A gunman attacked an Israeli military checkpoint in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, fatally wounding two soldiers before troops shot him dead, the military said.

The shooting took place in the morning at a military post in Tayasir in the northern part of the West Bank, the military said in a statement.

"A terrorist fired at the soldiers at a military post in Tayasir," it said, adding the troops killed the gunman during a shootout.

Two other soldiers were "severely injured" in the attack, while six were slightly wounded.

Syria's interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa visits Ankara on Tuesday for talks with Turkey's leaders on rebuilding his land and the volatile issue of Kurdish fighters near the countries' border.

Sharaa is scheduled to arrive mid-afternoon, flying in from Saudi Arabia where he made his first international visit since his Islamist-led rebels overthrew Syria's longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad on December 8.

The move left Syria -- which shares a 900-kilometre (560-mile) border with Turkey -- facing a fragile transition involving multiple territorial and governance challenges.

US President Donald Trump's administration appeared to backtrack Wednesday after his proposal to take over Gaza sparked uproar, with the United Nations warning against "ethnic cleansing" in the Palestinian territory.

Facing a wave of criticism from Palestinians, Arab governments and world leaders, Trump's Secretary of State Marco Rubio said any transfer of Gazans would be temporary, while the White House said there was no commitment to sending US troops.

The trial of the man accused of attempting to kill Salman Rushdie in 2022, leaving the famed author blind in one eye, opened Tuesday with jury selection.

Hadi Matar, an American of Lebanese descent, entered the small courtroom in upstate New York wearing a light blue shirt and closely cropped hair, flanked by security officers, video of the proceedings showed.

He separately faces federal terrorism charges for allegedly conducting the attack on behalf of militant group Hezbollah.

Iran may seem an unlikely setting for women's ice hockey, but a fledgling league has seen its young players confront the country's deeply conservative values and financial obstacles to blaze a trail for the sport.

"The first time I was given a stick, I fell in love with this sport," said Soheila Khosravi, a member of the Iranian women's league, which played its inaugural round just three years ago.

Khosravi left her family home two years ago to dedicate herself fully to ice hockey in Tehran, where Iran's only Olympic ice rink is located.

Fierce fighting in south and west Sudan killed at least 65 people and wounded more than 130 Monday, medics said, as the devastating war between the army and paramilitary forces rages on.

In South Kordofan, artillery fire on the state capital Kadugli killed at least 40 people and wounded 70, according to two medical sources.

The city, controlled by the Sudanese army, was targeted in an attack that Governor Mohamed Ibrahim blamed on a faction of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), led by Abdel Aziz al-Hilu, which also maintains a foothold in the state.

A car bomb killed 20 people in northern Syria Monday, authorities said, vowing to punish those behind the attack in an area where Kurdish-led forces and Turkey-backed factions have clashed for weeks.

Also on Monday, Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa said organising elections could take up to five years, the week after he was appointed interim president and less than two months after ousting Bashar al-Assad.

US President Donald Trump said on Monday there were "no guarantees" that a fragile ceasefire in Gaza will hold, as he prepares to discuss its future with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Netanyahu was in Washington for talks with the new Trump administration on a second phase of the truce with Hamas, which has not yet been finalised.

Just over two weeks after the ceasefire took hold, two Hamas officials said the group was ready to begin talks on the details of a second phase, which could help secure a lasting cessation of violence.

With a Mediterranean coastline, natural thermal springs, clement weather and affordability, Tunisia has become the world's second-largest destination for seawater-based treatments known as thalassotherapy.

Now, it is setting its sights on overtaking France to claim the top spot.

"The main advantage of Tunisia is its coast and thalassotherapy," compared with neighbouring countries, said Mario Paolo, an Italian, at the Korbous thermal spa, perched on a hill an hour's drive from the capital, Tunis.

The funeral for Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah will be held on February 23, the group's current chief said on Sunday, months after his predecessor's death in an Israeli air strike.

Nasrallah was killed in a huge Israeli air strike on Beirut's southern suburbs on September 27, as Israel scaled up its campaign against the Iran-backed group following almost a year of cross-border hostilities.

After decades at the helm of the group once seen as invincible, the killing of the charismatic leader sent shockwaves across Lebanon and the wider region.