Three children play with sand and pebbles among the tombstones in a southern Gaza cemetery, while a teenage boy, barefoot, carries two buckets of water through the graveyard before vanishing into a tent.

These macabre scenes are a daily reality for some displaced Palestinians, who, unable to find shelter elsewhere, have resorted to pitching tents in a cemetery in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip.

"We had no other choice," said Randa Musleh from inside her tent, drinking tea along with some of her 11 children.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -The Global Sumud Flotilla heading to Gaza protected by a Spanish military vessel poses no threat to anyone, including Israel, Spain's Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares told Reuters on Thursday.

In an interview, Albares added that Spain had accepted Belgium's request to assist Belgian citizens on board the flotilla if needed, and was holding conversations with Ireland on the same subject.

THE HAGUE (Reuters) -France has dropped its case before the International Court of Justice against Iran for violating the right to consular protection of two French citizens who have been held in detention for over three years, the court said Thursday.

France has repeatedly accused Iran of holding Cecile Kohler and her partner JacquesParis arbitrarily, keeping them in conditions akin to torture in Tehran's Evin prison and not allowing proper consular protection. Iran denies the accusations.

US President Donald Trump on Thursday urged Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan to stop buying Russian oil over the war in Ukraine, while hinting that he may drop a ban on Ankara buying US stealth fighter jets.

Erdogan was making his first visit to the White House since 2019 -- the same year Washington kicked Turkey out of the F-35 jet program over the NATO ally's purchase of a Russian air defense system.

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Iranian Vice President Mohammad Eslami said on Thursday that Tehran would continue to pursue its nuclear programme, which he said was open to international scrutiny.

"Iran's path and the Iranian programme are completely transparent, and we will not deviate from it. You know that the most stringent inspections are conducted in Iran," Eslami, who is also Iran's nuclear chief, said via a translator.

He was addressing a nuclear forum in Moscow.

By May Angel

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israel will reopen the only crossing between the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Jordan to passenger traffic only, starting Friday morning, the Israeli Airports Authority said on Thursday.

Israel shut Allenby Crossing last Friday after a driver bringing humanitarian aid from Jordan for Gaza opened fire and killed two Israeli soldiers there. After briefly reopening it on Monday, Israel closed it indefinitely on Tuesday.

Israeli strikes on Sanaa killed at least nine people and wounded more than 170 on Thursday, Yemen's Huthis said, a day after the rebels launched a drone attack on southern Israel.

AFP correspondents heard explosions and saw plumes of smoke rising from three locations in the Sanaa area, in the latest retaliatory attack since the Huthis began targeting Israel in the wake of the Gaza war.

Israeli forces hit several Huthi-linked targets in the rebel-held capital, Israeli officials said, warning of more attacks to come. Huthi media said the targets included a detention facility.

(Reuters) -Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he was ready to work with U.S. President Donald Trump, Saudi Arabia, France and the United Nations to implement a Gaza peace plan adopted at a September 22 conference, which he said could pave the way for a just peace and broader regional cooperation.

Abbas made the remarks in a pre-recorded speech to the U.N. General Assembly.

(Reporting by Ali Sawafta; Writing by Enas Alashray;)

(Reuters) -Israeli forces struck the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Thursday, Houthi-run Al Masirah TV and residents said, a day after the group claimed a drone attack on a hotel in Israel’s Red Sea resort of Eilat.

The strikes are the latest in more than a year of attacks and counterstrikes between Houthi militants in Yemen and Israel, part of a spillover from the war in Gaza.

Yemeni residents told Reuters that the strikes were directed at areas in the south and west of Sanaa.

ROME (Reuters) -Italy's navy will assist the Gaza international aid flotilla with just one ship and not two as was previously understood, the defence ministry said on Thursday, adding that the vessel would not have any escort duties.

The ministry said a frigate that was dispatched on Wednesday hours after the convoy known as the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) was targeted by drones on its way to Gaza would be replaced by another vessel.