It was a warm handshake between the unlikeliest of statesmen, conducted under the beaming gaze of President Jimmy Carter. Sunlight streamed through the trees at Camp David, Maryland, as Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin solidified a landmark agreement that has allowed over 40 years of peace between Israel and Egypt. It has served as an important source of stability in a volatile region.

That peace has held through two Palestinian uprisings and a series of wars between Israel and Hamas. But now, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowing to send Israeli troops into Rafah, a city in Gaza on the border with Egypt, the Egyptian government is threatening to void the agreement.

Israeli forces rescued two hostages early Monday, storming a heavily guarded apartment in the southern Gaza Strip and extracting the captives under fire in a dramatic raid that was a small but symbolically significant success for Israel. The operation killed at least 50 Palestinians, including women and children, according to Palestinian health officials in the beleaguered territory.

The raid was celebrated in Israel, which has been seeking the release of more than 100 captives held by Hamas and other militant groups.

Three Emirati soldiers and a Bahraini officer were killed in an attack in Somalia, where they were training the Somali national army, the United Arab Emirates' defence ministry said Saturday.

The threat of an Israeli incursion into Gaza's southernmost town of Rafah persisted Sunday, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised "safe passage" to civilians displaced there.

Israeli air strikes that targeted a building in an upscale area near the Syrian capital killed three people early Saturday, a war monitor said.

Hamas on Saturday warned that any Israeli military operation in the Gazan city of Rafah could lead to "tens of thousands" of dead and injured.

The Palestinian militant group, at war with Israel, warned in a statement of catastrophic repercussions of going into the city, where more than one million civilians have fled to escape Israeli bombardment elsewhere in Gaza.

Israeli airstrikes killed at least 28 Palestinians in Rafah early Saturday, hours after Israel's prime minister said he asked the military to plan for the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people from the southern Gaza city ahead of a ground invasion.

Benjamin Netanyahu did not provide details or a timeline, but the announcement set off widespread panic. More than half of Gaza's 2.3 million people are packed into Rafah, many after being uprooted repeatedly by Israeli evacuation orders that now cover two-thirds of Gaza's territory. It's not clear where they could run next.

Four top Middle Eastern diplomats reiterated calls for "irreversible" steps towards the recognition of a Palestinian state during talks on the war in Gaza hosted by Saudi Arabia, state media reported on Friday.

Israel conducted fresh strikes on southern Gaza's overcrowded border town of Rafah on Friday, where more than a million displaced Palestinians have sought shelter, with key backer the United States warning of a looming "disaster".

Israel's military response in the Gaza Strip to the October 7 attacks by Hamas has been "over the top" and has "got to stop," U.S. President Joe Biden said Thursday.