After five months of fighting in Gaza and tens of thousands of casualties, the 27 European Union countries have overcome their differences and agreed to call for a cease-fire.

In a statement overnight, EU leaders called “for an immediate humanitarian pause leading to a sustainable ceasefire, the unconditional release of all hostages and the provision of humanitarian assistance.”

Normally festive Ramadan nights have become rife with danger in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, said hospital director Wisam Bakr, as surging violence casts a long shadow over the Muslim fasting month.

His hospital in the northern West Bank city of Jenin has been on the front line of the spike in violence since Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel triggered the war that is still raging in the Gaza Strip.

Israel reported Friday the seizure of 800 hectares of land in the occupied West Bank, which activists called the largest action of its kind in decades.

Israel's Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich declared as "state lands" the area in the northern Jordan Valley, as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel for Gaza war talks.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office says the head of the Mossad spy agency will return to Qatar on Friday to meet with the head of the CIA and other key mediators as part of ongoing cease-fire talks.

The office said Thursday that Qatar’s prime minister and Egypt’s intelligence chief would also join the talks.

The United Nations Security Council is set to vote on a United States-sponsored resolution declaring that "an immediate and sustained cease-fire" in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza is "imperative" to protect civilians and enable humanitarian aid to be delivered to more than 2 million hungry Palestinians.

U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said she was optimistic that the new, tougher draft resolution would be approved Friday by the 15-member council.

United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken has arrived in Israel for what are expected to be fractious talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the war in Gaza as public differences over the conflict have intensified.

It's the final stop in Blinken's sixth urgent diplomatic mission to the Middle East, in which he's expected to hold meetings with Netanyahu and his war cabinet aimed at convincing them not to proceed with plans for a large-scale military offensive in the southern city of Rafah that many fear could make an already disastrous humanitarian crisis in Gaza even worse.

Cyprus hosted a meeting Thursday aimed at sending "as many boats as possible" carrying aid to the war-battered Gaza Strip along a maritime corridor, Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos said.

Representatives of 36 countries, United Nations agencies and humanitarian groups participated in the meeting in the Cypriot port of Larnaca, where a first aid vessel embarked earlier this month and a second ship was waiting to depart.

A 12-year-old boy in east Jerusalem lights the fuse of a long firework and hoists it in the air. Then, just before it explodes and illuminates the night sky with a burst of red, he is shot in the chest by Israeli police and falls to the ground.

A clip of Rami Halhouli's final moments last week has been circulating on social media for days. Human rights activists say it shines a light on the surge of Palestinians — including dozens of children — who have been killed without justification by Israeli forces since Oct. 7.

Israel is determined to launch a ground offensive against Hamas in Rafah, Gaza's southernmost city, a plan that has raised global alarm because of the potential for harm to the hundreds of thousands of civilians sheltering there.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel can't achieve its goal of "total victory" against Hamas without going into Rafah.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Israel this week as part of his sixth urgent mission to the Middle East since the Israelis' war with Hamas began in October, as relations between the two countries have soured dramatically in recent weeks.

The visit comes amid a flurry of calls, planned trips by U.S. and Israeli officials and public airings of severe disagreements over the state of the conflict — notably Israeli plans to mount a major military operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah and what will happen to Gaza after the war ends.