Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas will visit Rome next month to discuss the Gaza peace plan among other subjects, Italy's foreign minister said Thursday.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday accused Israel of "brutality" in boarding an aid flotilla that said it was sailing to help Palestinians suffering under the offensive in Gaza.

Italy said Thursday that Israel had detained 40 Italians from an aid flotilla, as Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni repeated her criticism of their attempt to reach Gaza.

Three people have been killed in protests in Morocco demanding reforms to the public health and education sectors, Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch said Thursday, in his first public address since the unrest started nearly a week ago.

Israel said on Thursday it will deport to Europe pro-Palestinian activists on an aid flotilla headed towards Gaza as the Israeli navy intercepted vessel after vessel in the Mediterranean.

The U.S. military has begun drawing down its mission in Iraq under an agreement inked with the Iraqi government last year, officials said Wednesday.

Activists on board a flotilla of vessels sailing toward Gaza said they were prepared for the Israel navy to intervene as they approached the besieged Palestinian territory on Wednesday after a tense night in the Mediterranean Sea.

The Global Sumud Flotilla, with Greta Thunberg aboard, consists of about 50 boats and 500 activists and is carrying a symbolic amount of aid. It has remained undeterred in its mission to break the Israeli blockade of the coastal strip and reach Palestinians.

Israel pressed its offensive in Gaza on Wednesday, with at least 16 Palestinians reported killed across the strip as Hamas mulled its response to U.S. President Donald Trump's peace plan for the embattled territory.

The United States will regard "any armed attack" on Qatari territory as a threat to Washington and will provide the Gulf Arab state with security guarantees, the White House said on Wednesday, after an Israeli strike on the country last month.

"In light of the continuing threats to the State of Qatar posed by foreign aggression, it is the policy of the United States to guarantee the security and territorial integrity of the State of Qatar against external attack," said an Executive Order signed by U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday and released on Wednesday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may have finally outmaneuvered Hamas.

After facing months of genocide accusations, pariah status and global pressure to halt the war in Gaza, Netanyahu has agreed on a ceasefire plan with U.S. President Donald Trump.