The conflict between Israel and Hamas may jeopardize already limited humanitarian resources needed in other parts of the world, a United Nations official said in Tokyo on Friday.

Asian markets fell and oil prices extended gains Friday on worries that an expected ground invasion of Gaza by Israel will spark a wider conflict in the Middle East.

The first aid delivery into the besieged Gaza Strip via the Rafah border crossing with Egypt should take place "in the next day or so", the United Nations said Friday.

The last time Saja Samy heard from her family in Gaza, they were sheltering, along with thousands of others, at a hospital compound under threat of Israeli air strikes.

Essential workers in fields like health care and sanitation should earn higher wages and governments should cap pay in destructive industries like finance trading and fossil fuel excavation.

An Indian firm is terminating a longstanding contract to make uniforms for the Israeli police, telling AFP on Friday that it had made a "moral decision" in light of the war in Gaza.

The president also stressed the urgency of getting relief to Palestinian civilians in Gaza who lack food, water and medicine

The Hamas-controlled interior ministry said several displaced people sheltering at a church compound in Gaza were killed and injured after an Israeli strike late Thursday

Palestinians desperately awaited a first delivery of international emergency aid to Gaza Friday, as Israeli forces pounded the enclave from the air and warned a ground invasion was coming "soon".

China's special Mideast envoy pinned the cause of the Israel-Gaza crisis on the lack of guarantees for Palestinian rights and urged greater coordination with Moscow in a meeting with his Russian counterpart in Qatar, a key go-between in the conflict.

Britain's ruling Conservative Party suffered two damaging by-election defeats to Labour on Friday, boding ill for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his party's chances at the next general election.

President Joe Biden made an impassioned call for the United States to show global leadership by backing Israel and Ukraine, saying in a speech from the Oval Office Thursday that defeating Hamas and Russia was a vital US interest.

Ministers from across the European Union said yesterday that member states must screen migrants and asylum seekers better and expel those deemed a security risk more quickly, after Islamist attacks highlighted persistent difficulties.

The Taliban administration wants to formally join Chinese President Xi Jinping’s huge ‘Belt and Road’ infrastructure initiative and will send a technical team to China for talks, Afghanistan’s acting commerce minister said yesterday.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un yesterday, after slamming US policy towards the nuclear-armed state as “dangerous”.

China is developing its nuclear arsenal faster than US projections had previously anticipated, according to a Pentagon report released yesterday

A Pakistan court granted bail yesterday to former prime minister and graft convict Nawaz Sharif, removing the threat of arrest when he returns to the country from self-imposed exile this weekend.

Israel is vowing to wipe out Hamas in a relentless onslaught on the Gaza Strip but has no obvious endgame in sight, with no clear plan for how to govern the ravaged Palestinian enclave even if it triumphs on the battlefield.

Bangladesh will observe a one-day state mourning tomorrow for the Palestinians killed in recent Israeli attacks.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant yesterday told troops gathered at the Gaza border that they will soon see the Palestinian enclave “from inside”, suggesting an expected ground invasion with the aim of annihilating Hamas could be nearing.