Thailand on Thursday urged Israel to relocate 4,000 Thai nationals working near the battle-scarred Gaza strip after one of its citizens was killed.

Israeli police said a farm laborer, Narakorn Kittiyongkul, died on Wednesday when a projectile fired from Gaza struck the greenhouse where he was working in the southern part of the country.

Iraq was closer to breaking months of political limbo Thursday after a deal on the post of president paved the way for the formation of a new government.

Veteran Iraqi politician Fuad Masum was almost guaranteed to become Iraq's next president after the main Kurdish blocs in parliament agreed on his candidacy Thursday.

According to an unofficial power-sharing agreement, the position of federal president goes to a Kurd and Masum edged his rival Barham Saleh during a vote Kurdish MPs held behind closed doors in a Baghdad hotel, officials told Agence France Presse.

Thousands of Palestinians have fled their homes but have nowhere safe to shelter from Israeli airstrikes, charity Oxfam said on Wednesday, warning supplies of water and food are dangerously low.

Over 120,000 people are displaced but are prevented from escaping violence because borders with Israel and Egypt are shut, Oxfam said.

Iraq's defense minister flew to Moscow on Wednesday to ask his counterpart for military equipment, as his forces struggle to hold off a jihadist-led Sunni militant offensive, a spokesman said.

"Defense Minister Saadun al-Dulaimi left Baghdad for Moscow," Staff Lieutenant General Mohammed al-Askari told Agence France Presse.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police announced terrorism charges Wednesday against a 25-year-old Canadian for allegedly traveling to Syria to fight alongside Islamist fighters.

The charges against Hasibullah Yusufzai, 25, are the first ever laid against a Canadian under a new law passed last year that criminalized travel abroad for the purpose of terrorist activities.

At least 687 Palestinians have been killed as Israel continued bombarding Gaza for the sixteenth day in a row, while fighting between Israeli troops and Palestinian militants was briefly suspended Wednesday in several flashpoint areas of the Strip to allow convoys of ambulances to retrieve the wounded.

Amid the ongoing violence, Hamas rejected a ceasefire to end 16 days of deadly fighting unless the blockade on the Gaza Strip is lifted, its chief Khaled Meshaal said in Doha.

Washington is still weighing Iraq's request to launch air strikes against Islamic militants, but is working to boost the Iraqi army as it battles the extremists, a top U.S. diplomat said Wednesday.

After spending billions of dollars on building up and training the Iraq military, the United States was shocked when the Iraqi army melted away in face of a sweeping offensive in June by the jihadist Islamic State (IS) and allied Sunni groups.

Accusing the Islamic State in Iraq of murder, hostage-takings and kidnappings, the U.N. envoy in Iraq on Wednesday called on the Security Council to firmly demand an end to atrocities.

Nickolay Mladenov told the 15-member Council that it was time to take a stand to end to the violence, enforce sanctions to isolate the Islamic State, formerly known as ISIL, and bring perpetrators of war crimes to justice.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration on Wednesday renewed its ban on American flights to Tel Aviv for another 24 hours, citing the "potentially hazardous situation" in Israel and Gaza.

It first imposed the ban on Tuesday, then renewed it at 1615 GMT with a Notice to Airmen, or NOTAM, that it said would be updated "within 24 hours."