Syrian rescuers evacuated residential areas in Latakia province because of major forest fires, authorities said on Friday.

"We'll see what happens. We're going to know over the next 24 hours," U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters on Air Force One late Thursday when asked if Hamas had agreed to the latest framework for a ceasefire.

Hamas said Friday that it was holding discussions with leaders of other Palestinian factions to discuss a ceasefire proposal presented to it by Egyptian and Qatari mediators. Hamas said it will give its final response to mediators after the discussions have concluded.

Israeli airstrikes killed 15 Palestinians in Gaza early on Friday, while a hospital said another 20 people died in shootings while waiting for aid.

Meanwhile, the U.N. human rights office says it has recorded 613 killings within the span of a month in Gaza near humanitarian convoys and as Palestinians try to reach aid at distribution points run by an Israeli-backed American organization since it first began operations in late May.

Israeli airstrikes killed 15 Palestinians in Gaza early on Friday, while a hospital said another 20 people died in shootings while waiting for aid.

Meanwhile, the U.N. human rights office says it has recorded 613 killings in Gaza near humanitarian convoys and as Palestinians try to reach aid at distribution points run by an Israeli-backed American organization since it first began operations in late May.

Syrian foreign minister Asaad al-Shaibani said on Friday that Damascus was willing to cooperate with Washington to reimplement the 1974 disengagement agreement with Israel.

In a statement following a phone call with his American counterpart Marco Rubio, Shaibani said he expressed Syria's "aspiration to cooperate with the United States to return to the 1974 disengagement agreement".

Russian leader Vladimir Putin stressed in a call with U.S. President Donald Trump that the Iran conflicts and others in the Middle East should be solved diplomatically.

"From the Russian side, the importance of settling all disputed issues, disagreements and conflictual situations be solved exclusively by politico-diplomatic means was stressed," Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters after the call.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday he wanted "safety" for people in Gaza, as he prepares to host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu next week to push for a ceasefire.

"I want the people of Gaza to be safe more importantly," Trump told reporters when asked if he still wanted the US to take over the Palestinian territory as he announced in February.

American contractors guarding aid distribution sites in Gaza are using live ammunition and stun grenades as hungry Palestinians scramble for food, according to accounts and videos obtained by The Associated Press.

Two U.S. contractors, speaking to the AP on condition of anonymity because they were revealing their employers' internal operations, said they were coming forward because they were disturbed by what they considered dangerous and irresponsible practices. They said the security staff hired were often unqualified, unvetted, heavily armed and seemed to have an open license to do whatever they wished.

A Kurdish militant group that has waged a long-running insurgency in Turkey announced Thursday its fighters in northern Iraq will begin handing over their weapons, marking the first concrete step toward disarmament as part of a peace process.

The Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, announced in May it would disband and renounce armed conflict, ending four decades of hostilities. The move came after PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, who has been imprisoned on an island near Istanbul since 1999, urged his group in February to convene a congress and formally disband and disarm.

Hamas and Israel staked out their positions Wednesday ahead of expected talks on a Washington-backed ceasefire proposal, with the militant group suggesting it was open to an agreement while the Israeli prime minister vowed that "there will be no Hamas" in postwar Gaza.

Both sides stopped short of accepting the proposal announced Tuesday by U.S. President Donald Trump. Hamas insisted on its longstanding position that any deal bring an end to the war in Gaza.