A Palestinian source close to the ceasefire talks told AFP late Friday that Hamas had received a proposal from mediators Egypt and Qatar for re-establishing a truce and exchanging hostages for Palestinian prisoners "according to a timeline to be agreed upon."

The source said the proposal "includes the entry of humanitarian aid" into Gaza, which has been blocked by Israel since March 2.

France opposes any kind of annexation by Israel of the Gaza Strip or the West Bank, its foreign minister said Friday, after Israel's defense minister threatened to annex parts of Gaza unless Hamas released Israeli hostages.

"France is opposed to any form of annexation whether it concerns the West Bank or the Gaza Strip. We have a very clear vision of the future of the region -- a solution of two (Israeli and Palestinian) states living side-by-side in peace," Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told reporters in the eastern city of Dijon.

Israel's supreme court on Friday froze the decision by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government to sack the domestic intelligence agency chief, in order to review appeals filed against the dismissal.

"It is hereby ordered that a provisional measure be taken to stay the effect of the decision subject to the appeals until another decision is made," the court said in a document obtained by AFP. It added that the freeze will remain in place until the appeals are presented to the court before April 8.

Israel's defense minister, Israel Katz, said Friday he ordered the military to "seize more ground" in Gaza and warned of partial annexation if Hamas does not release hostages held in the Palestinian territory.

"I ordered (the army) to seize more territory in Gaza... The more Hamas refuses to free the hostages, the more territory it will lose, which will be annexed by Israel," he said in a statement in which he threatened "permanent occupation" of "buffer zones" inside the Gaza Strip.

A federal judge on Thursday ordered immigration officials not to deport a Georgetown scholar who was detained by the Trump Administration and accused of spreading Hamas propaganda in the latest battle over speech on U.S. college campuses.

U.S. District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles in Alexandria, Virginia, ordered that Indian national Badar Khan Suri "shall not be removed from the United States unless and until the Court issues a contrary order."

Germany's foreign minister reopened its embassy in Damascus on Thursday, 13 years after it was shut in the early days of Syria's civil war, saying that Europe needs "eyes and ears" on the ground as it follows the Syrian political transition.

Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock reopened the embassy before meeting interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa and others during a visit to Damascus, her second since the fall of former President Bashar Assad in December.

Israel's renewed military offensive in the Gaza Strip threatens to be even deadlier and more destructive than the last, as it pursues wider aims with far fewer constraints.

Israel resumed the war with a surprise bombardment early Tuesday that killed hundreds of Palestinians, ending the ceasefire and vowing even more devastation if Hamas doesn't release its remaining hostages and leave the territory.

The armed wing of Hamas said it fired rockets at Israel's commercial hub of Tel Aviv on Thursday in response to what it called "massacres against civilians" in Gaza.

"The (Ezzedine) Al-Qassam Brigades bombarded the city of Tel Aviv deep inside the occupied territories with a barrage of M90 rockets in response to the Zionist massacres against civilians," it said in a statement.

Israeli strikes killed at least 58 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip overnight and into Thursday, according to three hospitals. The strikes hit multiple homes in the middle of the night, killing men, women and children as they slept.

Hours later, the Israeli military restored a blockade on northern Gaza, including Gaza City, that it had maintained for most of the war. It warned residents against using the main highway to enter or leave the north and said only passage to the south would be allowed on the coastal road.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Thursday that recent deadly U.S. strikes on the Tehran-backed Houthis in Yemen was a "crime that must be stopped".

"This attack on the people of Yemen, on Yemeni civilians, is also a crime that must be stopped," said Khamenei according to a video published on his website.