Hungary's long-standing and deep ties with Israel were on full display Thursday, when nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban received Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu in Budapest.

The relationship with Israel has strengthened since the start of the war in Gaza, which was sparked by the Palestinian militant group Hamas's attack on October 7, 2023.

Hungary on Thursday said it will quit the International Criminal Court, just as its Prime Minister Viktor Orban hosted Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu, whom the tribunal has accused of war crimes in Gaza.

Hungary's announcement that it will start the year-long withdrawal process came as Orban welcomed Netanyahu in Budapest on the Israeli leader's first trip to Europe since 2023.

War has left Gaza littered with unexploded bombs that will take years to clear, with children drawn to metal casings maimed or even killed when they try to pick them up, a demining expert said.

Nicholas Orr, a former UK military deminer, told AFP after a mission to the war-battered Palestinian territory that "we're losing two people a day to UXO (unexploded ordnance) at the moment."

According to Orr, most of the casualties are children out of school desperate for something to do, searching through the rubble of bombed-out buildings sometimes for lack of better playthings.

Israeli warplanes launched more air strikes against military targets in Syria on Thursday, hours after the United Nations said such attacks "undermine efforts to build a new Syria".

Thursday's air raids came after a wave of Israeli strikes on military targets, including an airport, and a ground incursion in the south killed 13 people.

War monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported two strikes "on military positions and posts" in the vicinity of Al-Kiswah and Al-Muqaylibah outside Damascus.

It said there were no immediate reports of casualties.

Syrian state media said Israel struck near a defence research centre in Damascus and hit central Syria on Wednesday, as Israel said it struck "military" capabilities and a monitor reported four dead.

Israel has launched hundreds of strikes on sites in Syria since Islamist-led forces ousted longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad, saying it wants to prevent weapons from falling into the hands of the new authorities, whom it considers jihadists.

France's foreign minister warned on Wednesday that a military confrontation with Iran would be "almost inevitable" if talks over Tehran's nuclear programme failed.

"In the event of failure, a military confrontation would appear to be almost inevitable," Jean-Noel Barrot said in parliament, adding that it would severely destabilise the region.

Earlier Wednesday, President Emmanuel Macron chaired a meeting on Iran.

The Israeli army said it targeted Hamas militants in a strike on a UN building in Jabalia refugee camp Wednesday that Gaza's civil defence agency said killed 19 people, nine of them children.

The army said in a statement that it struck the militants "inside a command and control centre that was being used for coordinating terrorist activity". It separately confirmed to AFP the building housed a UN clinic.

Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said there were also dozens of people wounded in the strike which "targeted an UNRWA building housing a medical clinic".

Israel has been gripped by allegations linking aides of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to financing from Qatar, which hosts Hamas leaders and helped broker the release of hostages from Gaza.

Dubbed "Qatargate" by Israeli media, the reports that sparked the investigation claimed that some of the people closest to Netanyahu were recruited to promote Qatar in Israel, even though the two countries have no formal diplomatic ties.

- What do we know? -

At an industrial bakery in war-ravaged Gaza City, a conveyor belt that once churned out thousands of pitta breads every day has come to a standstill.

The Families Bakery is one of about two dozen supported by the World Food Programme (WFP) that have halted production in recent days due to flour and fuel shortages resulting from an Israeli blockade.

"All 25 WFP-supported bakeries in Gaza have shut down due to lack of fuel and flour," the UN agency said in a statement on Tuesday, adding that it would "distribute its last food parcels in the next two days".

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that the military was "dissecting" the Gaza Strip and seizing territory to pressure Hamas into freeing hostages still held in the enclave.

It came as rescuers said 34 people were killed in continued Israeli strikes on the territory, including on a UN building.

The military is "dissecting the (Gaza) Strip and increasing the pressure step by step so that (Hamas) will return our hostages", Netanyahu said in a statement, adding that Israel "is seizing territory, striking terrorists, and destroying infrastructure".