GAZA -- Paltel warned Wednesday noon that the Gaza Strip could lose all communications and internet services in a few hours as fuel is running out in the besieged enclave.

Paltel, short for the Palestinian Telecommunications Company, Gaza's largest telecoms provider, said in a statement that facilities powering its network are running on backup energy, meaning services could come to a halt anytime in the upcoming hours.

Palestinian Minister of Communications and Information Technology Ishaq Sadr said that all the network services would be terminated by Thursday if the fuel supply was not resumed.

Israel has launched a large-scale military operation in Gaza after Hamas, a Palestinian faction that de facto governs the enclave, launched an unprecedented attack on Israel on Oct 7 and killed some 1,200 Israelis.

Furthermore, Israel has imposed a comprehensive blockade on Gaza, including cutting off electricity, water, and fuel supplies, causing a widespread humanitarian crisis.

GAZA - Dozens of the Israeli army forces on Wednesday carried out a raid at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City amid heavy gunfire, according to a senior medical official.

In a press statement sent to Xinhua, Monir al-Bursh, director-general of the pharmaceutical department at the Gaza Health Ministry, said that "the Israeli army officially informed the hospital in a phone call that the raid was being carried out, demanding that people not approach windows, balconies or doors".

For its part, the Israeli army said that it was carrying out a precise operation against Hamas in a specific area inside Al-Shifa Hospital based on intelligence information and an operational need.

Ashraf al-Qedra, the spokesman of the health ministry, said, "There is nothing that would require shooting inside the hospital because there is no form of resistance there, and what the occupation is doing constitutes terrorism for those in the complex."

About 1,500 staff members and 7,000 displaced people are currently stuck in the hospital, depending on capacity, according to al-Qedra.

Israeli tanks surrounded several hospitals in Gaza City over the past few days, claiming that they contain tunnels that constitute a base used by Hamas to shelter its leadership in addition to leading military operations against the Israeli army.

Both Hamas and the health ministry in Gaza denied Israel's accusations, considering them "an attempt to mislead and incite in preparation for the destruction of hospitals and the killing of patients".

RAMALLAH -- At least seven Palestinians were killed on Tuesday in clashes with Israeli soldiers in northern West Bank, according to the Ramallah-based Palestinian Health Ministry.

The clashes occurred when the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) was conducting a massive manhunt for Palestinian suspects in the Tulkarm refugee camp, local eyewitnesses told Xinhua.

The IDF said in a statement that its troops clashed with "local terror operatives" and responded with a drone attack at armed Palestinians who were hurling explosives at them.

At least 196 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli gunfire in the West Bank since a new round of Israeli-Palestinian conflict broke out on Oct 7, according to WAFA, the official Palestinian news agency.

GAZA - Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, said on Monday that it has informed mediators of its readiness to release 50 women and children hostages held in Gaza in exchange for a 5-day cease-fire.

Abu Ubaida, the spokesperson for Al-Qassam Brigades, said in a message on its Telegram channel that "Qatari mediators have made efforts to release Israeli detainees in exchange for releasing 200 Palestinian children and 75 women."

He stressed that the cease-fire should ensure a halt to hostilities and allow aid entry to people in the enclave.

He emphasized that the continued Israeli ground, naval, and aerial aggression threatens the lives of the detainees held by them and by other armed Palestinian factions in Gaza.

The Israeli military operations came in retaliation for the Hamas-led attacks on Oct 7, in which about 1,200 people were killed in Israel and about 240 hostages were taken, according to Israeli figures.

Massive protests calling for an immediate cease-fire were staged in Brussels and many other European cities on Saturday against Israeli military operations in Gaza that have triggered a humanitarian crisis.

An estimated 21,000 people turned out in Brussels despite rain, marching from the city's North Station to the Central Station, according to initial statistics by the local police.

"Cease-fire now!", "Free Palestine", "Stop the genocide" and "Boycott Israel" were some of the slogans shouted and on banners held by protesters.

Some held banners criticizing US and European Union leaders for their endorsement of Israel's actions and their persistent refusal to call for a cease-fire.

Many demonstrators waved Palestinian flags and wore kaffiyehs, or the black and white scarf symbolizing the Palestinian cause. Some held photos of children killed in Israeli bombings and some carried baby dolls covered in blood.

The organizers said there is "the urgent need to ensure that international law is respected … and demand an immediate cease-fire to save human lives".

"How can we defend the two-state solution while refusing to sanction the occupation and colonization (of Palestine) or refusing to recognize the state of Palestine now?" Simon Moutquin, a Green Party member of the Belgian Parliament, said in a message on X after attending the demonstration.

