A dozen masked men jump out of two SUVs and a white pickup and storm a KFC in Baghdad, smashing everything in sight before fleeing the scene. A few days earlier, similar violence played out at Lee's Famous Recipe Chicken and Chili House — all American brands popular in the Iraqi capital.

Though no one was seriously hurt, the recent attacks — apparently orchestrated by supporters of Iran-backed, anti-American militias in Iraq — reflect surging anger against the United States, Israel's top ally, over the war in Gaza.

Egypt has received "positive signs" from Hamas over a proposed Gaza truce and hostage release deal, state-linked Al-Qahera News said Thursday citing a high-level source.

"Hamas leaders have informed us that they are studying the truce proposal seriously and positively," it quoted the unnamed source as saying, adding that Hamas was expected to provide a response "in the coming days".

Syria's Kurdish authorities said Thursday they were delaying controversial municipal elections which prompted threats from arch-foe Turkey and concerns from their main ally the United States.

The elections, originally scheduled for June 11 and now postponed "until at least August", would be the first to extend to all seven regions under the semi-autonomous region's control, home to both Arabs and Kurds, since Syria's fragmentation during its civil war.

Leaders in many conflict areas are more interested in power and political rivalries than in listening to the needs of their people, improving their lives and ending the fighting, the United Nations humanitarian chief told The Associated Press.

In an interview Wednesday, Martin Griffiths said humanitarian workers in conflict-torn countries see the consequences of this failure every day when they often put their lives on the line to help millions of people who are hungry, displaced and caught in violence. That has been brought into sharp relief in Gaza, where over 200 relief workers have been killed.

Spain will join South Africa's case at the U.N.'s top court in which Pretoria has accused Israel of "genocide" in Gaza, Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said on Thursday.

"Our sole goal is to put an end to the war and to advance on the road of applying the two-state solution", Albares said. His statement came a week after Spain, along with Ireland and Norway, recognised the state of Palestine, sparking Israeli fury.

The image shows tents in a camp, highlighted to spell out one single phrase: "All Eyes on Rafah." It has been shared more than 50 million times.

A single image, not even an authentic photograph, is the focus of a singular campaign on Instagram that has caught the attention of the algorithm and captured the imaginations of users across national borders — a show of support for the Palestinian movement as the war between Israel and Hamas enters its eighth month.

Yemen's Houthi rebels have unveiled a new, solid-fuel missile in their arsenal that resembles aspects of one earlier displayed by Iran that Tehran described as flying at hypersonic speeds.

The rebels fired its new "Palestine" missile, complete with a warhead painted like a Palestinian keffiyeh checkered scarf, at the southern Gulf of Aqaba port of Eilat in Israel on Monday. The attack set off air raid sirens but caused no reported damage or injuries.

An Israeli strike early Thursday on a school sheltering displaced Palestinians in central Gaza killed more than 37 people, including at least 23 women and children, according to local health officials. The Israeli military said Hamas militants were operating from within the school.

The strike came after the military announced a new ground and air assault in several refugee camps in central Gaza, pursuing Hamas militants it says have regrouped there. It's the latest instance of troops sweeping back into sections of the Gaza Strip they have previously invaded, underscoring the resilience of the militant group despite Israel's nearly eight-month onslaught in the territory.

An independent group of experts has warned that it's possible that famine is underway in northern Gaza but that the war between Israel and Hamas and restrictions on humanitarian access have impeded the data collection to prove it.

"It is possible, if not likely," the group known as the Famine Early Warning Systems Network, or FEWS NET, said about famine in Gaza.

Thousands of mostly ultranationalist Israelis were expected to take part in an annual march through a dense Palestinian neighborhood in Jerusalem's Old City on Wednesday in an event that often sees racist chants and brawls.

Jerusalem, the epicenter of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, has been mostly calm throughout the Israel-Hamas war, but the march could ignite widespread tensions, as it did three years ago, when it helped set off an 11-day war in Gaza.