Hamas announced yesterday that it had signed an agreement in Beijing with other Palestinian organisations including rivals Fatah to work together for “national unity”, with China describing it as a deal to rule Gaza together once the offensive ends.

The Israeli military yesterday ordered Gaza civilians to leave the eastern part of Khan Yunis city, saying it was preparing to “forcefully operate” there after rockets were fired from an area designated as a humanitarian zone.

The Middle East was reeling from deadly violence yesterday with Israel bombing Gaza, Lebanon and Yemen in quick succession in response to attacks from Iran-backed militant groups.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has said Israel’s continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territories is “illegal and should come to end as rapidly as possible.”

Palestinians yesterday mourned relatives killed in overnight Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip, where Israel’s prime minister has vowed to intensify the pressure on militants even as demands grow for him to reach a deal that would free hostages.

Nine people were killed, including three attackers, in an assault on a Shia Muslim mosque in Oman late on Monday, authorities said, in a rare breach of security in one of the most stable countries in the Middle East.

Access to Gaza has become increasingly difficult for humanitarian groups, 13 leading NGOs warned on Monday, accusing Israel’s military of blocking much-needed aid from reaching the Palestinian territory.

More than 10 million Sudanese, or 20 percent of the population, have been driven from their homes since the war there began, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said yesterday, as the world’s largest displacement crisis continues to worsen.

Israel hammered the Gaza Strip from the air, sea and land yesterday as the offensive in the Palestinian territory showed no sign of abating, with Hamas saying it was pulling out of truce talks.

Israeli forces pulled back from parts of Gaza City overnight, after a fierce, week-long offensive that met with Hamas resistance, leaving dozens of dead and wrecked homes and roads in the Palestinian enclave’s biggest urban area, rescuers said yesterday.

Residents of Gaza City were trapped in houses and bodies lay uncollected in the streets under an intense new Israeli assault yesterday, even as Washington pushed for a peace deal at talks in Egypt and Qatar.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has said US President Joe Biden and his administration are complicit in what he called Israeli war crimes and violations of international law in the Gaza conflict, and he called for sanctions against Israel.

Israeli forces launched more deadly strikes across Gaza yesterday, according to medical sources and the military, which said it targeted Hamas members operating from inside a UN agency building.

The Taliban government’s morality police will play an increasing role in enforcing religious law in Afghanistan, according to a UN report published yesterday that accused them of creating a “climate of fear”.

A war monitor said two people were killed yesterday in an Israeli strike on a vehicle belonging to Lebanon’s Hezbollah group in the Damascus countryside near the Lebanese border.

The recent deaths of several more children from malnutrition in the Gaza Strip indicate that famine has spread throughout the enclave, a group of independent human rights experts mandated by the United Nations said yesterday.

Gaza City residents fled under Israeli fire as tanks thrust deeper into the heart of the city yesterday, the second day of a stepped-up military offensive that Hamas said could jeopardise ceasefire talks.

Saudi Arabia has sentenced a teacher to 20 years in prison over critical social media posts, Human Rights Watch and the convicted man’s brother said yesterday.

Israeli forces bombarded Gaza City early yesterday and columns of tanks advanced into the heart of the city from different directions in what residents said was one of the heaviest attacks in the Palestinian territory since the start of the offensive.

Afghan authorities have slashed the salaries of women government workers who have been forced to stay at home since the Taliban seized power, the finance ministry said yesterday.