Rifts are emerging among top Israeli officials over the handling of the war against Hamas in Gaza. A member of the country's War Cabinet cast doubt over the strategy for releasing hostages, and the country's prime minister rejected the United States' calls to scale back its offensive.

Only a cease-fire deal can win the release of dozens of hostages still held by Islamic militants in Gaza, and claims they could be freed by other means was spreading "illusions," said former army chief Gadi Eisenkot, one of four members of the War Cabinet, in his first public statements on the course of the war.

A member of Israel's War Cabinet confirmed that early in the war against Hamas in Gaza, an Israeli preemptive strike against Hezbollah was called off at the last minute.

Gadi Eisenkot, a former army chief, said he was among those arguing against such a strike in what he described as a stormy Oct. 11 Cabinet meeting that left him hoarse from shouting.

The Israeli army says it intercepted a “suspicious aerial target” over the Red Sea near the southern city of Eilat on Thursday. There were no reports of casualties or damage, but the launch of the interceptor set off air raid sirens in the coastal city.

The military did not say whether the object was a drone or missile, or who may have fired it. The Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have fired drones and missiles at Israel in the past, but most have fallen short or were intercepted and shot down.

Palestinians are dying every day in Gaza's overwhelmed remaining hospitals which can't deal with the tens of thousands people hurt in Israeli's military offensive, a U.N. health emergency expert said Wednesday, while a doctor with the International Rescue Committee called the situation in Gaza's hospitals the most extreme she had ever seen.

The two health professionals, who recently left Gaza after weeks working in hospitals there, described overwhelmed doctors trying to save the lives of thousands of wounded people amid collapsing hospitals that have turned into impromptu refugee camps.

Normalizing ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia is a key element of ending the war with Hamas and a gamechanger for the entire Middle East, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said Thursday at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in the Swiss town of Davos.

"It's still delicate, it's fragile, and it will take a long time, but I think that it is actually an opportunity to move forward in the world and the region towards a better future," Herzog said.

The Defense Department will install solar panels on the Pentagon, part of the Biden administration's plan to promote clean energy and "reestablish the federal government as a sustainability leader."

The Pentagon is one of 31 government sites that are receiving $104 million in Energy Department grants that are expected to double the amount of carbon-free electricity at federal facilities and create 27 megawatts of clean-energy capacity while leveraging more than $361 million in private investment, the Energy Department said.

The third round gets underway Friday at the Australian Open with Novak Djokovic back in action in his bid for a record-extending 25th major title. Stay up-to-date with a guide that tells you everything you need to know about how to watch the year's first Grand Slam tennis tournament, what the schedule is, what the betting odds are, and more:

WHO IS PLAYING ON DAY 5?

There won't be a guard of honor when Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid rekindle their rivalry in the second of three matches between the clubs in less than a month on Thursday.

The round-of-16 match in the Copa del Rey will come less than a week after Madrid beat Atletico 5-3 in extra time in the semifinals of the Spanish Super Cup in Saudi Arabia.

Karim Benzema has filed a defamation lawsuit against France's Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, who accused the soccer star of having links to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Darmanin said in October that Benzema had "a notorious link" to the Brotherhood — a pan-Arab Islamist group which came to power in Egypt following elections a year after the 2011 popular uprising — because Benzema posted a message of support online for the people of Gaza early into the Israel-Hamas war.

Uniqlo Co. has sued rival retailer Shein over a small shoulder bag the Japanese retailer said was an inferior and unlawful copy of its hit product touted as the "Mary Poppins bag."

The lawsuit demanded Shein stop selling its product that Uniqlo said looks too much like its Round Mini Shoulder Bag.