Egypt is preparing to treat wounded Palestinians from the bombarded Gaza Strip starting Wednesday, with the opening of a border crossing to people after weeks of war, medical and security sources said.

The border authority in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip said that Egypt had agreed to let in 81 of the most badly wounded on Wednesday through Rafah, the only crossing not controlled by Israel.

An AFP photographer on Tuesday saw a large number of ambulances gathered at Rafah.

Lebanese emergency crews rush to the scene of Israeli bombardments in ageing vehicles and without protective gear as the crisis-hit country struggles to prepare for a possible war.

A gruelling, four-year-long economic collapse, widely blamed on the governing elite, has left Lebanon ill-prepared for another disaster, and volunteers and local authorities are scrambling to fill the gap with limited means.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday that the Palestinian Authority should retake control of the Gaza Strip from Hamas, with international players potentially filling a role in an interim.

As Israel bombards Gaza in retaliation for an October 7 assault by Hamas, Blinken endorsed the Israeli goal of destroying the Islamist militant movement that has ruled the impoverished territory since 2007.

The arrest of a prize-winning Iranian rights lawyer has compounded the anger expressed by rights groups over the death of a teenage girl who activists say was fatally beaten by the Tehran morality police.

Nasrin Sotoudeh, 60, was arrested at the funeral on Sunday in Tehran of Armita Garawand, 17, whose death was reported by Iranian state media at the weekend after a month in a coma.

The US secretaries of state and defense urged Congress Tuesday to sustain support for Ukraine and warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to use the Israel-Hamas war to reduce Western support for Kyiv.

President Joe Biden has combined military aid for Ukraine and Israel in a proposed $106 billion package, but a significant number of Republicans in Congress -- among whom support for Ukraine's fight against Russia's invasion is faltering -- are opposed to linking the two.

Protesters with hands covered in red paint repeatedly interrupted a congressional hearing on US military aid Tuesday, demanding Washington stop funding Israel's fight against Hamas.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin were appealing to the Senate Appropriations Committee for billions of dollars in military assistance to support Israel, Ukraine and other security costs.

Britain's main opposition leader Keir Starmer on Tuesday sought to defuse an internal row about his stance on Israel's war with Hamas, after he refused to call for a permanent ceasefire.

Starmer, whose Labour party looks set to win the next UK general election, has come under pressure to demand an end to hostilities sparked by Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel.

Instead, the former human rights lawyer has called for a humanitarian pause to Israel's bombardment to allow much-needed aid to reach ordinary Palestinians unable to leave the coastal enclave.

The second milking had just finished, with the few remaining residents of kibbutz Dafna persevering under the threat of a new front opening in Israel's war with Hamas in Gaza.

Here, a few hundred metres (yards) from south Lebanon, where Israeli foe Hezbollah holds sway, the spectre of another October 7 haunts civilians.

Almost all of the 1,050 residents of this agricultural community were evacuated to hotels close to the nearby Sea of Galilee. Only around 15 men stayed behind, charged with the security of the kibbutz.

The leader of Tunisian opposition party Ennahdha, Rached Ghannouchi, 82, had his jail sentence on terrorism-related charges raised to 15 months on appeal, his party said in a statement on Tuesday.

An earlier ruling in May had sentenced Ghannouchi to 12 months in jail with the same fine of 1,000 dinars ($314).

Ghannouchi's latest sentence came following a police union's complaint accusing the opposition leader of inciting violence, after he described a former Ennahda official as a person who "did not fear the rulers or the tyrants" during his funeral in 2022.

Nothing has yet been agreed between the nearly 200 countries that will meet at the COP28 climate talks in Dubai, with two days of preparatory talks in Abu Dhabi failing to produce any major breakthrough, participants said Tuesday.

Around 70 ministers took part in talks on Monday and Tuesday at the Emirates Palace, a luxurious resort in the United Arab Emirates capital Abu Dhabi, to hammer out details before next month's UN climate summit, the most important since the landmark Paris agreement in 2015.