The U.N. General Assembly is expected to vote Thursday on a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the release of all hostages held by Hamas, and the opening of all Israeli border crossings for deliveries of desperately needed food and other aid.

The resolution, drafted by Spain and obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press, "strongly condemns any use of starvation of civilians as a method of warfare."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government survived an attempt to dissolve parliament early Thursday morning, with most of his ultra-Orthodox coalition partners joining him in voting against a bill that would have forced them to register for military service while the country is at war.

The vote was the most serious challenge to Netanyahu's government since Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack, the biggest security failure in Israel's history and the trigger for the ongoing war in Gaza. The bill's failure means that no other bill to dissolve Knesset can be submitted for at least six months, shoring up Netanyahu's embattled coalition.

The Palestinian Authority on Thursday said internet and fixed-line communication services were down in Gaza following an attack on the territory's last fiber optic cable, accusing Israel of being behind it.

"All internet and fixed-line communication services in the Gaza Strip have been cut off following the targeting of the last remaining main fiber optic line in Gaza," the PA's telecommunications ministry said in a statement, accusing Israel of attempting to cut off Gaza from the world.

The United States is drawing down the presence of staffers who are not deemed essential to operations in the Middle East and their loved ones due to the potential for regional unrest, the State Department and military said Wednesday.

The State Department said it has ordered the departure of all nonessential personnel from the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad based on its latest review and a commitment "to keeping Americans safe, both at home and abroad." The embassy already had been on limited staffing, and the order will not affect a large number of personnel.

Medical charity Medecins du Monde Wednesday accused Israel of violating international law with drone strikes on a building housing one of its offices in war-torn Gaza that killed eight people, none of them staff.

The France-based aid group said in a statement the attack on Tuesday "constitutes a serious violation of international humanitarian law, which protects both civilian populations and humanitarian organizations operating in conflict zones".

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government faces a major test on Wednesday after the opposition submitted a bill to dissolve the government, with his ultra-Orthodox coalition partners threatening to support the measure and force early elections.

The ultra-Orthodox parties are furious that the government has failed to pass a law exempting their community from mandatory military service, an issue that has bitterly divided the Israeli public during the war in the Gaza Strip.

The Palestinian death toll from the 20-month Israel-Hamas war has climbed past 55,000, the Gaza Health Ministry said Wednesday.

The ministry doesn't distinguish between civilians and combatants, but has said that women and children make up more than half the dead.

Three Alawite civilians were killed in western Syria overnight, hours after an attack on government forces killed at least one officer, a war monitor said on Wednesday.

The Gaza civil defense agency said 31 people were killed and "about 200" wounded Wednesday when Israeli troops fired on people waiting to enter a food distribution center.

Britain, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Norway said Tuesday they have imposed sanctions on two far-right Israeli government ministers for allegedly "inciting extremist violence" against Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The decision by Western governments friendly to Israel was a sharp rebuke of Israel's settlement policies in the West Bank and of settler violence, which has spiked since Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack ignited the war in the Gaza Strip.