Israel has refused to renew visas for the heads of at least three United Nations agencies in Gaza, which the U.N. humanitarian chief blames on their work trying to protect Palestinian civilians in the war-torn territory.

Visas for the local leaders of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, known as OCHA; the human rights agency OHCHR; and the agency supporting Palestinians in Gaza, UNRWA, have not been renewed in recent months, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric confirmed.

Officials struggled Friday to identify more than a dozen bodies pulled from a deadly shopping mall fire in Iraq, amid ongoing investigations into what caused the blaze.

An Iraqi medical official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment said the final death toll was 63, including 18 bodies that could not be identified due to the severity of the burns and would undergo DNA testing.

Top church leaders in Jerusalem headed into Gaza Friday in a rare solidarity visit to the territory one day after an Israeli shell slammed into its only Catholic church, killing three people.

The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, and Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III entered Gaza in the morning to express the "shared pastoral solicitude of the Churches of the Holy Land," read a statement released by the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem.

Israel said Friday it was sending humanitarian aid to Syria's Sweida province, following days of deadly clashes in the Druze heartland.

"In light of the recent attacks targeting the Druze community in Sweida and the severe humanitarian situation in the area, Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has ordered the urgent transfer of humanitarian aid to the Druze population in the region," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

Renewed clashes broke out overnight between Druze armed groups and members of Bedouin clans in southern Syria, and government forces were preparing to deploy again to the area Friday after pulling out under a ceasefire agreement that halted several days of violence earlier this week, officials said.

Government security forces agreed with some of the Druze factions that they would re-enter the area to impose stability and protect state institutions, according to two Syrian officials who spoke Friday on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

A Turkish official said Thursday that Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and intelligence chief İbrahim Kalin held a series of diplomatic and security contacts to de-escalate the clashes in Syria's Sweida.

They worked with the U.S. special envoy for Syria, Israel, and regional officials and leaders, including Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblat, said the official who requested anonymity to discuss the issue.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday said a ceasefire in Syria was "obtained by force", after Israel struck military targets in the heart of Damascus in response to government troops attacking the Druze in Sweida.

"It is a ceasefire obtained by force. Not by demands, not by pleas -- by force," he said in a statement.

Over 500 people people have been killed in southern Syria's Sweida province, a war monitor said Thursday, giving an updated toll after several days of clashes that triggered the deployment of government forces.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights counted 79 Druze fighters and 154 civilians from Sweida among the dead, including 83 people "who were summarily executed by members of the defense and interior ministries". The clashes also claimed the lives of 243 government personnel and 18 Bedouin fighters, in addition to three members of Bedouin tribes "who were summarily executed by Druze fighters".

President Donald Trump hosted a pair of Arab Gulf leaders at the White House on Wednesday as violence between Israel and Syria renewed doubts about his pledge to impose peace on the Middle East.

Trump held a meeting in the Oval Office with Bahrain's crown prince and dined privately with Qatar's prime minister.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suffered a major political blow on Wednesday as a key governing partner announced it was quitting his coalition government, leaving him with a minority in parliament as the country faces a litany of challenges.

Shas, an ultra-Orthodox party that has long served as kingmaker in Israeli politics, announced that it would bolt the government over disagreements surrounding a proposed law that would enshrine broad military draft exemptions for its constituents — the second ultra-Orthodox governing party to do so this week.