Israeli former defense minister Benny Gantz on Saturday called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to forge a unity government along with members of the opposition in a bid to help release the hostages held in Gaza.

Netanyahu's coalition government depends on support from far-right members who oppose ending the war and making any deal with Palestinian group Hamas, whose October 2023 attack on Israel sparked the Gaza war.

Desperate Palestinians clutching pots and plastic buckets scrambled for rice at a charity kitchen in Gaza City on Saturday, a day after the United Nations declared a famine in the war-battered territory.

Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp resigned on Friday after a cabinet meeting failed to agree to sanctions against Israel.

The U.N. Support Mission in Libya said Friday that its Tripoli headquarters had come under rocket attack without causing any casualties or damage.

Hamas called on Friday for an immediate end to the war in Gaza and the lifting of the Israeli siege on the territory after the U.N. declared a famine in parts of Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday slammed a U.N.-backed declaration that famine was present in parts of Gaza, calling the report "an outright lie".

The United Nations on Friday officially declared a famine in Gaza, the first in the Middle East, with its experts saying 500,000 people were facing "catastrophic" hunger.

After months of warning of the deteriorating humanitarian situation, the Rome-based IPC panel said famine was now confirmed in the Gaza Governorate -- Gaza City -- which covers about 20 percent of the Gaza Strip.

Israel's defense minister warned on Friday that Gaza City could be destroyed unless Hamas accepts Israel's terms, as the country prepares for an expanded offensive in the area.

A day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would authorize the military to mount a major operation to seize Gaza City, Defense Minister Israel Katz warned that the enclave's largest city could "turn into Rafah and Beit Hanoun," areas reduced to rubble earlier in the war.

Three members of the security forces were killed and 19 wounded during the arrest of an opposition figure in Iraqi Kurdistan, two security officials told AFP on Friday.

"Three law enforcement agents were killed, including one belonging to the Assayish (special operations) branch, one from the anti-terrorist services and another from the 'Commandoes'" in the region's second city of Sulaimaniyah, where armed clashes accompanied the arrest of Lahur Sheikh Jangi, a member of the powerful Talabani family.

Hundreds of members and backers of Tunisia's largest trade union rallied Thursday in support of the organisation, which has faced mounting pressure from President Kais Saied.

It was the largest demonstration Tunisia has seen in recent months, coinciding with what rights groups have denounced as a rollback of freedoms in the birthplace of the Arab Spring.