In London, organizers said 800,000 people took part in Saturday's demonstration and called it one of the largest demonstrations in British history, while the Metropolitan Police put the number at 300,000.

The protesters wanted to pressure British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Labour Party leader Keir Starmer who have not supported the call for a cease-fire.

In Paris, thousands of people marched from the Place de la Republique toward the Place de la Nation on Saturday to demand an immediate cease-fire in Gaza.

French President Emmanuel Macron told the BBC on Friday that Israel must stop bombing Gaza and killing civilians, a message that most Western leaders have refused to express.

"De facto, today, civilians are bombed, de facto. These babies, these ladies, these old people are bombed and killed. So there is no reason for that and no legitimacy. So we do urge Israel to stop," Macron said.

"Macron finally uttered the word 'cease-fire' but France must speak with a stronger voice, especially in the UN Security Council in which it is a permanent member," said Mathilde Panot, an MP and leader of La France Insoumise group in parliament.

"France must apply as much pressure possible on Netanyahu's far-right government in order to stop war crimes," she said.

Agencies contributed to this story.

Summit condemns attacks in Gaza, urging UN to take 'decisive decision'

A rare and special summit of the Arab and Islamic world in the capital of Saudi Arabia has spoken out against alleged Israeli war crimes in the Gaza Strip and called for an end to the military operations and siege of Gaza.

A communique by the Joint Arab Islamic Extraordinary Summit hosted by Saudi Arabia in Riyadh on Saturday condemned Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip and the "war crimes" and "brutal massacres being committed by the colonial occupation government against the Strip and the Palestinian people in the occupied West Bank, including East Al-Quds".

Leaders of the Muslim world refused to describe "this retaliatory war as self-defense or justifying it under any pretext". They included Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, and Indonesian President Joko Widodo.

In a joint news conference the same day, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz rejected growing international calls for a cease-fire, the Times of Israel reported.

Netanyahu said Israel's battle to crush Hamas will continue with "full force".

A cease-fire would be possible only if all 239 hostages held by militants in Gaza were released, Netanyahu said in a televised address.

He also insisted that after the fighting, Gaza would be demilitarized and Israel would retain security control there. Asked what he meant by security control, Netanyahu said Israeli forces must be able to enter Gaza freely to hunt down militants.

The Riyadh joint summit demanded that the UN Security Council take "a decisive and binding decision" that imposes a cessation of aggression and curbs the colonial occupation authority that violates international law, international humanitarian law, and international legitimacy resolutions.

Initially, the meeting on Saturday was expected to be attended by 22 members of the Arab League, but it broadened and included the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, a bloc consisting of 57 Muslim-majority countries.

Rare meeting

At the summit, Raisi became the first Iranian president to visit the Gulf kingdom in years since ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran were restored through a China-brokered deal in March.

Ayman Yousef, a professor of international relations at the Arab American University in Jenin in the West Bank, said the call to persuade other countries not to export weapons to Israel was "something not easy to achieve".

Jasim Husain, a Gulf analyst and former member of Bahrain's parliament, said: "Really not many countries have influence over Israel, with the clear exception of the US."

The US has poured billions of dollars into its support for Israel. Following Hamas attacks on Israel on Oct 7, US President Joe Biden swept in to show support for Israel. The US House of Representatives on Nov 2 passed a bill that would provide $14.3 billion in aid to Israel.

Israeli leaders told the media on Saturday they urged Western leaders to throw their support behind the Jewish state.

Israeli officials revised the death toll in the Oct 7 attack to 1,200 instead of the earlier 1,400, with 240 taken hostage. But Israel's attacks on Gaza have killed more than 11,000 Palestinians, said Palestinian Health Minister Mai Al-Kaila on Saturday.

The Times of Israel reported that the Israel Defense Forces says humanitarian pauses in the northern Gaza Strip will continue to enable Palestinians to head to the south, citing the IDF's Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee.

"What these Arab countries and Muslim countries can do at this stage is they can work to form an alliance, to establish an international alliance to put more weight on the United States to pressure Israel," said Yousef from the West Bank.

Agencies contributed to this story.

GAZA - Dozens of Palestinians were killed in the ongoing Israeli attacks on Gaza in the past 24 hours, amidst a collapse of the healthcare system in the enclave.

The government media office in Gaza on Sunday announced that the casualties from Israeli attacks climbed to 11,180, including nearly 8,000 children and women, with more than 28,000 injuries.

Intense clashes continued between the Israeli army and Hamas fighters in northern Gaza, while milder clashes were reported in the central strip. The Israeli ground forces maintained an effective separation between the north and south, except for the "corridor" leading to the south.

