Qatari, Egyptian and US mediators called on Israel and Hamas Saturday to "finalise" the truce deal outlined by US President Joe Biden, as Israeli forces pounded Rafah in southern Gaza.
Fighting has raged in the besieged Gaza Strip since Biden said Israel was offering a new roadmap towards a full ceasefire.
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has since insisted his country would pursue the war until it had achieved all its aims.
US President Joe Biden unveiled a three-phase Israeli proposal to end the war in Gaza on Friday, which includes a ceasefire and the release of hostages held by Hamas.
Here are the key elements of the "comprehensive" plan that the 81-year-old called a "roadmap to an enduring ceasefire."
- Phase One -
Biden said the first phase includes a "full and complete ceasefire" lasting six weeks, with Israeli forces withdrawing from "all populated areas of Gaza."
Kick-off in Scotland's Women's Euro 2025 qualifier with Israel in Glasgow on Friday was delayed for over half an hour after a demonstrator avoided security at Hampden Park and chained himself to a goalpost.
Both Friday's fixture in Glasgow and the 'return' match in Hungary on June 4 are meant to be taking place behind closed doors, without any spectators.
That decision was taken against the backdrop of the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict.
At the request of Baghdad, the UN Security Council unanimously decided Friday that the United Nations political mission in Iraq will leave the country at the end of 2025 after more than 20 years.
The Iraqi government welcomed the decision, saying it reflected progress and stability in the country since the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) was established in 2003 after the US-led invasion and fall of Saddam Hussein.
US President Joe Biden said Friday Israel had offered a new roadmap towards a permanent peace in Gaza, urging Hamas to accept the surprise deal as it was "time for this war to end."
In his first major address outlining a solution to the conflict, Biden said the three-phase proposal starts with a six-week complete ceasefire that would see Israeli forces withdraw from all populated areas of Gaza.
"It's time for this war to end, for the day after to begin," Biden said in a televised address from the White House.
At the request of Baghdad, the UN Security Council unanimously decided Friday that the United Nations political mission in Iraq would leave the country at the end of 2025 after more than 20 years.
Earlier this month, in a letter to the council, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohamed Shia al-Sudani called for the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) to be closed.
Al-Sudani said UNAMI had overcome "great and varied challenges" and that "the grounds for having a political mission in Iraq" no longer exist.
UN Palestinian refugee agency chief Philippe Lazzarini said Friday that Israel "must stop its campaign against UNRWA" in an opinion article published by the New York Times.
"The war in Gaza has produced a blatant disregard for the mission of the United Nations, including outrageous attacks on (UNRWA) employees, facilities and operations," agency chief Lazzarini said.
"These attacks must stop and the world must act to hold the perpetrators accountable."
Hamas on Friday said it "considers positively" an Israeli roadmap towards a full Gaza ceasefire announced by US President Joe Biden, who urged an end to the almost eight-month war.
But swiftly afterwards, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu poured cold water on Biden's talk of peace, insisting the army would continue fighting until it had "eliminated" Hamas's capacity to rule Gaza and pose a military threat.
For the first time in over a decade of conflict, farmers in Syria's rebel-held northwest are irrigating their crops more easily thanks to the rehabilitation of a vital reservoir, bringing life back to parched fields.
Water from the Bala reservoir is once again flowing to a fertile plain in the Idlib area, home to several million people, many of them displaced during the country's devastating civil war.
A seemingly ordinary villa in the heart of Tripoli holds a lifetime of works by the late Libyan artist Ali Gana, whose family has turned his house into a unique museum.
In the North African country still grappling with divisions and conflict after the fall of longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011, "art comes last", said Hadia Gana, the youngest of the artist's four children.
