Pop star Dua Lipa joined some 300 UK celebrities in signing an open letter Thursday urging Britain to halt arms sales to Israel, after similar pleas from lawyers and writers.

Actors, musicians, activists and other public figures wrote the letter calling on Prime Minister Keir Starmer to "end the UK's complicity in the horrors in Gaza".

British-Albanian pop sensation Dua Lipa has been vocal about the war in Gaza and last year criticised Israel's offensive as a "genocide".

Saudi officials are in "difficult" talks to keep Cristiano Ronaldo in the country, a source with knowledge of the negotiations told AFP on Thursday, after the star footballer suggested he was leaving Al Nassr.

The Portuguese superstar, whose arrival in 2023 heralded a rush of late-career players to the oil-rich country, could transfer to Al Hilal and feature at the upcoming Club World Club, the source said.

Israel announced Thursday the creation of 22 new settlements in the occupied West Bank, drawing sharp condemnation from Britain, Jordan and others already at odds with the country over its Gaza war.

London called the move a "deliberate obstacle" to Palestinian statehood, while UN chief Antonio Guterres' spokesman said it pushed efforts towards a two-state solution "in the wrong direction".

Israeli settlements in the West Bank are regularly condemned by the United Nations as illegal under international law and are seen as a major obstacle to lasting peace.

Thousands of desperate Palestinians stormed a United Nations warehouse in central Gaza on Wednesday, with the World Food Programme reporting two possible deaths in the tumult as Israel and the UN traded blame over the deepening hunger crisis.

The humanitarian situation in Gaza, where aid has finally begun to trickle in after a two-month blockade, is dire following 18 months of devastating war. Food security experts say starvation is looming for one in five people.

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.

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.

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.

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."