Congressional leaders have invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to deliver an address a the Capitol, a show of wartime support for the longtime ally despite mounting political divisions over Israel's military assault on Gaza.

The invitation from House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, along with Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, has been in the works for some time. No date for the speech was set.

The humanitarian aid allowed into the Gaza Strip is not getting to civilians in need, the United Nations said Friday, urging Israel to fulfil its legal obligations.

"The aid that is getting in is not getting to the people, and that's a major problem," Jens Laerke, spokesman for the U.N. humanitarian agency OCHA, told a media briefing in Geneva.

Yemen's Houthi rebels on Friday threatened to escalate attacks on shipping in response to overnight strikes by United States and Britain, which Houthi media said had killed 16 people.

"The American-British aggression will not prevent us from continuing our military operations in support of Palestine," Huthi official Mohammed Al-Bukhaiti said on social media platform X, adding the rebels would "meet escalation with escalation".

Spain rejects "restrictions" that Israel plans to impose on the activities of its consulate in Jerusalem in response to Madrid's recognition of a Palestinian state, Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said Friday.

"This morning we sent a note verbale to the Israeli government in which we reject any restriction on the normal activity of the Spanish consulate general in Jerusalem, as its status is guaranteed by international law," he said during an interview with radio Onda Cero.

Israeli War Cabinet member Benny Gantz’s centrist party has called for a vote to dissolve the parliament in an attempt to force early elections.

Thursday's announcement deepens a divide in Israel’s leadership more than seven months into a war. But it appears unlikely to threaten the current parliament. Even to put the request on the agenda requires majority consent from parliament, which would need at least five members of the governing coalition to defect and vote in favor.

Slovenia’s government has endorsed a motion to recognize a Palestinian state and asked the parliament to do the same.

The decision by Slovenia’s government comes just two days after Spain, Norway and Ireland recognized a Palestinian state, a move that was condemned by Israel.

Defense experts who have reviewed debris images from an Israeli airstrike that ignited a deadly fire in a camp for displaced Palestinians questioned why Israel did not use smaller, more precise weapons when so many civilians were nearby. They said the bombs used were likely U.S.-made.

The strikes, targeting Hamas operatives, killed as many as 45 people sheltering in a temporary displacement camp near the southern Gaza city of Rafah on Sunday and have drawn international condemnation.

Syrian President Bashar Assad has met with Iran's supreme leader in the capital Tehran and expressed his condolences over the death of President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash, state media reported Thursday.

Assad met on Thursday with Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and also expressed condolences over the death of Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian who was also killed in the helicopter crash earlier this month.

A Houthi-run television channel on Friday said 14 people were killed and more than 30 wounded in strikes conducted on Yemen overnight by the United States and Britain.

"The death toll from the U.S.-British air strikes on the Hodeida radio station and the port of Salif has risen to 14, with more than 30 injured," the Iran-backed Yemeni rebels' Al-Masirah station reported.

Israel's military said it has seized control of a strategic corridor along Gaza's border with Egypt to cut off smuggling tunnels as it tries to destroy the militant Hamas group in a war now in its eighth month.

The capture of the Philadelphi Corridor could complicate Israel's relations with Egypt, which has complained about Israel's advance toward its border. Israel says the corridor is awash in tunnels that have funneled weapons and other goods for Hamas — despite a yearslong blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt.