Six months after tensions between rival Sudanese generals ignited a devastating war, thousands lie dead, millions are displaced, and the once-thriving capital, Khartoum, is a shadow of its past glory.

When the first bombs fell on April 15, the capital's residents looked on in terror as entire neighbourhoods were razed and essential services were paralysed, exacerbating their misery.

Those who could escape the bloodshed and destruction rushed to the Red Sea coast about 1,000 kilometres (621 miles) to the east.

Convoys of humanitarian aid stacked up near Egypt's border with the Gaza Strip on Sunday, unable to enter the Palestinian enclave being bombarded by Israel, witnesses told AFP.

The Rafah crossing -- the only passage in and out of the Gaza Strip not controlled by Israel -- has been closed since Tuesday, after three Israeli air strikes on the Palestinian border post within 24 hours.

On Saturday, an American official confirmed to AFP that Egypt and Israel had reached an agreement to allow American citizens to leave Gaza via Rafah.

Israeli forces were Sunday readying for a looming Gaza ground invasion aimed at destroying Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist militant group that unleashed the bloodiest attack in the country's history.

In the eight days since Hamas gunmen killed more than 1,300 Israelis in their surprise onslaught, Israel has responded with a devastating bombing campaign that has claimed over 2,300 lives in Gaza.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called for pressure on Hamas during a meeting Sunday with the de facto leader of Saudi Arabia, which has warming ties with Israel but has put normalisation on hold.

The top US diplomat met for nearly an hour in the early morning with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the royal's farm residence in the Riyadh area, a US official said.

"Very productive," Blinken said when asked about the meeting after returning to his hotel.

A magnitude 6.3 earthquake killed two people in western Afghanistan Sunday, with damaged prisons evacuated and residents fleeing a region where tremors have claimed at least 1,000 lives this past week.

Since October 7, a series of potent quakes have jolted Herat province, levelling whole villages, burying families and leaving thousands homeless as winter approaches.

When the sirens wail at the Sha'ar HaGolan kibbutz, there is total panic -- and not just from those who live there permanently.

Some residents are from southern Israel where Hamas militants attacked last week. Others are from the north, where fear of Hezbollah is a constant.

Sha'ar HaGolan, in northeastern Israel, lies near the border with Jordan and no alarm had sounded for decades before Wednesday.

Now, most of its 500 residents, and the new arrivals this week, are almost all trembling in fear.

Thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters gathered in the US capital on Saturday, marching past the White House to chants of "Free Palestine" as the death toll continued to climb in the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

"What is happening today is just beyond the pale. It's so upsetting, we are watching people being killed by an army that this country supports," demonstrator Linda Houghton told AFP.

China supports the "just cause of the Palestinian people in safeguarding their national rights", foreign minister Wang Yi told his Iranian counterpart on Sunday as Beijing takes an increasingly clear stance on the Israel-Gaza conflict.

Israeli forces have staged thousands of air raids in the Gaza Strip in recent days, claiming more than 2,300 lives in the densely populated territory after Hamas fighters broke through the heavily fortified border with Israel on October 7, killing than 1,300 people.

Jewish New Yorkers grieving after Hamas' attack on Israeli civilians are split over the country's response, with some voices urging Israel to defend itself and others increasingly warning of Palestinian "genocide."

New York's Jewish population is the largest outside Israel -- 1.6 million people whose diverse political views regarding the US ally and the Palestinian cause have come to the fore since Hamas' bloody assault and taking of hostages, and the deadly Israeli bombing campaign that followed.

The US on Saturday deployed a second aircraft carrier "to deter hostile actions against Israel" while President Joe Biden pushed for the protection of civilians amid the American ally's siege and bombardment of Gaza.

The presence of the USS Eisenhower and its affiliated warships in the eastern Mediterranean signals Washington's "ironclad commitment to Israel's security and our resolve to deter any state or non-state actor seeking to escalate this war," Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said in a statement.