According to the media office, Israeli airstrikes persist around the Al Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City, which has been out of service since Saturday, jeopardizing life-supporting devices, including those for infants.

The Palestinian Red Crescent warned that Palestinian infants in Gaza are also suffering from dehydration due to the interruption of baby formula under the current siege.

Gaza's health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qedra said at least five casualties died in the past hours as a result of power outages after the hospital ran out of fuel.

Spokesperson of Israel Defence Forces (IDF) Richard Hecht denied targeting or besieging the Al Shifa complex. Israel is still trying to "facilitate and assist" in the evacuation of babies from Al Shifa hospital but Hamas "meddling" is holding it up, he said.

He said that 300 liters of fuel had been delivered by the IDF to the Al Shifa hospital while indicating that Hamas was preventing it from being delivered.

On the release of hostages, two Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) officials denied the group had suspended negotiations with Israel regarding the release of hostages and prisoners.

A Hamas source speaking to Xinhua on condition of anonymity said, "I have not heard of the matter," referring to media reports that the faction is suspending negotiations due to the Israeli targeting of Gaza hospitals.

Separately, Zaher Jabarin, a Hamas official overseeing prisoners affairs told Xinhua that the movement is "open to concluding an agreement regarding the hostages in Gaza if appropriate security and field conditions are available for that".

The Rafah crossing on Saturday witnessed the entry of 53 trucks carrying food, medicine, health supplies, bottled water, and blankets, raising the total number of trucks entering Gaza since Oct 21 to 914, far below the required quantities to meet the needs of over two million people besieged in the enclave, according to the United Nations.

In the past 24 hours, five Israeli soldiers were killed in Gaza, bringing the total number of soldiers killed since the start of ground operations to 43, according to official Israeli sources.

BRUSSELS - The European Union (EU) on Sunday called for "immediate pauses in hostilities" and the establishment of humanitarian corridors in Gaza, the EU foreign policy chief said in a statement.

"The EU is gravely concerned about the deepening humanitarian crisis in Gaza," Josep Borrell, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy said in the statement.

The EU calls for "continued, rapid, safe and unhindered" humanitarian access and aid to reach those in need, emphasizing that international humanitarian law stipulates that "hospitals, medical supplies and civilians inside hospitals must be protected".

Hospitals must also be supplied immediately with the most urgent medical supplies and patients that require urgent medical care need to be evacuated safely, the statement noted.

In the statement, the EU also urges Israel "to exercise maximum restraint to ensure the protection of civilians".

Violence of right-wing extremists 'deeply concerning'

Up to 300,000 marchers took part in a demonstration in London on Saturday in support of the people of Palestine, which passed off largely peacefully, despite concerns over its timing.

The march, the latest in a series of Saturday protests that have occurred since the Hamas attacks on Israel on Oct 7 and the subsequent outbreak of full-blown conflict, was contentious because it took place on Nov 11, the anniversary of the day that World War I ended, and the day before Remembrance Sunday, when services are held across the country to honor the war dead.

UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman, the government minister with responsibility for security, was widely criticized last month for calling protests in support of the Palestinian cause "hate marches".

In the run-up to Saturday's march, she drew more criticism for a newspaper article she published in which she accused London's Metropolitan Police, or Met, of employing a "double standard" when it came to the way it dealt with what she called "pro-Palestinian mobs", adding that "unfortunately, there is a perception that senior police officers play favorites when it comes to protesters".

The pro-Palestinian march went nowhere near the Cenotaph memorial in Whitehall, the focus of the nation's remembrance events, but, despite this, following Braverman's comments, a counter-demonstration was called by right-wing and nationalist groups.

Across London, 126 arrests were made with police saying the "vast majority" of arrests took place at the right-wing demonstration, which spilled over into clashes with police in London's Chinatown, and that was described by the Met's Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist as "extraordinary and deeply concerning".

"They (the right-wing protesters) arrived early, stating they were there to protect monuments, but some were already intoxicated, aggressive and clearly looking for confrontation," he said. Weapons and class A drugs were found among those who were stopped and searched by the police.

Although there were no reports of similar violent incidents at the pro-Palestinian march, Twist said there had been "a number of serious offenses identified in relation to hate crime and possible support for proscribed organizations" during the march, and footage shared on social media recorded violent and threatening language being used by people at or around the protest when talking about the Jewish community.

"The impact of hate crime, and in particular anti-Semitic offences, is just as significant," Twist added, and after the protest, police issued photographs of six individuals offers suspect of hate crimes, including a woman who was carrying a sign incorporating a swastika into the Jewish symbol, the Star of David.

