World Expo opens on Sunday with host Japan aiming to bring humanity together, despite global turmoil and tepid public enthusiasm for the six-month event showcasing innovation as well as Hello Kitty in algae form.

A Mars meteorite the size of a sourdough loaf and a beating heart grown from stem cells are among the myriad futuristic attractions crammed into a vast waterfront site in Osaka hosting more than 160 countries, regions and organisations.

After Israel killed a string of its leaders, Hamas anointed new commanders to top ranks, this time shrouding their identities in secrecy to protect them from assassination.

Israel vowed to crush Hamas in retaliation for the October 7 attack, launching a blistering offensive in Gaza that has massively weakened the movement while reducing much of the territory to rubble.

Gaza medic Mundhir Abed feared for his life as Israeli forces opened fire on a convoy of rescuers near Rafah last month, killing 15 of his colleagues in a brazen assault.

Abed, 45, was the only survivor of the attack on March 23, in which medics from the Palestine Red Crescent Society and Gaza's civil defence agency were gunned down as they responded to urgent calls for help following an Israeli air strike.

"I was terrified they would kill me," Abed, a medic from the Palestine Red Crescent Society, told AFP.

The US Senate on Wednesday confirmed Mike Huckabee, an evangelical Christian who has said Israel enjoys a divine right to the West Bank, as ambassador to Israel.

Huckabee will head to the US embassy in Jerusalem as Israel seizes large areas of Gaza, part of a renewed military campaign that has had President Donald Trump's blessing.

The Senate voted largely on party lines to confirm Trump's nominee, with one Democrat, John Fetterman, supporting him.

Saudi Arabia's top diplomat held talks in Washington on Wednesday, laying the groundwork for a visit by US President Donald Trump, which would be the first foreign trip of his second term.

Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan met with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the State Department, and the two called on the Sudanese army and paramilitary forces to resume peace talks.

Israel said Wednesday its troops were seizing "large areas" in Gaza and making the Palestinian territory "smaller and more isolated", as an air strike on a residential block killed at least 23 people.

Defence Minister Israel Katz's comments come weeks into a renewed offensive by the military on the war-battered territory, which has displaced hundreds of thousands, while an aid blockade has revived the spectre of famine for its 2.4 million people.

Arriving in the deadly aftermath of an Israeli strike in northern Gaza last week, rescuer Nooh Al-Shaghnobi risked his life to aid the wounded despite warnings of another imminent attack.

In a video that has since gone viral on social media, civil defence member Shaghnobi can be seen desperately trying to pull a wounded man out from under a mound of rubble after a strike on a school on Thursday.

The mother of an Israeli soldier held hostage in Gaza longs for her son's return, fearing that Israel's renewed bombardment of the territory puts his life at even greater risk.

"Our children are in danger," Herut Nimrodi told AFP in an interview. Her son, Tamir, was just 18 when he was taken to Gaza on October 7, 2023.

"We don't know much, but one thing that is certain is that military pressure on Gaza endangers the hostages," she said.

Indonesia President Prabowo Subianto on Wednesday said he was prepared to grant temporary shelter to Palestinians affected by the war in Gaza between the Israeli military and the territory's rulers Hamas.

Nearly 400,000 Gaza residents have been displaced in the weeks since Israel resumed military operations in the territory last month, according to the United Nations.

"We are ready to receive wounded victims," Prabowo said before leaving for a Middle East visit to the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Egypt, Qatar and Jordan.

Fear, bombs and screams stalk Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, where Israel's resumption of strikes three weeks ago has sparked fresh displacement and an ever more desperate search for shelter.

"They are asking for evacuation, but where will we go?" asked Mahmoud Hussein, who fled bombardments in the north to live in a tent in the central town of az-Zawayda.

"There is nothing, nothing," he said, listing off several nearby areas marked for evacuation on a map published by the Israeli army.