After setting off from Cyprus, a ship loaded with 1,200 tons of food supplies for the Gaza Strip was approaching the Israeli port of Ashdod on Tuesday in a renewed effort to alleviate the worsening crisis as famine threatens the Palestinian territory.

The Panamanian-flagged vessel is loaded with 52 containers carrying food aid such as pasta, rice, baby food and canned goods. Israeli customs officials had screened the aid at the Cypriot port of Limassol from where the ship departed on Monday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese as a "weak politician" on Tuesday, amid an ongoing row between the two countries after Canberra declared it would recognize a Palestinian state.

"History will remember Albanese for what he is: A weak politician who betrayed Israel and abandoned Australia's Jews," read a post on the official X account of Netanyahu's office.

A Hamas source told AFP on Monday that the Palestinian militants had agreed to a new proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza, devastated by more than 22 months of war between the Islamist group and Israel.

A senior Iranian official warned Monday that war with Israel could erupt at any moment, describing the current lull after June's 12-day conflict as only a temporary halt.

Israel on Monday announced it will provide emergency humanitarian aid to South Sudan, one of the world's poorest countries in the midst of renewed violent political instability.

Egypt said on Monday it was willing to join a potential international force deployed to war-torn Gaza, but only if backed by a UN Security Council resolution and accompanied by a "political horizon", as ceasefire efforts pressed on in Cairo.

Egypt has repeatedly called for Palestinian unity under the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), an umbrella group that dominates the Palestinian Authority and excludes militant group Hamas.

Hundreds of people demonstrated in Syria's southern city of Sweida and elsewhere on Saturday to demand the right to self determination for the Druze minority, the largest protests to take place since deadly clashes in the area last month.

Some of the protesters waved Israeli flags to thank Israel for intervening on their side during heavy clashes in mid-July between Druze militias and armed tribal groups and government forces.

Rights group Amnesty International on Monday accused Israel of enacting a "deliberate policy" of starvation in Gaza, as the United Nations and aid groups warn of famine in the Palestinian territory.

Israel's military said Sunday it struck an "energy infrastructure site" in Yemen used by the Houthi rebels, the latest action against the Iran-backed group which has launched attacks at Israel throughout the Gaza war.

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa has said the battle to unify his country after years of civil war "should not be with blood", rejecting any partition and accusing Israel of meddling in the south.