Lee Harpin, political editor of the Jewish News, told Sky News that although he supports the freedom to protest, there was an alarmingly extreme element taking part.

GAZA/JERUSALEM -- Dozens of newborns were at risk of dying as the electricity powering the incubators at Gaza's largest Al Shifa hospital was cut off, according to the Ramallah-based Palestinian Health Ministry on Saturday.

Two babies have died while 37 other premature infants were at real risk, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel warned in a statement on Saturday, citing doctors at the hospital.

The medical complex has been out of service as a result of fuel shortage and Israeli attacks, confirmed Ashraf a-Qedra, the spokesperson of the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza.

"All the sections and departments in Al Shifa medical complex have been totally shut down as a result of the running out of fuel as well as the Israeli attacks," a-Qedra said in a press statement.

He warned that "we may witness an increase in the deaths among the patients, mainly children and those in serious health conditions."

Earlier in the day, the hospital director Mohammed Abu Selmeia said an Israeli airstrike also destroyed the main oxygen supply line of the hospital, posing a threat to the lives of the wounded and patients inside.

Abu Selmeia noted that, in addition, Israeli drones are targeting anyone at the medical complex, rendering doctors unable to provide medical services.

In a post on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, Doctors Without Borders, or Médecins Sans Frontières, said, "The attacks against Al Shifa hospital have dramatically intensified. Our staff at the hospital have reported a catastrophic situation inside."

Also in the day, Palestinian security sources said the Israeli army has besieged the Al Shifa hospital amid heavy clashes with the Palestinian militants in the territory.

Local eyewitnesses said they heard massive explosions during the night before from violent armed clashes between Israeli army forces and militants of the Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, in several areas of Gaza City, especially in the vicinity of the Al Shifa hospital.

Explaining the hospital's situation in a video statement on X, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) denied shooting and siege on the hospital, adding that the east side of the hospital remained open.

In the statement, IDF's Head of the Coordination and Liaison Administration for Gaza Moshe Tetro acknowledged that "there are clashes between IDF troops and Hamas terrorist operatives around the hospital," but said "everyone who wants to leave can do it," noting he had contacted the hospital director to coordinate with the safe evacuation of "anyone who wants to leave the hospital."

Israel has previously stated that "the main command center of Hamas is located under the Al Shifa hospital."

Established in 1946, the medical complex is the largest health institution in the Gaza Strip. It includes three specialized hospitals and employs 25 percent of hospital workers across the strip.

UNITED NATIONS -- Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), said that "nowhere and no one is safe" in Gaza, where the health system is "on its knees," in an emergency meeting of UN Security Council Friday.

The situation on the ground is grim, said the WHO chief, from hospitals conducting operations without anesthesia to the fact that a child is killed every ten minutes.

"Nowhere and no one is safe," he said, adding that medical staff are grappling to try to manage the health needs of 2.3 million people.

Tedros said the best way to show support is by providing what health workers need to save lives. About 63 metric tons of such aid has been sent, but unfettered access is required to reach the civilians who are not responsible for the crisis.

Tedros added that WHO continues to call for a ceasefire. In addition, he called for both sides to respect their obligations under international humanitarian law.

"In Gaza, nowhere and no one is safe," said Tedros, speaking again as the meeting came to a close.

"Imagine that you're trapped in that situation," he asked ambassadors.

"That's why we're asking for a ceasefire and unfettered humanitarian access," he said. "And at the same time, of course, we're also asking for the Security Council to do everything for the release of hostages."

GAZA - The Israeli army has besieged the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza amid heavy clashes with the Palestinian militants in the territory, Palestinian security sources said Saturday.

"Tanks and military vehicles of the Israeli army have been encircling the vicinity of the Shifa hospital from all main axes for hours, coinciding with heavy artillery shelling in the area," Palestinian security sources told Xinhua.

They said that ambulances were unable to leave the Al-Shifa Complex and transfer the wounded amid fears that they might become a moving target.

Local eyewitnesses said that they heard massive explosions during the night from violent armed clashes between Israeli army forces and militants of the Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas movement, in several areas of Gaza City, especially in the vicinity of the Shifa Hospital.

Established in 1946, the Al-Shifa Complex is the largest health institution in the Gaza Strip. It includes three specialized hospitals and employs 25 percent of hospital workers across the strip.

UNITED NATIONS -- The poverty rate in Palestine will soar by 34 percent, thrusting nearly half a million additional people into poverty, if the war in Gaza continues for a second month, warns a UN report.

In such a scenario, Palestine's gross domestic product (GDP) will plummet by 8.4 percent -- a loss of 1.7 billion US dollars, according to initial estimates by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA).

