President Joe Biden and aides worked behind the scenes on Monday pressing for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas amid what one source said was frustration over Israel's bombing of a Gaza building that housed some news organisations.

Gruesome scenes of blood-soaked men, women, children; homes destroyed, evacuated; faces with fear, grief, revolt; missiles raining down on debris -- these overwhelming pictures and videos have once again stirred up the humanity. But for millions of Palestinians, this has always been the only reality they know. As of May 17, at least 192 people, including 58 children and 34 women in Gaza have died in the recently escalated conflict.

The recent escalation of violence with the Palestinians, which has stoked nationalist passions, has made it more difficult for opposition parties in Israel to come together and form a coalition government against Benjamin Netanyahu, reports the American international relations magazine Foreign Policy.

Saudi Arabia plans to soon reopen to foreign tourists, a senior tourism official said on Monday after the kingdom announced the lifting of quarantine restrictions for certain foreign arrivals.

India has condemned “indiscriminate rocket firings from Gaza targeting the civilian population in Israel and the retaliatory strikes into Gaza” and called for immediate de-escalation of tensions in the region.

The Associated Press's top editor wants an independent investigation into Israel's bombing of a building in Gaza that was home to her news organisation as well as broadcaster Al Jazeera.

Bangladesh has urged the UN Security Council to take up the issue of violence and breach of security in the occupied land of Palestine and work for a durable solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City flattened three buildings and killed at least 42 people Sunday, medics said, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signaled the fighting between Israel and Palestinians in Gaza would continue despite international efforts to broker a cease fire.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has called on the UN Security Council to seek an early de-escalation of violence between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers. He also blamed the US for the council's lack of action so far.

US President Joe Biden urged calm between Israel and Gaza on Saturday and affirmed his support for a two-state solution in his first phone call with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas since taking office, the official Palestinian news agency said.

An Israeli air raid on a densely populated refugee camp in Gaza City killed at least 10 Palestinians from an extended family, mostly children, early Saturday in the deadliest single strike of the current battle with Gaza’s Hamas rulers.

Ongoing Israeli airstrikes have so far killed 126 Palestinians in Gaza, including 31 children and 20 women, 950 people have been injured, the Ministry of Health in Gaza reported on Friday, according Al Arabiya.

Israeli forces have launched air strikes and deployed troops on the ground on the Gaza Strip, according to a brief message from the Israeli army, while the Gaza Strip’s feeble health system has been struggling to provide treatment to the injured in the Israeli attack amid a runaway surge of coronavirus cases.

The UN Security Council held another emergency meeting Wednesday on worsening hostilities between Israel and Palestinians, again without agreeing on a joint statement due to opposition from the United States, Israel's key ally, according to diplomats.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today condemned the recent attack on the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, and urged the world community to take permanent steps to stop such heinous acts.

Hostilities between Israel and Hamas escalated on Wednesday, with at least 35 killed in Gaza and five in Israel in the most intensive aerial exchanges for years.

A 13-storey residential tower in the Gaza Strip was hit by an Israeli air strike yesterday night and soon after collapsed, witnesses said, amid a surge in fighting between Israel and Gaza militants.

Syria has freed more than 400 civil servants, judges, lawyers and journalists detained this year in a crackdown on social media dissent, a move seen by rights activists and former detainees as intended to win over public opinion ahead of presidential elections.

Israel responded Hamas militant group's rocket strike on Jerusalem with airstrikes across the Gaza Strip, where 20 people, including nine children, were killed in fighting.

Israeli police firing tear gas, stun grenades and rubber-coated bullets clashed with Palestinian stone-throwers at a flashpoint Jerusalem holy site on Monday, the latest in a series of confrontations that is pushing the contested city to the brink of eruption.