestine is in our hearts. We came to the stadium, old and young, in support," Anfal Al-Azmi, a 45-year-old Kuwaiti woman, told AFP.

The BRICS group of nations Tuesday called for an immediate and sustained humanitarian truce in Gaza during an extraordinary summit where chair South Africa accused Israel of war crimes and "genocide" in the Palestinian territory.

Pretoria hosted a virtual meeting of BRICS -- a group of major emerging economies that includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa -- aimed at drawing up a common response to the Israel-Hamas conflict.

In black robes, white moustaches and traditional hats, Druze religious elders stood before the coffin of Israeli soldier Adi Malik Harb, killed fighting Hamas militants in Gaza.

But while Israel's Druze minority serve in the military and fight and die for the country, many of them say their communities are marginalised and deprived of public investment while families are fined crippling sums for building homes due to selective enforcement of planning rules.

Amid the war ruins of Gaza, an Israeli soldier unfurls a rainbow flag in support of the LGBTQ community, reigniting a debate around "pinkwashing" as activists accuse Israel of deploying its liberal image as a tool against Hamas.

Israel has the most liberal legal approach to homosexuality in the Middle East, in marked contrast to the Palestinian territories, including the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, where it remains a taboo.