It is estimated that, as the war hit the one-month mark, poverty had risen by 20 percent and economic growth had declined by 4.2 percent, said the two agencies in their report on the socio-economic impacts of the Gaza war on Palestine, which was released Thursday.

The assessment also underscores that the International Labour Organization estimates that 390,000 jobs have already been lost in the first month of war.

According to projections, a third month of war would see poverty increase by almost 45 percent, raising the number of additional people pushed into poverty to more than 660,000, while the GDP will fall by 12.2 percent with total losses of 2.5 billion dollars.

Currently, 1.8 million Palestinians are living in poverty, said Rola Dashti, executive secretary of ESCWA.

The poverty rate in Gaza was 61 percent before the latest escalation on Oct 7. The poverty rate in the West Bank was 30 percent, said Abdallah Al Dardari, UN assistant secretary-general and director of UNDP's regional bureau for Arab states.

The assessment warns of a sharp decline in the Human Development Index, the UNDP's summary measure of well-being, setting development in Palestine back by between 11 to 16 years, and in Gaza by 16 to 19 years, depending on the intensity of the conflict, according to the report.

"The unprecedented loss of life, human suffering, and destruction in the Gaza Strip is unacceptable," said UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner in a press release. "This assessment alerts us that the impacts of this war will also have long-lasting effects and will not be confined to Gaza. On top of the humanitarian catastrophe we see unfolding, there is also a development crisis. The war is rapidly accelerating poverty in a population already vulnerable before this crisis hit."

Dashti, who launched the report together with Al Dardari, warned that economic recovery in Gaza following a cease-fire will not be immediate, considering the large-scale displacement of the population, the massive levels of destruction and uncertain access to resources, including materials and equipment owing to the siege on Gaza.

She also warned that the consequences of the war are even more severe given the fact that the projected poverty increase is about income only.

"It's not only the money-metric poverty. It is the multidimensional poverty that is more important," she said, noting that almost all Gazans (96 percent) are currently multidimensionally poor.

Multidimensional poverty means the deprivation of essential services for livelihood, including health, utilities, transport and freedom of movement, she said.

Even if there is a cease-fire today, the multidimensional poverty situation will not improve quickly, she said.

With almost 1.5 million people in Gaza internally displaced since the beginning of the war and the massive destruction of houses reportedly destroyed or damaged, the assessment predicts that the economic downturn will further exacerbate the catastrophic humanitarian situation and will make recovery prospects challenging and slow, according to the report.

JERUSALEM -- Israel vowed on Thursday that its forces would keep intensifying the fighting in the heart of Gaza City in the next few days, despite the implementation of a four-hour daily humanitarian pause.

Chief of the General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Herzi Halevi toured the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday with Ronen Bar, head of the Shin Bet internal security agency. They were shown in videos released by the military sitting inside a moving tank and later talking with commanders in a dimly lit room.

Halevi asked the commanders to "advance with strength, in a systematic manner, and increase your pace".

In another development, a White House spokesman announced that Israel has agreed to implement four-hour daily humanitarian pauses in its attacks on northern Gaza, starting Thursday.

However, Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said in a press briefing that the pauses are "local and limited" to specific places in the northern Gaza Strip.

He emphasized that this does not constitute a ceasefire and that Israel "will not halt the fighting as long as there are hostages in Gaza and we haven't achieved our mission: the fall of Hamas".

In a separate press briefing, IDF Spokesman Daniel Hagari said that the military began on Wednesday to implement "local, tactical, and time-limited pauses" in the fighting to facilitate the movement of civilians to the south. He added that about 50,000 civilians moved to the south on Thursday.

Hagari said that in the next few days, the forces will intensify the fighting "in the heart of Gaza City", adding that Hamas "has lost control of the northern Gaza Strip".

Meanwhile, Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) movement, announced in a statement that it was prepared to release two hostages for humanitarian reasons.

The statement in Arabic identified the two hostages as "Hanna Katsir and the boy Yagil Yaqoub", without specifying their nationalities.

In Eilat, a popular Red Sea resort city that has been targeted by Yemen's Houthi forces several times since the beginning of the conflict, a drone hit a school building. Israel's Magen David Adom rescue service said a 20-year-old man was lightly injured by smoke, and five schoolchildren were treated for hysteria.

A few hours later, air raid sirens were activated after a surface-to-surface missile was launched toward Eilat from the Red Sea. The missile was intercepted some 100 meters off Eilat by Israel's "Arrow" aerial defense system, the military said.

In the refugee camp of Jenin in the northern occupied West Bank, Israeli forces killed at least 15 Palestinians and wounded 20 others, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.

