President Vladimir Putin on Thursday urged Russians to vote in elections this weekend that come at a "difficult" time for the country, as the long-serving leader seeks to yet again cement his hold on power.

Putin is set to secure another six-year term this weekend in a vote the Kremlin says will show society is fully behind his assault on Ukraine.

The leaders of France, Germany and Poland will hold urgent talks on Ukraine in Berlin on Friday, Warsaw and Berlin said, as they seek to scrape together additional support for Kyiv.

The talks come on the heels of a meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and Polish leaders in Washington, shortly after the U.S. leader announced an emergency stopgap package for Ukraine.

Ukraine's army chief said Wednesday the situation on the battlefield was "difficult" and that Russian forces could be poised to strike deep into Ukrainian lines in the eastern Donetsk region.

Israeli forces shot dead two Palestinian men at a hospital in the West Bank on Wednesday, an official said, the latest in a spate of killings in the occupied territory since the war in Gaza began.

The killings before dawn took place on the compound of the government hospital in Jenin, in the north of the West Bank, the hospital's director, Wissam Bakr, told AFP.

The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees said one of its aid warehouses in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip was "hit" on Wednesday, wounding scores of people.

"We can confirm that an UNRWA warehouse/distribution centre in Rafah (southern Gaza) has been hit," agency spokeswoman Juliette Touma told AFP, adding there were "scores injured".

One person was killed and 22 were injured in a suspected gas explosion in northern China's Hebei province Wednesday, state media reported.

The explosion was suspected to have been caused by a gas leak at a fried chicken shop in the city of Sanhe just before 8 am (0000 GMT), state broadcaster CCTV reported.

Joe Biden and rival Donald Trump have won enough delegates to clinch their party nominations in the 2024 presidential race, networks projected, all but assuring a rematch and setting up one of the longest general election campaigns in U.S. history.

The results in Georgia, Mississippi, and Washington state were essentially a foregone conclusion as President Biden and opponent Trump had already disposed of all primary challengers, and winning the Tuesday votes pushed them both over the threshold of delegates needed to become their parties' nominees in the November election.

A Jordanian citizen has died after being shot by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian authorities said Tuesday, with the military accusing the man of aiding a militant.

Tawfiq Aed Fawaz Hussein, 25, was shot at Zeita junction north of the West Bank city of Tulkarm on Monday, the Palestinian foreign ministry said.

The Israeli army said Tuesday it hit about 4,500 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon and Syria over the past five months, killing 300 of the group's fighters and wounding more than 750.

The targets were hit from the air and from the ground, the army said in a statement, and included "weapons storage facilities, military structures intended for Hezbollah's offensive activity and operational command and control centres".

The Israeli military said Tuesday a soldier believed to be held captive in Gaza had been killed in the October 7 attack and his body taken to the Palestinian territory.

Sergeant Itay Hen, 19, "fell on October 7 and was then kidnapped" to the Gaza Strip by Palestinian militants, the military said in a statement.