Aref Shamtan, 73, preferred to pitch a tent near his destroyed home in northwest Syria rather than stay in a camp for the displaced following longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad's ouster.

"I feel good here, even among the rubble," Shamtan said, sipping tea at the tent near his field.

When he and his son returned after Assad's December 8 overthrow, Shamtan found his village of Al-Hawash, nestled among farmland in central Hama province, badly damaged.

The roof of their house was gone and its walls were cracked.

Israel accused the United Nations Wednesday of seeking to "block" Gaza aid distribution, as the global body said it was doing its utmost to gather the limited assistance greenlighted by Israel's authorities.

The humanitarian situation in Gaza, where Israel has imposed a two-month aid blockade, is dire, with food security experts saying starvation is looming for one in five people.

Thousands gathered in Tel Aviv on Wednesday to support hostages still held in Gaza on the 600th day since the war began, urging a ceasefire to secure their release.

Signs reading "The people with the hostages" were held aloft the packed crowd in the plaza dubbed Hostages Square after darkness fell over the Israeli coastal city.

The meeting point has held regular rallies for the release of hostages since they were seized during Hamas's attack on Israel that triggered the war on October 7, 2023.

A French court on Wednesday jailed a former Syrian Islamist rebel spokesman to 10 years for his role in atrocities committed in Syria's civil war in the country's first universal justice case.

Majdi Nema, a former spokesman of the rebel group Jaish al-Islam, was found guilty by a Paris court of complicity in war crimes, specifically of conscription of minors aged 15 to 18, and helping to prepare war crimes.

"We are relieved," Marc Bailly, a rights lawyer for Syrian civil groups.

"Today justice was served first and foremost for Syrians," he said.

Thousands of Palestinians looted a UN warehouse in Gaza's Deir el-Balah on Wednesday, AFP footage showed and the UN's World Food Programme said two people may have died when its warehouse there was broken into.

AFP film showed crowds of Palestinians breaking into a World Food Programme (WFP) warehouse and taking bags and cartons of food supplies as gunshots rang out.

"Hordes of hungry people broke into WFP's Al-Ghafari warehouse in Deir Al-Balah, Central Gaza, in search of food supplies that were pre-positioned for distribution," WFP said in a statement on X.

US President Donald Trump said Wednesday he had told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to hold off striking Iran, saying it would be "inappropriate" amid talks on a nuclear deal.

"Well, I'd like to be honest, yes I did," Trump said when asked if he had told Netanyahu in a call last week not to take any action that could disrupt Washington's talks with Tehran.

Pressed on what he told the Israeli premier, Trump replied: "I just said I don't think it's appropriate, we're having very good discussions with them."

Palestinians living in Gaza "deserve more than survival," the United Nations envoy for the Middle East told the Security Council on Wednesday, as Israel's war there enters its 600th day.

Israel stepped up its military offensive in Gaza, ignited by an attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas on October 7, 2023, earlier this month, while mediators push for a ceasefire that remains elusive.

The issue of aid has come sharply into focus amid a hunger crisis after Israel imposed a full blockade on Gaza for over two months, before allowing supplies in at a trickle last week.

US President Donald Trump said Wednesday he had told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to hold off from striking Iran as he voiced optimism about nuclear talks his administration is holding with Tehran.

Iran said that it may consider allowing Americans to inspect its facilities as part of the United Nations nuclear watchdog if a deal is reached.

Trump, asked if he had told Netanyahu in a call next week not to take any action that could disrupt the diplomacy, said: "Well, I'd like to be honest, yes I did."

Iran on Wednesday executed a man convicted of spying for Israel, in defiance of pleas from his family and activists for his life to be spared after what they described as an unfair trial.

Pedram Madani, 41, was hanged in Ghezelhesar prison in Karaj outside Tehran after earlier this week being transferred from Evin prison in the capital where he had been held following his arrest in 2019.

Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi backed week-long nationwide strikes by truckers Wednesday as a "loud call" to the authorities, after arriving home from his triumph at the Cannes film festival.

Truck drivers across Iran were striking for a seventh day on Wednesday in a stoppage rare in its length and magnitude, seeking better conditions in a sector crucial for the economy in the Islamic republic.