Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday warned Iran that the United States would respond "decisively" to any attack by its proxies, as tensions rise with the Israel-Hamas war.

"The United States does not seek conflict with Iran. We do not want this war to widen. But if Iran or its proxies attack US personnel anywhere, make no mistake. We will defend our people, we will defend our security -- swiftly and decisively," Blinken told a UN Security Council session.

With schools and businesses shut, the streets were unusually quiet in Acre, an Israeli town home to Jewish and Arab communities hoping their fragile yet time-honoured ties survive the latest war.

When Israel and Palestinian armed group Hamas last fought in 2021, violence spilled over into towns like Acre, shared by both Jewish and Arab residents, with bouts of rioting resulting in deaths.

A woman who left Britain to marry an Islamic State jihadist fighter when she was a teenager began her appeal against the revocation of her citizenship in a UK court Tuesday.

A lawyer for Shamima Begum, 24, told the Court of Appeal in London that the Home Office had failed to consider its legal duties owed to her client as a potential victim of trafficking.

On October 23, 1983, attacks on French and US military in Lebanon's capital Beirut left hundreds dead -- 40 years on, survivors are horrified at today's upsurge in violence.

"What's going on now in the Middle East just stirs up all those memories," said Eric Mohamed, a former French soldier.

He was just 20 when the Drakkar, the hotel housing French troops, was razed to the ground. Fifty-eight died, and Mohamed was among 15 survivors.

Yocheved Lifshitz "went through hell" when abducted by Hamas, the 85-year-old Israeli said Tuesday, recounting her experience before being released from Gaza and criticising her government for failing to prevent the October 7 attack.

The softly-spoken but determined Lifshitz sat in a wheelchair at a Tel Aviv hospital as she told reporters how she had bene thrown on a motorbike and beaten by Palestinian militants who stormed her kibbutz community near the Gaza border.

The Qatari ruler hit out at Israel's backers Tuesday, charging they had given it "free licence to kill" in its war with Hamas and questioning what the conflict would achieve.

Major powers, including the United States, Britain and France, have rallied to support Israel and affirmed its right to defend itself after this month's deadly attack by the Palestinian Islamist group.

Hamas militants stormed into Israel from the Gaza Strip on October 7, killing at least 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and taking 222 hostages, according to Israeli officials.

The sight of tent cities for Palestinians displaced within war-torn Gaza evokes dark historical memories for Israel's Arab neighbours, especially Egypt and Jordan.

"That's how the Nakba started," says the Gaza-based rights group Al Mezan, reflecting regional suspicions that Israel is planning to empty the coastal territory.

The Nakba, or "catastrophe", is how the Arab world refers to the exodus or forced displacement of 760,000 Palestinians in the war that led to the creation of Israel 75 years ago.

The war between Israel and Hamas could deal a heavy blow to the global economy, banking titans told a glitzy investment forum in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.

The dour mood from some of the gathering's most high-profile speakers underscored how the war threatens attempts by the world's biggest oil exporter to diversify its economy away from fossil fuels.

Hamas militants stormed into Israel from the Gaza Strip on October 7 and killed at least 1,400 people, mostly civilians who were shot or burnt to death on the first day of the raid, according to Israeli officials.

They were spared from the bloody Hamas attack on October 7 and they are exempt from military service.

Yet some ultra-Orthodox Jews have chosen to renounce that controversial privilege and join the Israeli army.

Dozens gathered outside a recruitment office in Tel Aviv this week, responding to an appeal by the army to all those who might have skills useful in the war against Hamas.

The army said that, in the end, 120 had enrolled and would be assigned to support missions, nursing or driving.

French President Emmanuel Macron, on a solidarity visit to Israel after the October 7 attacks, called Tuesday for Palestinian militants Hamas to be added to the targets of an international coalition against the Islamic State group.

Macron also said there had to be a "decisive relaunch" of the Middle East peace process, following talks with leaders in Israel, whose army is building up to a likely ground invasion of the Gaza Strip with the declared aim of toppling Hamas.