Senior Palestinian officials loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas are meeting to vote on the creation of a vice presidency and could choose a possible successor to the unpopular 89-year-old.

The two-day meeting of the Palestine Liberation Organization's Central Council, beginning Wednesday, comes as Abbas seeks relevance and a role in postwar planning for the Gaza Strip after having been largely sidelined by the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

An overnight Israeli strike on a school-turned-shelter in Gaza City killed 23 people, as Arab mediators worked on a proposal to end the war with Hamas that would include a five to seven year truce and the release of all remaining hostages, officials said Wednesday.

There was no immediate Israeli comment on the strike, which set several tents ablaze, burning people alive. The military says it only targets militants and blames civilian deaths on Hamas because its fighters are embedded in densely populated areas. Another six people were killed in separate strikes, including a pair of five-year-old twin girls.

An official invitation to new Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa to attend the upcoming Arab League summit in Baghdad has triggered sharp political divisions within Iraq.

Al-Sharaa took power after leading a lightning rebel offensive that unseated his predecessor, Bashar Assad, in December. Since then, he has positioned himself as a statesman aiming to unite and rebuild his country after nearly 14 years of civil war, but his past as a Sunni Islamist militant has left many — including Shiite groups in Iraq — wary.

Yemen's Houthi rebels launched a missile early Wednesday toward northern Israel, a rare target for the group as a monthlong intense U.S. airstrike campaign continues to target them. The Houthis separately claimed shooting down another MQ-9 Reaper drone over Yemen.

Sirens sounded in Haifa, Krayot and other areas west of the Sea of Galilee, the Israeli military said.

Germany, France and Britain on Wednesday called on Israel to stop blocking humanitarian aid into Gaza, warning of "an acute risk of starvation, epidemic disease and death".

"This must end," their foreign ministers said in a joint statement. "We urge Israel to immediately re-start a rapid and unimpeded flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza in order to meet the needs of all civilians."

A Hamas delegation left for Cairo to discuss "new ideas" aimed at securing a Gaza ceasefire, an official from the group said, as Israeli air strikes killed 26 people across the territory Tuesday.

The renewed effort follows Hamas's rejection last week of Israel's latest proposal to secure the release of hostages still held in Gaza.

Federal immigration authorities denied Mahmoud Khalil's request for a temporary release from detention to attend the birth of his first child, who was born Monday in New York, according to emails shared with The Associated Press.

Khalil, a Columbia University activist who has been held in a detention center in Jena, Louisiana for six weeks, requested a two-week furlough on Sunday morning, noting that his wife, Dr. Noor Abdalla, had gone into labor eight days earlier than expected.

Palestinian group Islamic Jihad's armed wing said Tuesday that Syria's new authorities had detained two of the group's officials and called for their release.

A statement from the Al-Quds Brigades said Islamic Jihad's Syria official Khaled Khaled and organizing committee member Yasser al-Zafri had been detained in Syria for five days "without explanation".

In the last 18 months of his life, Pope Francis had a frequent evening ritual: He would call the lone Catholic church in the Gaza Strip to see how people huddled inside were coping with a devastating war.

That small act of compassion made a big impression on Gaza's tiny Christian community and was why he was remembered at his death Monday as a beloved father figure in the beleaguered territory.

The head of Israel's internal security service on Monday accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of trying to exploit the power of the agency for political and personal gain through a litany of improper demands. His comments deepened a showdown between the two men that has divided the nation.

In a submission to the Supreme Court, Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar wrote that he refused a request from Netanyahu to identify Israeli anti-government protesters and surveil their financial backers.