By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Lili Bayer

CAIRO/JERUSALEM (Reuters) -The Israeli military maintained its pressure on Gaza City with heavy bombardments overnight, residents said, ahead of a Thursday meeting between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his ministers on plans to seize the enclave's largest city.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that he had ordered immediate negotiations aimed at freeing all the remaining hostages in Gaza, as Israeli troops hammered the territory's largest city ahead of a major planned offensive.

The call for renewed talks came a day after the defence ministry approved a plan authorising the call-up of roughly 60,000 reservists to help capture Gaza City, home to Hamas's final stronghold.

By Renju Jose

SYDNEY (Reuters) -Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday stepped up his personal attacks on Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese over his government's decision to recognise a Palestinian state, saying Albanese's political record had been damaged forever.

Diplomatic ties between Australia and Israel have soured since Albanese's centre-left Labor government last week announced it would conditionally recognise Palestinian statehood, following similar moves by France, Britain and Canada.

TOKYO (Reuters) -United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, after Israel announced the first steps of an operation to take over Gaza City.

"It is vital to reach immediately a ceasefire in Gaza," that was necessary "to avoid the death and destruction that a military operation against Gaza City would inevitably cause," Guterres said in Japan where he is attending the Tokyo International Conference on African Development.

By Lucy Craymer

WELLINGTON (Reuters) -New Zealand is facing the toughest national security challenges of recent times with increasing threats of foreign interference and espionage, particularly from China, according to an intelligence report released on Thursday.

The New Zealand Security Intelligence Service (SIS) report said there was almost certainly undetected espionage activity harming the country's interests and that foreign states continue to target critical organisations, infrastructure and technology to steal sensitive information.

BEIJING (Reuters) -Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has called on Pakistan and Afghanistan to further strengthen trilateral exchanges at all levels to build strategic mutual trust and deepen security cooperation, according to a statement from the ministry.

Wang, who attended the three-way meeting with his counterparts in Kabul on Wednesday, also said the countries should expand development cooperation, trade and investment exchanges.

(Reporting by Liz Lee and Shanghai newsroom; Editing by Himani Sarkar)

(Fixes typo in headline)

By Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Donald Trump's administration has said it will assess applicants for U.S. work, study and immigration visas for "anti-Americanism" and count any such finding against them, sparking concern about implications for free speech.

By Trevor Hunnicutt

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump has frequently invoked his success at resolving international conflicts, casting himself as a global peacemaker while his aides and some foreign leaders push for him to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

He has found Russia's war in Ukraine to be far more vexing. Trump has put himself squarely in the middle of the diplomatic attempts to bring peace but has wavered on what he's willing to do to achieve it.

The United States on Wednesday defiantly expanded efforts to hobble the International Criminal Court over its prosecution of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, sanctioning a judge from ally France.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio also targeted a Canadian judge in a separate case in his latest volley of sanctions against the tribunal in The Hague, which is backed by virtually all other Western democracies as a court of last resort.

(Reuters) -Rwanda-backed M23 rebels killed at least 140 people in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo in July, Human Rights Watch said in a report on Wednesday that highlighted how violence remains elevated despite U.S.- and Qatar-backed peace talks underway.

The advocacy group provided new details about the killing spree first reported by Reuters in July. It said total killings in Rutshuru territory in July may exceed 300, echoing similar findings by the United Nations last month.

Reuters could not independently verify HRW's report.