As diplomatic efforts to end the Gaza bloodshed gain pace, Israel may have managed to weaken Hamas' firepower, but it is far from achieving a full demilitarization of the Palestinian enclave, experts say.

After 17 days of an unrelenting offensive against Hamas in Gaza, Israel is facing a race against time to complete their stated mission of destroying the tunnels which allow Hamas fighters to reach Israeli territory.

British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond on Thursday called on Hamas to accept an unconditional humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza as the death toll in the 17-day conflict with Israel topped 770.

Hammond spoke at a news conference in Cairo after meeting Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, whose government has pushed for a truce in the neighboring Palestinian enclave.

Hundreds of people demonstrated Thursday in Arbil, capital of Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, to condemn the forced displacement of Iraqi Christians and call for their protection.

Muslims, Christians, displaced people and political parties took part in the protest outside U.N. offices in Arbil, some 350 kilometers (220 miles) north of Baghdad.

The Palestinian mission in France said on Thursday that it had received death threats in a letter posted from Israel and claiming to carry a virus.

"We received this letter this morning threatening to kill members of the Palestinian mission in France and those who took part in recent demonstrations for Palestine," Noha Rashmawi, the chief of staff at the mission, told Agence France Presse.

The United Nations said on Thursday that jihadists in Iraq have ordered all women between the ages of 11 and 46 to undergo female genital mutilation, but experts quickly cast doubt on the claim.

The U.N.'s second most senior official in Iraq, Jacqueline Badcock, told reporters in Geneva via videoconference: "It is a fatwa (or religious edict) from ISIS, we learnrf about it this morning. We have no precise numbers."

Egypt said Thursday that foreign intelligence services were prime suspects in an attack last week that killed 22 soldiers near its border with restive Libya.

Unidentified militants firing rocket-propelled grenades and machine-guns attacked a checkpoint in Egypt's western desert last Saturday.

Iraq's parliament on Thursday elected veteran Kurdish politician Fuad Masum as federal president, a move that paves the way for the much-delayed formation of a new government.

He succeeds the ailing Jalal Talabani, who returned only five days ago from 18 months of medical treatment in Germany to serve out his tenure.

Around 700 tons of Syria's chemical agents have been delivered to specialized destruction facilities in Britain, Finland and the U.S., the watchdog in charge of the mission said Thursday.

"All 1,300 metric tonnes of chemicals removed from Syria by the international maritime operation have been delivered to destruction facilities outside the country," the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said in a statement.

President Francois Hollande announced on Thursday an 11-million-euro ($14.8 million) aid package to the besieged Gaza Strip, where an Israeli military offensive has left more than 700 people dead.

An advisor to Hollande said the humanitarian aid, eight million of which will be given to the Palestinian Authority and the remainder to U.N. bodies and NGOs working in Gaza, was approved after a meeting with non-governmental organizations working in the strife-torn region.

Russia has begun supplying military helicopters and fighters jets to Iraq, a report said Thursday, as Iraq's defense minister visited Moscow to press for equipment to thwart a jihadist offensive.

"A number of contracts with Iraq have entered into force and are being fulfilled," the Interfax news agency quoted a source in Russia's defense export establishment as saying.