DOHA (Reuters) - Israeli army radio said Israel tried to attack Hamas officials in Qatar on Tuesday.

Qatar's Al Jazeera television, citing a Hamas source, said the attack targeted Hamas Gaza ceasefire negotiators.

Several blasts were heard in Qatar's Doha on Tuesday, Reuters witnesses said.

Israel media, citing a senior Israeli official, said the attack was aimed at top Hamas leaders including Khalil al-Hayya, its Gaza chief.

Smoke was seen rising over the Katara District in the capital, an eyewitness said.

CAIRO (Reuters) -Hamas' armed wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, on Tuesday claimed responsibility for the shooting that killed six people on the outskirts of Jerusalem on Monday.

(Reporting by Nidal al-MughrabiEditing by Ros Russell)

At least nine pigs' heads were found outside several mosques in the Paris region on Tuesday, the city's police chief said -- an incident that has sparked alarm over rising anti-Muslim hatred.

"Pigs' heads have been left in front of certain mosques... Four in Paris and five in the inner suburbs," Laurent Nunez told a press conference, adding that officers were not "ruling out the possibility of finding more".

Police have opened a probe into incitement to hatred aggravated by racial or religious discrimination, Nunez said, calling the acts "despicable".

By Nafisa Eltahir

AL-DABBA, Sudan (Reuters) -As the siege by Sudan's Rapid Support Forces tightens around al-Fashir, the few able to pay to escape describe living under constant shelling and negotiating violence at checkpoints to get out of a city where people have resorted to eating animal feed.

Last week, a U.N. fact-finding mission found that the RSF had committed crimes against humanity in al-Fashir, the final holdout of the Sudanese army in the Darfur region of western Sudan.

Activists on a Gaza aid flotilla that alleged it was targeted by a "drone attack" off Tunisia overnight said Tuesday they remained "determined" to reach the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.

The flotilla organisers had said late Monday that one of their boats was hit by a suspected UAV off the coast of Tunisia, but authorities there said "no drones" had been detected.

"Our will is stronger and we are more determined (than ever) to break the blockade against Gaza," Tunisian organiser Ghassen Henchiri told a crowd in Tunis.

By Emma Farge

GENEVA (Reuters) -The United Nations said on Tuesday it was seeking $139.6 million to help half a million people affected by earthquakes that struck eastern Afghanistan, and it urged donors to set aside any reservations about the Taliban authorities.

Afghanistan's worst earthquake in years, which struck on the night of August 31 into September 1, killed more than 2,200 people and was followed by a series of powerful aftershocks. The quakes have left tens of thousands of people homeless, with some fearing further landslides.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ordered authorities on Tuesday to study a petition for a presidential pardon for prominent rights activist Alaa Abdel Fattah, the state-affiliated human rights council said.

Sisi "directed the relevant authorities to study the petition" submitted by the National Human for Rights Council to pardon a number of individuals, including Abdel Fattah, a dual Egyptian-British activist who has been jailed for much of the past decade.

A constant stream of Palestinians fled in tractors, carts and overloaded vans down a coastal road in the central Gaza Strip, the latest mass displacement as Israel intensified its assault on the territory's main city.

Those escaping the offensive on Gaza City left behind them a scene of utter devastation, where smoke from the aftermath of Israeli strikes wafted behind buildings that had already been reduced to rubble.

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ordered authorities on Tuesday to study the possible pardon of high-profile Egyptian-British activist and blogger, Alaa Abd el-Fattah, a statement by the Egyptian National Council for Human Rights said.

Abd el-Fattah, 43, is a leading symbol of resistance to authoritarian rule and has spent most of the past decade in prison. Earlier this month his mother, Laila Soueif, said in a social media post that on September 1 he had started his latest hunger strike in protest against his detention.

By Ilze Filks and Terje Solsvik

OSLO (Reuters) - Norway should continue to explore for oil and gas and remain a reliable energy supplier to Europe, the country's newly re-elected Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said on Tuesday, despite having to rely on the Green Party for support.

The minority Labour Party government narrowly won a second term in power on Monday while the populist right wing achieved its best-ever election result, in a ballot dominated by concerns over rising living costs and wars in Ukraine and Gaza.