Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that his decision not to send a delegation to Washington for talks with the Biden administration was meant to deliver a message to Hamas that international pressure against Israel will not prompt it to end the war without concessions from the militant group.

Netanyahu’s remarks appeared to be an attempt to smooth over a clash between Israel and Washington this week following the U.S. decision not to veto a U.N. Security Council resolution this week demanding an immediate cease-fire. Netanyahu decided in response to cancel a delegation’s visit to Washington meant to discuss Israel’s plans for an offensive in Gaza’s southernmost town of Rafah.

A Tunisian court sentenced four people to death and two to life in prison on charges stemming from the murder of a left-wing politician, a public prosecutor said Wednesday.

Chokri Belaid, the 48-year-old leader of the Popular Front coalition, was shot in his car outside his home in Tunis in February 2013. His assassination, the country's first in decades, prompted mass protests and helped lead to the resignation of the then-prime minister.

The southern Gaza Strip came under intense Israeli bombardment overnight, despite international pressure for an immediate ceasefire in the Palestinian territory where famine is looming.

Besieged Gaza is in desperate need of aid and the United States said it would continue airdrops, despite pleas from Hamas to stop the practice after the Islamist group said 18 people had died trying to reach food packages.

The United States has imposed sanctions on a money exchanger and a group of firms across six countries involved in commodity shipments and business transactions that benefit Iran's military and the Houthi militant group in Yemen and the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon.

The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned six firms, two tankers and a money exchanger, all either based or registered in Liberia, India, Vietnam, Lebanon or Kuwait. They are accused of materially benefiting Iran, the Houthis and Hezbollah.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday said Israel will not accept Hamas’ demands for a cease-fire after the Palestinian group rejected the latest proposal for a truce.

In a statement from his office Tuesday, Netanyahu accused Hamas of being uninterested in proceeding with negotiations toward a deal. He said Hamas’ rejection “served as unfortunate testimony to the damage of the Security Council decision,” which on Monday approved a resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire and the release of all hostages captured by Hamas, without linking the two.

Hamas called for an end to aid airdrops into Gaza Tuesday after it said 12 people drowned and six were killed in stampedes trying to reach the food packages.

"We call for an immediate end to airdrop operations... and we demand the immediate and rapid opening of land crossings to allow humanitarian aid to reach our Palestinian people," said the militant group, which runs the besieged territory.

Dozens of Israeli tanks and armoured vehicles surrounded the Nasser Hospital in Gaza Tuesday, where thousands of displaced people have sought refuge from the fighting, witnesses said.

Witnesses told AFP that shots were being fired at the sprawling complex in the southern city of Khan Younis, but no raid was as yet taking place.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday vowed to press ahead with Israel's offensive and blasted a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for a pause in the fighting, saying it had emboldened Hamas to reject a separate proposal for a cease-fire and hostage release.

As the war in Gaza grinds through a sixth month, each side has publicly insisted that its own idea of victory is in reach and rejected international efforts to stem the bloodshed.

At least nine pro-Tehran fighters, including an Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander, were among 13 people killed in air strikes in eastern Syria on Tuesday, a war monitor said.

"Nine pro-Iranian fighters, including a Revolutionary Guards commander, were killed in air strikes targeting the villa they were staying in, which served as a communications centre," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was in Tehran on Tuesday for talks with Iranian officials, state media reported, a day after the U.N. Security Council called for a ceasefire in the group's war with Israel.

"Hamas bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh, during his trip to Tehran on Tuesday, will meet with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian," Iran's official IRNA news agency said, adding that he will also meet with other senior officials.