Israel and the United States were increasingly isolated as they faced global calls for a cease-fire in Gaza, including a non-binding vote expected to pass at the United Nations later on Tuesday. Israel has pressed ahead with an offensive against Gaza's Hamas rulers that it says could go on for weeks or months.

The war ignited by Hamas' Oct. 7 attack into southern Israel has already brought unprecedented death and destruction to the impoverished coastal enclave, with more than 18,000 Palestinians killed, mostly women and minors, and over 80% of the population of 2.3 million having fled their homes.

A missile strikes Norwegian-flagged tanker off Yemen in an apparent expansion of rebel attacks

By JON GAMBRELL Associated Press

Israeli forces killed four Palestinians in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin on Tuesday, the Palestinian health ministry reported.

The ministry did not provide further details on the fatalities, while the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said they were killed in a drone strike on the Old City.

Dozens of attacks on U.S. military facilities by Iran-backed factions in Iraq over the past two months have forced the government in Baghdad to perform a balancing act that is becoming more difficult by the day.

A rocket attack on the sprawling U.S. Embassy in Baghdad on Friday marked a further escalation as Iraqi officials scramble to contain the ripple effects of the Israel-Hamas war.

France has said that one of its warships in the Red Sea was targeted by two drones coming from Yemen. Both were intercepted and shot down.

A short statement from the Armies Ministry did not say who fired the drones at the French Navy frigate Languedoc on Saturday night.

Polling centers in Egypt opened Monday, the second voting day in a presidential election that is certain to see President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi secure another term.

The vote, which began across the Middle Eastern nation on Sunday, has been overshadowed by the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, on Egypt's eastern borders.

Israel said it is prepared to fight for months or longer to defeat Gaza's Hamas rulers, as its ground offense intensifies with more airstrikes and artillery fire.

Qatar, which has played a key mediating role, says efforts to stop the war and have all hostages released will continue, but a willingness to discuss a cease-fire is fading.

A British Palestinian surgeon who spent weeks in the Gaza Strip during the current Israel-Hamas war as part of a Doctors Without Borders medical team said he has given testimony to a British war crimes investigation unit.

Ghassan Abu Sitta, a plastic surgeon specializing in conflict medicine, has volunteered with medical teams in multiple conflicts in Gaza, beginning as a medical student in the late 1980s during the the first Palestinian uprising. He has also worked in other conflict zones, including in Iraq, Syria and Yemen.

Yemen's Iran-backed Huthi rebels have threatened to attack any vessels heading to Israeli ports unless food and medicine were allowed into the besieged Gaza Strip.

The latest warning comes amid heightened tensions in the Red Sea and surrounding waters following a series of maritime attacks by Houthi rebels since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on October 7.

Mediation efforts are continuing to secure a new Gaza ceasefire and free more hostages held by Hamas despite ongoing Israeli bombardment that is "narrowing the window" for a successful outcome, Qatar's prime minister said Sunday.