Egypt’s foreign minister said Friday that an immediate cease-fire in the Gaza Strip is needed to stop an escalation that could push the region into a wider war.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli military issued rare and swift condemnations of the attack by Israeli settlers on a village in the occupied West Bank that killed at least one Palestinian and injured another.

Yemen's rival parties are making military preparations and threatening to return to war as hunger and cholera are increasing in the Arab world's poorest nation, U.N. officials said Thursday.

U.N. special representative Hans Grundberg told the Security Council that despite serious efforts to shield Yemen, it has been drawn into the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, with Houthi rebels continuing to attack ships in the Red Sea and the United States and United Kingdom responding with strikes on military targets in Houthi-controlled areas.

Hezbollah on Friday released a video showing what appeared to be underground tunnels and large missile launchers, amid fears of all-out war between the Iran-backed group and Israel.

The release comes as negotiators seeking a Gaza ceasefire were to meet for a second day in Qatar, and amid intensified diplomatic activity in Lebanon seeking to avert a broader conflict.

A daring Ukrainian military push into Russia's Kursk region has seen Kyiv's forces seize scores of villages, take hundreds of prisoners and force the evacuation of tens of thousands of civilians in what has become the largest attack on the country since World War II.

In more than a week of fighting, Russian troops are still struggling to drive out the invaders.

Israeli firefighters Thursday were battling back blazes ignited by rockets from Lebanon, fire officials said.

Five trucks of firefighters spent the afternoon putting out a fire in the Upper Galilee, near Kibbutz Shamir, Israeli fire spokesperson Isaac Ben-David told The Associated Press.

France’s top diplomat Thursday met with top Lebanese officials in Beirut, as the region anticipates a retaliatory attack on Israel from Iran and Hezbollah and as negotiations for a cease-fire in the war-torn Gaza Strip recommenced in Qatar.

“We are all concerned about the regional situation. Our message is simple which is de-escalation,” said French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné following a meeting with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri.

Palestinian health officials say Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip overnight and into Wednesday killed at least 17 people, including five children and their parents.

The latest strikes came on the eve of new talks aimed at reaching a cease-fire in the 10-month-long war. The United States, Qatar and Egypt are hoping to broker an agreement, but the sides remain far apart on several issues even after months of indirect negotiations.

Details emerged over the weekend of a suspected Iranian cyber intrusion into the campaign of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, potentially resulting in the theft of internal campaign documents.

The FBI is investigating the matter as well as attempts to infiltrate President Joe Biden's reelection campaign, which became Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign after Biden dropped out of the race.

International mediators are hoping to kickstart stalled cease-fire negotiations between Israel and Hamas with a new round of talks meant to finally clinch a deal between the sides. But the chances of a breakthrough appear slim.

The new talks are set to begin Thursday, but Israel and Hamas have been mulling an internationally-backed proposal for more than two months that would wind down the 10-month-long war and free the roughly 110 hostages still held in Gaza.