Catholic and Greek Orthodox priests and nuns will remain in Gaza City despite Israel's plan for a military takeover, the religious communities said in a joint statement on Tuesday.

Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, who is close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is “leading political negotiations on Gaza, Lebanon and Syria with U.S. support,” an Israeli source told the Israel Hayom newspaper on Tuesday.

The United Nations insisted Monday that journalists and hospitals should never be targeted, after an Israeli strike on a hospital killed at least 20 people including five journalists.

"The killing of journalists in Gaza should shock the world -- not into stunned silence but into action, demanding accountability and justice," U.N. rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said in a statement, insisting: "Journalists are not a target. Hospitals are not a target."

Reuters and the Associated Press said they were devastated after contributors were killed Monday in strikes on Gaza blamed on the Israeli military.

"We are devastated to learn of the death of Reuters contractor Houssam al-Masri and injuries to another of our contractors, Hatem Khaled, in Israeli strikes on the Nasser hospital in Gaza today," a Reuters spokesperson said in a statement.

Syria's interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, will speak at the United Nations General Assembly next month, a foreign ministry official told AFP on Monday.

Sharaa "will take part in the United Nations General Assembly in New York where he will deliver a speech", the official said, requesting anonymity as they were not authorized to brief the media, adding that he will be the first Syrian president to address the assembly since 1967.

Israeli airstrikes hit Yemen 's capital on Sunday, days after the Houthi rebels fired a missile toward Israel that its military described as the first cluster bomb the rebels had launched at it since 2023.

The Iranian-backed Houthis said multiple areas across Sanaa were hit, while the Houthi-run health ministry said at least six people were killed and 86 others were wounded, seven of them in critical condition.

An Israeli airstrike hit the fourth floor of southern Gaza's main hospital Monday, killing at least 20 people, including 5 journalists, Gaza's civil defense said.

Reuters and the Associated Press said they were devastated after contributors were killed Monday in strikes on Gaza blamed on the Israeli military.

Israeli former defense minister Benny Gantz on Saturday called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to forge a unity government along with members of the opposition in a bid to help release the hostages held in Gaza.

Netanyahu's coalition government depends on support from far-right members who oppose ending the war and making any deal with Palestinian group Hamas, whose October 2023 attack on Israel sparked the Gaza war.

Desperate Palestinians clutching pots and plastic buckets scrambled for rice at a charity kitchen in Gaza City on Saturday, a day after the United Nations declared a famine in the war-battered territory.

Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp resigned on Friday after a cabinet meeting failed to agree to sanctions against Israel.