More than 70 people were killed and dozens more wounded in Syria in fighting between government security forces and militants loyal to deposed ruler Bashar al-Assad, a war monitor said Friday.

"More than 70 killed and dozens wounded and captured in bloody clashes and ambushes on the Syrian coast between members of the Ministry of Defense and Interior and militants from the defunct regime's army," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in a post on X.

Unprecedented direct talks between the US and Hamas are a sign of dysfunction in fraught negotiations to prolong a truce in Gaza, analysts said Thursday.

Washington revealed it held talks with Hamas, which it designates as a "terrorist" organisation, amid a standoff between Israel and the Palestinian militant group over how to proceed with the ceasefire, whose first phase expired last weekend.

A major Israeli offensive which over several weeks has displaced tens of thousands of Palestinians and ravaged refugee camps increasingly appears to be aligned with the "vision of annexation" of the West Bank, a UN official told AFP.

Israeli forces carry out regular raids targeting militants in the West Bank, occupied since 1967, but the ongoing operation since late January is already the longest in two decades, with dire effects on Palestinians.

The United States' move to re-classify Yemen's Iran-backed Huthi rebel group as a foreign terrorist organisation could have "devastating" effects on the country's largely aid-dependent, war-wracked population, humanitarian groups warned on Thursday.

The listing, which bans any interaction with the Huthis -- who control large swathes of the Arabian Peninsula's poorest country -- could push up prices and make it difficult to import essential goods, aid groups said.

Turkey on Thursday insisted the PKK and all groups allied with it must disarm and disband "immediately", a week after a historic call by the Kurdish militant group's jailed founder.

"The PKK and all groups affiliated with it must end all terrorist activities, dissolve and immediately and unconditionally lay down their weapons," a Turkish defence ministry source said.

Hamas said Thursday that Donald Trump's threats would encourage Israel to ignore the fragile ceasefire, after the US president warned that unless hostages were freed, the people of Gaza would be "DEAD".

Trump had earlier floated a widely condemned plan to relocate Palestinians from Gaza.

Weighing in Thursday, France welcomed an alternative Arab plan to rebuild the territory while keeping Palestinians on their land, but insisted Hamas must be excluded from governing Gaza.

Global sea ice cover reached a historic low in February, Europe's climate monitor said Thursday, with temperatures spiking up to 11C above average near the North Pole as the world continued its persistent heat streak.

Copernicus Climate Change Service said last month was the third hottest February, with planet-heating greenhouse gas emissions stoking global temperatures.

Nestled near the iconic Giza pyramids, the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) is preparing for a lavish opening, featuring a towering statue of Ramses II and more than 100,000 artefacts, including Tutankhamun's golden treasures.

After two decades of planning, the GEM is set to open fully on July 3, following a partial opening in October.

Its long-awaited debut comes after years of delays caused by political instability, economic crises, and the global pandemic.

A prominent Iranian pop singer who made a song urging women to remove their headscarves said Wednesday that he was willing to pay "a price for freedom" after being flogged 74 times by the authorities as part of his sentence.

Mehdi Yarrahi, arrested in 2023, was released last year after being convicted for his song in support of the "Woman. Life. Freedom" protests that erupted in 2022 and rocked Iran's clerical leadership.

Dozens of mourners gathered Wednesday in Nir Oz, a kibbutz in southern Israel near Gaza, to bid farewell to Ohad Yahalomi, whose body was returned by Hamas last month.

The nature guide was seized during the Palestinian Islamist movement's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, when nearly a quarter of Nir Oz's residents were killed or taken hostage.

"Sixteen years of joy and light, and the light has now gone out," Ohad's widow Bat Sheva told the crowd of mourners, sniffling through her tears.