Israel has formally complained after a senior Vatican official spoke of "carnage" in Gaza and what he termed a disproportionate Israeli military operation following the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks.

The Israeli Embassy to the Holy See called the comments by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, "regrettable." In a statement Wednesday, the embassy said Parolin hadn't considered what it called the relevant facts in judging the legitimacy of Israel's actions.

Switzerland's government plans to boost its defense spending by up to 19% over the next four years, citing a rise in global instability, including wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, and gaps created when Swiss authorities cashed in on a peace dividend from the fall of the Berlin Wall decades ago.

Laying out mid- and long-range projections for military spending, Defense Minister Viola Amherd, who also holds the rotating Swiss presidency this year, said that as a result of cost-cutting measures over the last 30 years, "the army has been weakened," and it would take time to make up lost ground.

Sailors aboard the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and its accompanying warships have spent four months straight at sea defending against ballistic missiles and flying attack drones fired by Iranian-backed Houthis, and are now more regularly also defending against a new threat — fast unmanned vessels that are fired at them through the water.

While the Houthis have launched unmanned surface vessels, or USVs, in the past against Saudi coalition forces that have intervened in Yemen's civil war, they were used for the first time against U.S. military and commercial in the Red Sea on Jan. 4. In the weeks since, the Navy has had to intercept and destroy multiple USVs.

The U.N. peacekeeping force deployed along the Lebanon-Israel border, known as UNIFIL, expressed concerns Thursday over the latest “exchanges of fire,” and urged all sides involved to halt hostilities to prevent further escalation.

“Attacks targeting civilians are violations of international law and constitute war crimes,” UNIFIL’s spokesman Andrea Tenenti said in a statement. “The devastation, loss of life, and injuries witnessed are deeply concerning.”

Senior Hezbollah official Sheikh Nabil Qaouq said Thursday at an event in south Lebanon that his group is “prepared for the possibility of expanding the war” with Israel, a day after the fiercest escalation since the beginning of clashes.

Hussein Berjawi had invited his daughter, her husband and their two young sons to dinner in south Lebanon, but an Israeli strike nearly wiped them all out.

At least five family members -- Hussein Barjawi, his daughters Amani and Zeinab, his sister Fatima and Zeinab's son Mahmoud Amer -- were killed in the strike on the city of Nabatiyeh.

Israeli forces stormed the main hospital in southern Gaza on Thursday, hours after Israeli fire killed a patient and wounded six others inside the complex, the Gaza Health Ministry said.

The raid came a day after the army sought to evacuate thousands of displaced people who had taken shelter at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. The southern city has been the main target of Israel's offensive against Hamas in recent weeks.

The slow-simmering cross-border conflict between Lebanon's Hezbollah and Israeli forces escalated Wednesday, reviving fears that the daily clashes could expand into an all-out war.

A rocket fired from Lebanon struck the northern Israeli town of Safed, killing a 20-year-old female soldier and wounding at least eight people.

The civilian death toll from two Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon has risen to 10, Lebanese state media reported Thursday, making the previous day the deadliest one in more than four months of cross-border exchanges.

Hezbollah has vowed to retaliate for the strikes, which hit in the city of Nabatiyeh and a village in southern Lebanon, just hours after projectiles from Lebanon killed an Israeli soldier.

A typical Carnival day in Brazil starts around 7 a.m., when the first blocos — as the free street parties are known — start their loud and colorful musical journey down the city's streets. Drummers, stilt walkers, trumpet players and other performers, all dressed up and lacquered in glitter, attract thousands of followers.

Blocos are thematic, inspiring the costumes and songs of their followers. In Rio alone, the city authorized 500 street parties this year.