The international community will have to maintain pressure on Israel after a hoped-for ceasefire in Gaza so it accepts the creation of a Palestinian state, Palestinian prime minister Mohammed Mustafa said on Wednesday.

A ceasefire agreement appears close following a recent round of indirect talks between Israel and Hamas, with mediators in Doha making a final push Wednesday to seal a deal.

"The ceasefire we're talking about... came about primarily because of international pressure. So pressure does pay off," Mustafa said before a conference in Oslo.

Images of what the Allies found when they liberated the Nazi death camps towards the end of World War II brought the horror of the Holocaust to global attention.

Many of the ghastly pictures were at first held back from the broader public, partly out of concern for those with missing relatives.

The concentration and extermination camps were liberated one by one as the Allied armies closed in on Berlin in the final days of the 1939-1945 war.

Hamas has approved a Gaza truce and hostage release deal, Palestinian sources close to negotiations said Wednesday, after mediator Qatar expressed hope an agreement to end the war could be reached very soon.

After months of failed bids to end the deadliest war in Gaza's history, negotiators were making a final push in Qatar to seal a ceasefire.

Tunisians protested in the capital on Tuesday, calling for the release of jailed political figures as they marked the 14th anniversary of the uprising that sparked the Arab Spring revolts across the region.

The dozens-strong march in Tunis, organised by a political coalition that includes staunch opponents of current President Kais Saied, commemorated the day in 2011 when dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was ousted.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday proposed international security forces and temporary UN leadership to stabilize post-war Gaza where he warned that Hamas has recruited as many fighters as it has lost.

With talks in Qatar closing in on a ceasefire to the devastating 15-month war and days before he leaves office, Blinken laid out his long-awaited roadmap for post-war Gaza and warned that it required Israel accepting a path to a Palestinian state.

Lebanon's new Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said Tuesday that he was reaching out to all political persuasions to help "rescue" his crisis-hit country ahead of talks aimed at forming a government.

After two years of a caretaker administration, Salam faces the difficult task of assembling a cabinet to pull the Mediterranean country out of an economic collapse.

The new government will also need to oversee the implementation of a fragile ceasefire, as well as reconstruction, after a war between Israel and Shiite militant group Hezbollah that ended in November.

Iraq's Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani met Tuesday with his UK counterpart Keir Starmer, securing a £12.3 billion ($15 billion) trade and investment package during a UK visit hailed as a "new era" in ties.

The Iraqi leader's trip to London, during which he also met King Charles III, focused on security, migration and infrastructure, with the two leaders agreeing a strategic "defence relationship" to deepen cooperation.

It comes more than 20 years after Britain took part in the US-led invasion which left the country reeling from conflict for years.

French-Iranian author and illustrator Marjane Satrapi, best known for the book and film "Persopolis", has refused the French legion d'honneur over the country's "hypocrisy" in its dealings with Iran.

In a letter to France's culture minister posted on social media on Monday, Satrapi said she would not accept the top state award at a ceremony planned later this month.

"I can't ignore what I see as a hypocritical attitude towards Iran, which forged the other part of my identity," she wrote, adding that she meant no disrespect to the award.

Key mediator Qatar said negotiations for a Gaza truce and hostage release deal were in their "final stages" on Tuesday, expressing hope an agreement could be reached "very soon".

Qatar, Egypt and the United States have intensified efforts to broker a ceasefire to enable the release of hostages taken during Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

Late on Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went into a meeting with top security officials to discuss the deal, his office said.

Tunisians protested on Tuesday in the capital on the 14th anniversary of the uprising that sparked the Arab Spring revolts across the region, calling to release jailed political figures.

The dozens-strong march in Tunis, organised by a political coalition that includes staunch opponents of current President Kais Saied, commemorated the day in 2011 when dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was ousted.