UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) chief Philippe Lazzarini said Thursday that Israeli authorities are prioritising the private commercial sector at the main crossing point for goods entering Gaza.

"When it comes to the crossing in Kerem Shalom, the private sector for the time being is being prioritised," Lazzarini told AFP, adding that the development had occurred over the past two weeks.

He said the prioritisation took place at the inspections level, with private sector trucks inspected "before any other trucks".

Representatives of Indigenous peoples celebrated Friday at the United Nations following the agreement of a treaty against the pillaging of their traditional knowledge and genetic resources, like those from medicinal plants.

The new treaty, agreed by more than 190 nations, aims to combat so-called biopiracy by making applicants for patents disclose the origins of such materials used in a new invention.

A stressful refugee drama screening in Cannes shines light on the Palestinian plight and the excruciating moral choices migrants have to make to help loved ones start a new life abroad.

"To a Land Unknown", directed by Mahdi Fleifel, follows two Palestinian refugee cousins around Athens as they try to save up money to pay a smuggler to sneak them into Germany.

Chatila has left a young family behind in Lebanon to try to keep his fragile cousin Reda sober and away from their squat's poet drug dealer long enough to gather the cash.

Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof arrived at the Cannes Film Festival Thursday after his dramatic escape from his homeland after being sentenced to eight years in prison.

"I can't believe I'm standing here," AFP journalists heard him telling officials in the Palais des Festivals, where the world's biggest film festival is being held.

He declined questions from reporters ahead of the premiere of his new film, "The Seed of the Sacred Fig", which is competing for the Palme d'Or, the festival's top prize, on Friday.

Palestinians on Thursday began assessing the damage caused by a two-day Israeli raid on the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank that left 12 people dead, including children.

Young Palestinian militants shouted into walkie-talkies as they loaded anti-tank obstacles into a pickup truck, an AFP correspondent reported as he toured the camp after the troops left.

Black canvas sheets littered the narrow alleyways of the impoverished camp, torn down after providing cover from Israeli drones.

Lebanese school children on a minibus had a narrow escape Thursday when a drone strike killed a Hezbollah fighter in the car ahead, blowing out the windscreen of their vehicle and wounding three pupils.

The injured children were hospitalised with cuts from flying glass after the aerial attack, which state media and a source close to the Iran-backed militant group blamed on Israel.

"At first, we didn't understand what was happening, and there was panic among the children," said Ahmad Qubaisi, 57, who was driving the bus with 18 children on board.

A two-day Israeli raid on the occupied West Bank city of Jenin killed at least 12 Palestinians, health authorities and an AFP correspondent said Thursday.

Israeli troops withdrew from the city early Thursday, the correspondent said, after carrying out raids in the city's refugee camp and exchanging fire with masked gunmen in a nearby neighbourhood in the city centre.

The Palestinian health ministry in Ramallah said Israeli forces had killed 12 people including four children, and wounded 25 during the fighting which began on Tuesday morning.

Israel launched devastating air strikes on Gaza Thursday, while also expressing readiness to resume stalled talks on a truce and hostage release deal with Hamas to pause the war raging since October 7.

The Gaza Strip's civil defence agency said two pre-dawn air strikes had killed 26 people, including 15 children, in Gaza City.

Agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said one strike hit a family house, killing 16 people, in the Al-Daraj area, and another killed 10 people inside a mosque compound.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi was laid to rest on Thursday, concluding days of funeral rites attended by throngs of mourners after his death in a helicopter crash, state media reported.

Hundreds of thousands marched in his home town Mashhad to bid farewell to Raisi ahead of his burial following processions in the cities of Tabriz, Qom, Tehran and Birjand.

The 63-year-old died on Sunday alongside his foreign minister and six others after their helicopter went down in the country's mountainous northwest while returning from a dam inauguration on the border with Azerbaijan.

Two Tunisian media figures on Wednesday received one-year sentences for "spreading false news" and "defaming" others after making comments the authorities deemed critical, a court spokesman said.

Broadcaster Borhen Bssais and political commentator Mourad Zeghidi were arrested in mid-May under Decree 54, a 2022 law which critics have said is being used to stifle political dissent.