Israel said on Thursday it will deport to Europe pro-Palestinian activists on an aid flotilla headed towards Gaza as the Israeli navy intercepted vessel after vessel in the Mediterranean.

The Global Sumud Flotilla of around 45 vessels began its voyage to Gaza last month, with politicians and activists including Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg aiming to break Israel's siege of the Palestinian territory, where the United Nations says famine has set in.

NEAR RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) -As U.S. President Donald Trump announced a plan this week to end the Gaza war and suggested a possible path to a Palestinian state, Ashraf Samara in the Israeli-occupied West Bank watched bulldozers around his village help bury his hopes for statehood.

Surrounded by armed security guards, the Israeli machinery shoved aside earth to create new routes for Jewish settlements, carving up the land around Samara's village of Beit Ur al-Fauqa and creating new barriers to movement for Palestinians.

GAZA (Reuters) -Nancy Abu Matroud has already lost three children during Gaza's war.

Now, the Palestinian mother, 22, is fighting to save her daughter, Etra - a two-year-old cancer patient newly deprived of vital medical care: the children's hospital treating her shut down last month during Israel's latest offensive in Gaza City.

"We are just asking for a shelter," Abu Matroud said. "I don't want to lose the daughter I still have."

An Egyptian ex-minister is the favourite to become head of the UN's culture agency, but his Congolese rival says bets are still off before a key decision next week.

The vote to replace outgoing French UNESCO director-general Audrey Azoulay after two four-year terms in office is not expected until November 6, during the body's general assembly in Uzbekistan.

But UNESCO's executive board is on Monday to recommend a name, in a move that has in the past led to that person's election by the assembly.

By Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Donald Trump's administration has asked U.S. colleges to sign a deal on some sweeping terms - ranging from foreign enrolment and diversity to ideological values of students and staff - to get preferential access to federal funds, according to a 10-point memo sent on Wednesday by the government.

(Reuters) -Israeli forces have stopped 13 boats carrying foreign activists and aid bound for Gaza, but 30 boats are continuing to sail towards the war-ravaged Palestinian enclave, flotilla organisers said on Thursday.

A video from the Israeli foreign ministry verified by Reuters showed the most prominent of the flotilla's passengers, Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg, sitting on a deck surrounded by soldiers.

A flotilla carrying aid to Gaza said dozens of its ships were still "sailing strong" towards the war-battered Palestinian territory on Thursday despite an interception by Israeli naval forces.

The Global Sumud Flotilla -- involving around 45 vessels carrying politicians and activists including Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg -- left Spain last month, aiming to break Israel's blockade of the Palestinian territory, where the United Nations says famine has set in.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Several vessels of the Gaza aid flotilla have been stopped and their passengers are being transferred to an Israeli port, the Israeli foreign ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

Greta Thunberg, the Swedish climate campaigner, and her friends are "safe and healthy," the foreign ministry said in a post on X alongside a video that appeared to show Greta Thunberg and several masked and armed Israeli military personnel.

(Reporting by Alexander Cornwell; Editing by Chris Reese)

ROME (Reuters) -Italian unions called a general strike for Friday in solidarity with the international aid flotilla for Gaza, while protests sprang up in a number of cities late on Wednesday after reports that the ships had been intercepted by military personnel.

In the southern city of Naples, demonstrators got into the main railway station and halted train traffic, while police surrounded the Termini railway station in Rome after protesters gathered close to entrances.

MILAN (Reuters) -Italy's foreign minister said on Wednesday that his Israeli counterpart had assured him the Israeli armed forces would not use violence against activists on board the flotilla of ships sailing towards Gaza.

"The boarding was planned, we are talking about it ... with Minister Saar so that there would be no violent actions on the part of the Tel Aviv armed forces, and this has been assured to me," Antonio Tajani said to Italian TV broadcaster Rai.