So far 10,818 people have been killed in Gaza by Israel's relentless strikes, according to the Gaza-based Hamas health ministry.

Hamas launched surprise attacks on Israel on Oct 7, killing hundreds of Israelis and kidnapping about 240 people. According to the Israeli police, the bodies of at least 870 civilians and 354 members of security forces have been identified.

MOSCOW-- Moscow is making efforts to help pave the way for a diplomatic solution and an early ceasefire in Gaza, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Thursday.

"We are undertaking intensive efforts to de-escalate the conflict, to achieve an early ceasefire," Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova said at a press briefing.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov remain in constant contact with officials from the region, said Zakharova.

"A single message is being conveyed to all sides on the urgent need for a ceasefire," she said.

Zakharova also recalled that Russia's draft resolution on a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza had previously been rejected by the United States and its allies at the United Nations Security Council.

"We were truly shocked to hear the statement made by the Israeli Ambassador to Moscow that the evacuation process could take up to two weeks," she said, adding that this logic was unacceptable.

"For us, the issue of rescuing Russian citizens, compatriots, and all those that have contacted us from there, is a priority," she said.

Cease-fire urged amid raging violence as journalists, aid workers killed in Gaza

The Israel-Palestine conflict has become the deadliest period for journalists and aid workers, with experts calling for a return to respecting international humanitarian laws and for an immediate cease-fire amid the worsening security situation and lack of protection for civilians.

According to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, or CPJ, which has been investigating all reports of journalists and media workers killed, injured, or missing, the flare-up in the Middle East violence since Oct 7 "has led to the deadliest month for journalists" since the nongovernmental organization began gathering data in 1992.

In the CPJ update on Tuesday, 39 journalists and media workers have so far been confirmed dead. Of these, 34 are Palestinians, four are Israelis and one is Lebanese. Meanwhile, eight journalists have been reported injured, and three missing. Nine have been arrested.

The Palestinian death toll has surpassed 10,569, according to the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza. About 1,400 people in Israel have died.

In a statement posted on its website, the CPJ emphasized that journalists "are civilians doing important work during times of crisis and must not be targeted by warring parties".

It said those in Gaza in particular "have paid, and continue to pay, an unprecedented toll" and face exponential threats with many having lost colleagues, families, and media facilities and are seeking safety "when there is no safe haven or exit".

"Many of the journalists move to places where they think it's safe, like hospitals and United Nations-run schools," Mohammad Abualrob, assistant professor and chairperson of the Department of Media at Birzeit University in the West Bank, said.

"But lately, hospitals as well as United Nations-run schools have also been targeted," he added.

Abualrob also said Israel's total blockade of Gaza was preventing foreign journalists from covering the conflict adequately, and many civilians have turned to social media platforms like TikTok to share their stories on the ground.

Abualrob believes that given the death toll of Palestinian journalists, there may be a deliberate intent to target them, along with the healthcare workers and teams who have been serving the civilians and injured people.

Ambulances attacked

"Several doctors and ambulances (are also) being targeted by Israelis," said Abualrob, noting that such targeting is a violation of international law.

At a news briefing on Monday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the nightmare in Gaza "is more than a humanitarian crisis" and that it "is a crisis of humanity".

In Tokyo, G7 foreign ministers on Wednesday issued a "unified message" on the conflict, including a call for humanitarian pauses in the fighting, and for a "peace process", Japan's top diplomat said.

Winding up a two-day meeting, the nations said in a joint statement that Israel has "the right to defend itself". They noted that the G7 is "working intensively to prevent the conflict from escalating further and spreading more widely" and also using sanctions or other measures "to deny Hamas the ability to raise and use funds to carry out atrocities".

"We support humanitarian pauses and corridors to facilitate urgently needed assistance, civilian movement, and the release of hostages," the statement noted.

Hussein Hassan, an international aid worker who is an advocate of humanitarian access in crisis-hit countries, told China Daily that it is very unfortunate that a significant number of humanitarian workers have been killed in Gaza.

"These aid workers have risked their lives to provide vital aid to civilians and they are exposing themselves to aggressive airstrikes, bullets, and rockets. Killing them would jeopardize the continuity of critical humanitarian assistance," said Hassan.

Media reports said recently that around 100 Israeli doctors had signed a petition calling for the destruction of Al-Shifa Hospital in the Gaza Strip. Their petition alleged that Al-Shifa, Gaza's largest hospital, served as a base for "Palestinian armed groups".

"For a doctor to call for bombing a hospital is unprecedented and I am not sure if we have ever heard such a call from medical specialists or service providers," said Hassan.

Jiang Xueqing in Tokyo and agencies contributed to this story.

