Algeria and France are currently experiencing their worst crisis since the former French colony won independence in 1962, said the author of a landmark report on France's legacy in the north African nation.

It will take painstaking work, including on historical grievances, to restore trust, Benjamin Stora, one of the world's leading experts on French-Algerian history, added in an interview with AFP.

Two of northern Gaza's last functioning hospitals have been encircled by Israeli troops, preventing anyone from leaving or entering the facilities, hospital staff and aid groups said this week, as Israel pursued its renewed offensive into the devastated Palestinian territory.

The Indonesian hospital and al-Awda hospital are among the region's only surviving medical centers.

Hospitals in Gaza say Israeli strikes overnight and into Wednesday killed at least 45 people, including several women and a week-old infant. The strikes came as Israel's war on Hamas shows no signs of relenting, despite a surge in international anger at Israel's widening offensive.

Israel began allowing dozens of humanitarian trucks into Gaza on Tuesday, but the aid has not yet reached Palestinians in desperate need, according to aid groups.

The Palestinian Authority accused Israeli forces of firing on diplomats as they visited the flashpoint West Bank city of Jenin on Wednesday, releasing video of two soldiers aiming rifles at a group of people.

It condemned "the heinous crime committed by the Israeli occupation forces, which deliberately targeted by live fire an accredited diplomatic delegation to the State of Palestine during a field visit to Jenin Governorate." A diplomat present during the visit confirmed to AFP he had heard "repeated shots" coming from inside Jenin refugee camp. An Israeli army spokesperson said: "I am looking into it."

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned Tuesday that Syria could be weeks away from a fresh civil war of "epic proportions," as he called for support to the transitional leadership.

The British government says it is suspending free trade negotiations with Israel and has leveled new sanctions targeting West Bank settlements as it criticizes Israel's military actions in Gaza.

Tuesday's actions came a day after the U.K, France and Canada condemned Israel's handling of the war in Gaza and its actions in the occupied West Bank.

The first few aid trucks entered Gaza on Monday following nearly three months of Israel's blockade of food, medicine and other supplies, Israel and the United Nations said, as Israel acknowledged growing pressure from allies including the United States.

Five trucks carrying baby food and other desperately needed aid entered the territory of over 2 million Palestinians via the Kerem Shalom crossing, according to the Israeli defense body in charge of coordinating aid to Gaza, COGAT.

Qatar's prime minister on Tuesday rejected criticism of the wealthy Gulf country's offer to U.S. President Trump of a $400 million luxury aircraft to serve as a new Air Force One.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani defended the gift as "an exchange between two countries", adding that he viewed the issue as a "normal thing that happens between allies".

EU countries on Tuesday gave a green light to lifting all economic sanctions on Syria in a bid to help the war-torn country recover after the ouster of Bashar al-Assad, diplomats said.

Ambassadors from the EU's 27 member states struck a preliminary agreement for the move, which should be formally unveiled by foreign ministers meeting in Brussels later in the day, diplomats said.

A 28-year-old man was remanded in custody in Denmark on Monday on suspicions of purchasing drones to be used in a Hamas "terrorist attack", Danish intelligence said Monday.