Families of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza for nearly a year are urging Israel to ensure than any possible cease-fire deal with Hezbollah includes provisions for the war in Gaza.

Gil Dickmann, whose cousin, Carmel Gat, was kidnapped and was one of six Israelis killed in Hamas tunnels in August, said the families of the hostages are feeling forgotten as attention shifts to the northern front.

Britain says it’s sending $6.7 million worth of humanitarian assistance, including medical supplies, hygiene kits and fuel to Lebanon to support the civilian population there as fighting forces thousands to flee their homes.

The United Kingdom said in a statement that the United Nations agency for children, UNICEF, will distribute the supplies, which will also help aid workers better deal with urgent health and nutrition needs.

Families fleeing the escalating conflict in Lebanon have poured into Syria in growing numbers, waiting for hours in heavy traffic to reach the relative safety of another war-torn country.

U.N. officials estimated that thousands of Lebanese and Syrian families had already made the journey. Those numbers are expected to grow as Israel targets southern and eastern Lebanon in an aerial bombardment that local officials say has killed more than 600 people this week, at least a quarter of them women and children.

An Israeli airstrike in Lebanon hit a building housing Syrian workers, killing 23 of them and wounding eight other people, Lebanon’s state-run news agency reported Thursday.

The National News Agency said the strike late Wednesday occurred in the country's northeast, near the ancient city of Baalbek, in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley, which runs along the Syrian border.

The rush for gold just keeps coming.

Gold hit another all time high this week. Recent gains for the precious metal are largely credited to ongoing economic uncertainty, geopolitical tensions and strong demand from central banks around the world.

Vice President Kamala Harris has secured the endorsement of one of the nation's largest Muslim American voter mobilization groups, marking a significant boost to her campaign since many Muslim and Arab American organizations have opted to support third-party candidates or not endorse.

Emgage Action, the political arm of an 18-year-old Muslim American advocacy group, endorsed Harris' presidential campaign on Wednesday, saying in a statement provided first to The Associated Press that the group "recognizes the responsibility to defeat" Donald Trump in November.

The sandy beaches of Haifa, Israel's third-largest city, are empty. Businesses are shutting early, and many restaurants are closed. The only places filling up, as the threat of a wider war with Hezbollah mounts, are public bomb shelters.

Haifa, a seaside city of nearly 300,000 people, is the cultural and economic capital of northern Israel. It has increasingly come into Hezbollah 's sights since fighting with Israel escalated this week and residents are bracing for what many fear will be the worst round of violence since a war nearly two decades ago pounded the city with rockets.

The U.S., France and other allies jointly called Wednesday for an immediate 21-day cease-fire to allow for negotiations in the escalating conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that has killed more than 600 people in Lebanon in recent days.

The joint statement, negotiated on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, says the recent fighting is "intolerable and presents an unacceptable risk of a broader regional escalation."

Human Rights Watch said Israel’s ongoing aerial bombardment in Lebanon has put civilians “across the country at grave risk,” and called for a United Nations investigation into strikes in Lebanon and rocket fire by Hezbollah militants into northern Israel.

The global rights group documented over a thousand Israeli strikes across Lebanon since the Israeli military announced a new phase in its conflict with Hezbollah, which has launched over 200 rockets into northern Israeli towns.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is urging both Israel and Hezbollah to step back from their intensifying conflict, saying that an all-out war would be disastrous for the region and its people.

In New York for the annual U.N. General Assembly, Blinken said Wednesday the U.S. was working on a plan to de-escalate tensions and allow tens of thousands of Israelis and Lebanese to return to homes they have had to evacuate in border areas.