The Israeli army said Thursday its troops had taken "operational control" of Gaza port, a key piece of infrastructure in the Palestinian territory where Israel is waging war with Hamas militants.

"In the past few days, in a joint operation, soldiers... took operational control of the Gaza harbour, which was controlled by the Hamas terrorist organization," the Israeli army said in a statement. "All buildings in the harbour area were cleared."

The U.N. human rights chief decried Thursday serious allegations of violations of international law in the Israel-Hamas war, suggesting an international investigation was needed.

"Extremely serious allegations of multiple and profound breaches of international humanitarian law, whoever commits them, demand rigorous investigation and full accountability," Volker Turk said in a briefing on the situation to U.N. member states, adding "international investigation is called for".

A group of French diplomats are concerned that France would lose its influence in Lebanon and other Middle East countries because of its sometimes controversial statements over the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

The diplomats penned a highly unusual joint memorandum deploring what they allege is a pro-Israeli bias from President Emmanuel Macron.

Three gunmen attacked a checkpoint near Jerusalem on Thursday, Israeli police said, wounding several people before the attackers were "neutralized".

Four people were wounded, one of them critically, the Magen David Adom emergency medical services said in a statement. The attack came on the 41st day of the Israeli war on Gaza.

Israel renewed its operation at Gaza's largest hospital Thursday, targeting what it claimed was a Hamas command center nestled among patients, medics and the displaced.

"Tonight we conducted a targeted operation into Shifa hospital," said Major General Yaron Finkelman, the head of Israeli military operations in Gaza. "We continue to move forward."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Wednesday there is no safe place for the Hamas militants behind the October 7 attacks and "no place in Gaza" the army wouldn't reach.

"They told us we wouldn't reach the outskirts of Gaza City and we did, they told us we wouldn't enter Al-Shifa (hospital) and we did," he said hours after troops raided the territory's biggest hospital.

The Israeli army operation in Al-Shifa hospital, targeting what it says is a Hamas command centre under Gaza's biggest medical facility, on Wednesday set off a wave of international condemnation.

The army had announced overnight it was carrying out "a precise and targeted operation against Hamas in a specified area" of the hospital where the U.N. estimates there are at least 2,300 patients, staff and displaced Palestinians.

Israeli police said Wednesday they had demolished the home of a Palestinian who killed seven Israelis and a Ukrainian near a synagogue in a settlement in annexed east Jerusalem.

Khayri Alqam was shot dead in the January 27 attack and his family later received a demolition order for their apartment, under a long-standing policy to punish the families of Palestinians who kill Israelis.

France has issued an international arrest warrant for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, accused of complicity in crimes against humanity over chemical attacks in 2013, a judicial source and plaintiffs in the case said Wednesday.

The judicial source told AFP that Assad was also suspected of complicity in war crimes for the attacks, blamed by the opposition on the regime, that killed more than 1,400 people near Damascus in August 2013.

A fuel truck entered Gaza through the Rafah border crossing from Egypt Wednesday, state-aligned Al Qahera News reported, in the first such delivery since the Israel-Hamas war began on October 7.

An Egyptian source said the fuel would be delivered to the United Nations "to facilitate the delivery of aid after trucks on the Palestinian side stopped operating for lack of fuel".