Foreign ministers of the Group of Seven called for urgent actions to respond to the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, saying that the G7 will support humanitarian pauses in fighting between Israel and Hamas militants and a humanitarian corridor to facilitate humanitarian assistance.

During a two-day meeting for the G7 top diplomats in Tokyo from Tuesday to Wednesday, members of the group agreed to seek the immediate release of hostages and stressed that further escalation of the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict in Gaza or its expansion into larger areas must be prevented, said Yoko Kamikawa, minister for foreign affairs of Japan, at a news conference on Wednesday.

"All parties must allow unimpeded humanitarian support for civilians, including food, water, medical care, fuel, and shelter, and access for humanitarian workers. We support humanitarian pauses and corridors to facilitate urgently needed assistance, civilian movement, and the release of hostages," said the G7 foreign ministers in a statement released after the news conference.

More than 10,000 Palestinians, including over 4,000 children, have been killed in Gaza in the ongoing conflict, a spokesman of the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said on Monday.

Israeli forces are launching fierce multi-means attacks on the Hamas militant group in "the heart of Gaza City", in moves Israel's Ministry of Defense said were to "exterminate Hamas" after the militant group launched an attack on Israel on Oct 7.

The G7 statement said the members are committed to working closely with partners to prepare sustainable long-term solutions for Gaza and a return to a broader peace process in line with the internationally agreed parameters.

"We underscore that a two-state solution, which envisions Israel and a viable Palestinian state living side by side in peace, security, and mutual recognition, remains the only path to a just, lasting, and secure peace," the statement said.

The two-state solution, written in UN resolutions, has yet to be effectively implemented, a failure that contributes to constant conflicts in the region.

Yet the statement stopped short of meeting international calls for a cease-fire of the Israel-Palestine conflict, according to analysts.

UNITED NATIONS - UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Monday that the unfolding catastrophe in Gaza makes a humanitarian cease-fire more urgent with every passing hour.

The nightmare in Gaza is more than a humanitarian crisis. It is a crisis of humanity. The intensifying conflict is shaking the world, rattling the region and, most tragically, destroying so many innocent lives, he told a press conference.

Ground operations by the Israeli military and continued bombardment are hitting civilians, hospitals, refugee camps, mosques, churches and UN facilities, including shelters. No one is safe. At the same time, Hamas and other militants use civilians as human shields and continue to launch rockets indiscriminately toward Israel, he said.

Gaza is becoming a graveyard for children. Hundreds of girls and boys are reportedly being killed or injured every day. More journalists have reportedly been killed over a four-week period than in any conflict in at least three decades. More UN aid workers have been killed than in any comparable period in the history of the world organization, he said.

"The unfolding catastrophe makes the need for a humanitarian cease-fire more urgent with every passing hour. The parties to the conflict - and, indeed, the international community - face an immediate and fundamental responsibility: to stop the inhuman collective suffering and dramatically expand humanitarian aid to Gaza," said Guterres.

Some life-saving aid is getting into Gaza from Egypt through the Rafah crossing. But the trickle of assistance does not meet the ocean of need, he said.

The Rafah crossing alone does not have the capacity to process aid trucks at the scale required. Just over 400 trucks have crossed into Gaza over the past two weeks, compared with 500 a day before the conflict. And crucially, this does not include fuel. Without fuel, newborn babies in incubators and patients on life support will die. Water cannot be pumped or purified. Raw sewage could soon start gushing onto the streets, further spreading disease. Trucks loaded with critical relief will be stranded, he warned.

The United Nations and partners are launching a humanitarian appeal worth 1.2 billion US dollars to help 2.7 million people - the entire population of Gaza and half a million Palestinians in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, he said.

"The way forward is clear: a humanitarian cease-fire - now; all parties respecting all their obligations under international humanitarian law - now; the unconditional release of the hostages in Gaza - now; the protection of civilians, hospitals, UN facilities, shelters and schools - now; more food, more water, more medicine and of course fuel entering Gaza safely, swiftly and at the scale needed - now; unfettered access to deliver supplies to all people in need in Gaza - now; and the end of the use of civilians as human shields - now," said the UN chief.

None of these appeals should be conditional on the others, he said.

Guterres voiced grave concern about rising violence and an expansion of the conflict.

The occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is at a boiling point. And there is a need to address the risks of the conflict spilling over to the wider region, he said.

"We are already witnessing a spiral of escalation from Lebanon and Syria, to Iraq and Yemen. That escalation must stop. Cool heads and diplomatic efforts must prevail. Hateful rhetoric and provocative actions must cease," he said.

