Syria's Kurdish authorities said Thursday they were delaying controversial municipal elections which prompted threats from arch-foe Turkey and concerns from their main ally the United States.

The elections, originally scheduled for June 11 and now postponed "until at least August", would be the first to extend to all seven regions under the semi-autonomous region's control, home to both Arabs and Kurds, since Syria's fragmentation during its civil war.

Leaders in many conflict areas are more interested in power and political rivalries than in listening to the needs of their people, improving their lives and ending the fighting, the United Nations humanitarian chief told The Associated Press.

In an interview Wednesday, Martin Griffiths said humanitarian workers in conflict-torn countries see the consequences of this failure every day when they often put their lives on the line to help millions of people who are hungry, displaced and caught in violence. That has been brought into sharp relief in Gaza, where over 200 relief workers have been killed.

Spain will join South Africa's case at the U.N.'s top court in which Pretoria has accused Israel of "genocide" in Gaza, Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said on Thursday.

"Our sole goal is to put an end to the war and to advance on the road of applying the two-state solution", Albares said. His statement came a week after Spain, along with Ireland and Norway, recognised the state of Palestine, sparking Israeli fury.

The image shows tents in a camp, highlighted to spell out one single phrase: "All Eyes on Rafah." It has been shared more than 50 million times.

A single image, not even an authentic photograph, is the focus of a singular campaign on Instagram that has caught the attention of the algorithm and captured the imaginations of users across national borders — a show of support for the Palestinian movement as the war between Israel and Hamas enters its eighth month.

Yemen's Houthi rebels have unveiled a new, solid-fuel missile in their arsenal that resembles aspects of one earlier displayed by Iran that Tehran described as flying at hypersonic speeds.

The rebels fired its new "Palestine" missile, complete with a warhead painted like a Palestinian keffiyeh checkered scarf, at the southern Gulf of Aqaba port of Eilat in Israel on Monday. The attack set off air raid sirens but caused no reported damage or injuries.

An Israeli strike early Thursday on a school sheltering displaced Palestinians in central Gaza killed more than 37 people, including at least 23 women and children, according to local health officials. The Israeli military said Hamas militants were operating from within the school.

The strike came after the military announced a new ground and air assault in several refugee camps in central Gaza, pursuing Hamas militants it says have regrouped there. It's the latest instance of troops sweeping back into sections of the Gaza Strip they have previously invaded, underscoring the resilience of the militant group despite Israel's nearly eight-month onslaught in the territory.

An independent group of experts has warned that it's possible that famine is underway in northern Gaza but that the war between Israel and Hamas and restrictions on humanitarian access have impeded the data collection to prove it.

"It is possible, if not likely," the group known as the Famine Early Warning Systems Network, or FEWS NET, said about famine in Gaza.

Thousands of mostly ultranationalist Israelis were expected to take part in an annual march through a dense Palestinian neighborhood in Jerusalem's Old City on Wednesday in an event that often sees racist chants and brawls.

Jerusalem, the epicenter of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, has been mostly calm throughout the Israel-Hamas war, but the march could ignite widespread tensions, as it did three years ago, when it helped set off an 11-day war in Gaza.

Israel's military pounded central Gaza with heavy air strikes on Wednesday as US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators planned to resume talks on a truce and hostage release deal.

Tensions were high in annexed east Jerusalem where thousands of police were deployed to guard Israel's annual "flag march" that has sparked clashes between Jews and Arabs in previous years.

An Israeli army raid in April set off a near three-day gunbattle with Palestinian militants. By the time it was over, homes had been blasted to rubble and many residents had fled.

The raid wasn't in Gaza, where Israel is at war with Hamas, but more than 100 kilometers away in the Nur Shams refugee camp in the West Bank — a territory that has been under Israeli military rule for over a half-century.