Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected international pressure to halt the war in Gaza in a fiery speech marking the country's annual Holocaust memorial day, declaring: "If Israel is forced to stand alone, Israel will stand alone."

The message, delivered in a setting that typically avoids politics, was aimed at the growing chorus of world leaders who have criticized the heavy toll caused by Israel's military offensive against Hamas militants and have urged the sides to agree to a cease-fire.

Israel has ordered the local offices of Qatar's Al-Jazeera satellite news network to close, escalating a long-running feud between the broadcaster and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's hard-line government as Doha-mediated cease-fire negotiations with Hamas hang in the balance.

The extraordinary order, which includes confiscating broadcast equipment, preventing the broadcast of the channel's reports and blocking its websites, is believed to be the first time Israel has ever shuttered a foreign news outlet operating in Israel.

Student protests against the Israeli military assault on Gaza following the unprecedented October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel have spread to several countries.

A top U.N. official said that hard-hit northern Gaza was now in "full-blown famine" after more than six months of war between Israel and Hamas and severe Israeli restrictions on food deliveries to the Palestinian territory.

Cindy McCain, the American director of the U.N. World Food Program, became the most prominent international official so far to declare that trapped civilians in the most cut-off part of Gaza had gone over the brink into famine.

Israel this week briefed Biden administration officials on a plan to evacuate Palestinian civilians ahead of a potential operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah aimed at rooting out Hamas militants, according to U.S. officials familiar with the talks.

The officials, who were not authorized to comment publicly and requested anonymity to speak about the sensitive exchange, said that the plan detailed by the Israelis did not change the U.S. administration's view that moving forward with an operation in Rafah would put too many innocent Palestinian civilians at risk.

A Hamas delegation arrived Saturday in Egypt for the latest round of talks on a proposed truce and hostage release in Gaza, Egyptian state-linked media Al-Qahera News reported.

Syria's defense ministry on Friday said eight soldiers had been injured in Israeli air strikes near Damascus.

On Thursday night, "the Israeli enemy launched air strikes from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan, targeting a site near Damascus... injuring eight soldiers," the ministry said in a statement.

Israel and Hamas appear to be seriously negotiating an end to the war in Gaza and the return of Israeli captives. A leaked truce proposal hints at compromises by both sides after months of stalemated talks.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken this week praised Israel for offering what he described as significant concessions and saying "the time is now" for Hamas to seal the deal. Hamas leaders, meanwhile, say they are reviewing the proposal in a "positive spirit" and sending a team to Egypt in the coming days to continue the talks.

Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh said on Thursday the Palestinian militant group was studying a proposal for a truce in the nearly seven-month war raging in Gaza with a "positive spirit."

In a call to Egypt's intelligence chief Abbas Kamel, Haniyeh said he "appreciated the role played by Egypt, and stressed the positive spirit of the movement in studying the ceasefire proposal," according to a statement on Hamas' official website.

If the war in Gaza stopped today, it would still take until 2040 to rebuild all the homes that have been destroyed in nearly seven months of Israel’s bombardment and ground offensives in the territory, according to United Nations estimates released Thursday.

“Every additional day that this war continues is exacting huge and compounding costs to Gazans and all Palestinians” said United Nations Development Program Administrator Achim Steiner.