The families of nine Israeli victims of last month's Hamas attacks have lodged a complaint at the International Criminal Court (ICC) for suspected war crimes, their lawyer said Friday.

The families also want Hamas prosecuted for genocide, and the ICC to issue an international arrest warrant for its leaders, lawyer Francois Zimeray said in a statement.

On October 7, Hamas carried out bloody raids that Israeli officials say killed 1,400 people, mostly civilians.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel Friday, an AFP correspondent travelling with him said, in a trip focused on measures to minimise harm to civilians in the war in Gaza.

Prior to his departure, Blinken said he would seek "concrete steps" from Israel to ensure that harm to Palestinian civilians is reduced, as US President Joe Biden also called for humanitarian pauses in the conflict.

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah warned Friday that war between Israel and Hamas could turn into a regional conflict if attacks on Gaza continue, placing responsibility firmly on the United States.

In his first speech since war broke out almost four weeks ago between Hamas militants and Israel, the head of the powerful Iran-backed movement warned that "all options" were open for an expansion of the conflict to Lebanon.

A journalist working for the Palestinian Authority's television channel was killed on Thursday in an Israeli strike on Gaza, his network reported, as war rages between Israel and Hamas.

"Our colleague Mohammed Abu Hatab fell as a martyr along with members of his family in an Israeli bombardment against his home in Khan Yunis" in the south of the territory, broadcaster Palestine TV station said.

Medical sources at Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis said at least 11 people were killed in the strike.

US President Joe Biden is calling for humanitarian pauses in the Israel-Hamas conflict that would involve a "temporary, localized" cessation of hostilities –- well short of a general ceasefire -- a senior White House official said Thursday.

At a campaign event on Wednesday Biden was urged by a member of the audience to call for a ceasefire in the war. Biden replied: "I think we need a pause."

Talking to reporters Thursday National Security Council spokesman John Kirby clarified what such a pause would entail.

The once bustling streets of Jerusalem's Old City have fallen eerily quiet, with the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas keeping away tourists and their much-needed cash.

In the maze-like warren of shopping streets that surrounds the city's holy sites, most businesses remained shuttered, nearly four weeks into the war.

The few remaining shopkeepers brave enough to open their stores wait day after day for tourists that have yet to return.

"There is no tourism industry any more," said Marwan Attieh, 48, a third-generation tour guide and souvenir shop owner.

French Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu said Thursday that Lebanon "doesn't need a war" with Israel and warned against a regional escalation as Israel bombards Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.

Lebanon's southern border has seen near daily exchanges of fire, mainly between Israel and Hamas ally Hezbollah, since Hamas launched a shock attack on Israel from the Palestinian territory on October 7.

"Lebanon doesn't need a war, that's the least we can say," Lecornu said during a visit to French peacekeepers in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

A barrage of rockets wounded two people in the Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona near the Lebanese border Thursday, Israel's Magen David Adom emergency medical service said.

One of the wounded was "a 25-year-old man in moderate condition who was injured by shrapnel," the medical service said.

An AFP photographer saw Israeli emergency crews checking the debris of burnt out vehicles following the strikes in Kiryat Shmona.

When Israeli mother Maayan Zin scrolls through her phone, she sees her worst nightmare and her only glimmer of hope as she desperately awaits news of her two young daughters, believed held hostage by Hamas.

Every day since the militant group's October 7 attack, she has re-watched a video of Hamas gunmen looming over her kneeling eight-year-old Ela, and a photo published online of 15-year-old Dafna inside Gaza.

France coach Didier Deschamps told a French National Assembly committee on Thursday that national teams had been "abandoned" over the issue of rainbow armbands at last year's World Cup in Qatar.

There was discussion before the competition over wearing "One Love" armbands as a protest because homosexual activity is illegal in Qatar, but the organisers and world football's governing body FIFA warned players not to.