Gaza–Israel conflict

The U.N. Security Council on Friday demanded aid be rushed to Gaza "at scale" as the head of the World Health Organization warned of a looming famine in the besieged Palestinian territory.

As Israeli bombs rained down on targets across Gaza, members of the U.N.'s top peacemaking council demanded "immediate, safe and unhindered" deliveries of life-saving aid.

World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said that Northern Gaza has no more functioning hospitals, The New York Times reported.

The WHO Director-General described scenes of horror witnessed by aid workers in the ruins of two partially destroyed medical facilities.

The United Nations Security Council was expected to vote Friday on a resolution to boost aid to Gaza, as the world body warned the Israel-Hamas war was pushing the Palestinian territory towards famine.

Separate diplomatic efforts were also under way for a fresh pause in the worst-ever Gaza war, which was triggered by an unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel in October.

It takes a while but slowly the children gathered around volunteer entertainer Ruaa Hassuna in a Gaza camp start clapping along as her music offers some respite from the horrors around them.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan spoke over the phone with his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, on Dec. 20 to address the ongoing developments in Gaza and the broader Middle East.

The leaders deliberated on Israel's ongoing attacks on the Palestinian territories and the imperative of delivering humanitarian aid to the embattled region, as disclosed by Erdoğan's office.

This was confirmed by Husam Badran, a member of the Hamas representative office in Qatar, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. According to Badran, Hamas wants an end to the war and a "Palestinian state in Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem."

Israel and Cyprus agreed on Wednesday to pursue ways to set up a maritime aid corridor to Gaza, a move Israel said was an "important step" towards disengaging economically from the enclave it has invaded to wipe out Hamas militants.

The US has said "very serious" talks are underway for a new ceasefire in Gaza and the release of more Israeli hostages. However, prospects for a deal remain uncertain as the Palestinian group Hamas insists it will only discuss an end to the Israeli offensive in the Palestinian enclave. Talks in Cairo on a new cease-fire failed to produce a deal.

At least 66 percent of jobs have been lost in Gaza since the Israeli-Hamas conflict erupted in October, the International Labor Organization (ILO) said on Wednesday. The ILO warned that job losses could continue to rise in the enclave.

The leader of Hamas travelled to Egypt on Wednesday as hopes grew that Israel and the Palestinian militant group may be inching toward another truce and hostage release deal in the Gaza war.

The Qatar-based Hamas chief, Ismail Haniyeh, arrived in Cairo for discussions on the "aggression in the Gaza Strip and other matters", the group said in a statement.