"I am deeply troubled by the rise in antisemitism and anti-Muslim bigotry. Jewish and Muslim communities in many parts of the world are on high alert, fearing for their personal safety and security. Emotions are at a fever pitch. Tensions are running high," he added.

He called on UN member states to act now to find a way out of this brutal, awful, agonizing dead end of destruction - to help end the pain and suffering; to help heal the broken; and to help pave the way to peace, to a two-state solution with Israelis and Palestinians living in peace and security.

TEHRAN - Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has deplored the US and Western supplies of arms and equipment to Israel, whose bombardments have killed nearly 9,500 people in the Gaza Strip.

He made the remarks in a phone call with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store on Saturday night, during which the two sides discussed the situation in Gaza and ways to end the conflict and lift the siege on the coastal enclave, according to a statement published on the website of the Iranian president's office on Sunday.

Raisi said the killing of civilians, particularly children, is "ghastly," denouncing it as "a flagrant instance of crime against humanity".

The Iranian president added that "the silence of the United States and some European countries and their arms support to Israel are proof of their double standards and conspicuous complicity in Israel's crimes."

He called for stopping the war and killing of civilians in the Gaza Strip as soon as possible and making international efforts to immediately lift the blockade on it and allow the inflow of more humanitarian aid.

For his part, the Norwegian prime minister highlighted the necessity of immediately ending the violence and conflict in Gaza.

He noted that Norway and Iran could use diplomatic channels to hold consultations and cooperate on finding a solution to the conflict.

The Israel-Hamas conflict, raging for nearly a month, has led to the deaths of 9,488 Palestinians in Gaza. On the Israeli side, more than 1,400 people lost their lives, the vast majority in the Hamas military attacks on Israel on Oct 7, which triggered the ongoing conflict.

JERUSALEM - Israel's military said its forces reached on Sunday the coast of Gaza City and encircled Hamas in the city, as the Palestinian death toll in the enclave rose to 9,770 amid Israel's relentless bombardment.

The Israeli military said in a statement that the armored 36th Division reached "positions along the coast of Gaza", and the troops were "encircling" Hamas forces in the city.

The military added that their goal is "to strike and destroy select targets, including significant assets and command and control centers belonging to the Hamas".

"The forces divided the Strip to Gaza-north and Gaza-south and control the shoreline," Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Spokesperson Daniel Hagari said in a briefing, adding that "massive attacks are currently being carried out in the northern Gaza Strip, including the killing of Hamas commanders."

Hagari repeated the calls to Gazans to evacuate themselves from northern Gaza through "a one-way corridor for civilians" to the south as more Israeli strikes are expected in the Gaza City.

Also on Sunday, Hagari demanded that Hamas stop the "systematic exploitation of medical facilities for terrorist activity". In a briefing in English, Hagari presented audio footage and images that he said were evidence that the Hamas underground infrastructure was embedded beneath hospitals located in the northern enclave.

The Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, announced on Sunday that its fighters "trapped Israeli forces penetrating east of Khan Younis into a tight ambush after striking them with Al-Yassin 105 shells, heavy sniper weapons, medium weapons, and mortar shells, which led to the destruction of two tanks".

As the conflict has continued for 30 days, Israeli strikes killed at least 9,770 people and injured at least 24,808 others, the Gaza-based health ministry said in a statement.

Internet and telephone lines were cut again in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian communication company Paltel said in a statement. The blackout marked the third time that the communication in the enclave was cut off since the beginning of the conflict.

Meanwhile, Iran confirmed on Sunday that Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh has met with Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in the Iranian capital Tehran, without specifying the date of the meeting.

During the meeting, Haniyeh presented a report of the latest developments in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank as well as the Israeli "crimes" against the coastal enclave, according to a statement published on the leader's website on Sunday, while Khamenei stressed Iran's "permanent policy" of supporting the Palestinian resistance forces against Israel.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said on Sunday that the logistic difficulties imposed by Israel and its repeated bombing of the Rafah border crossing delayed the delivery of aid to the besieged Gaza Strip and placed additional burdens on Egypt.

Earlier in the day, Egypt sent 75 trucks loaded with food, water, and medical supplies through the Rafah crossing to Gaza, raising the total number of aid trucks sent to the enclave since Oct 21 to nearly 500, a security source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Confrontations on the Israel-Lebanon border continued on Sunday, killing two Hezbollah fighters and four civilians while injuring five others on the Lebanese side, local media reported. Lebanese military sources told Xinhua the Israeli army expanded its military operations to areas outside the borderline in southern Lebanon, in a remarkable escalation that came in the wake of Hezbollah's use of new surface-to-surface missiles.