Madonna has urged the pope to travel to Gaza and "bring your light to the children before it's too late."

The superstar posted her appeal to the pontiff on social media Monday, saying her son Rocco's birthday prompted her to make the post. Rocco turned 25 Monday.

Israeli opposition chief Yair Lapid on Tuesday backed calls for a general strike in solidarity with hostages still held in Gaza.

In a dense urban landscape, with likely thousands of Hamas fighters lying in wait, taking Gaza City will be a difficult and costly slog for the Israeli army, security experts say.

Condemnations poured in from the United Nations and media rights groups on Monday after an Israeli strike killed an Al Jazeera news team in Gaza, as Palestinians mourned the journalists and Israel accused one of them of being a Hamas militant.

The Western Wall in Jerusalem on Monday was vandalized with graffiti condemning Israel's ongoing war in Gaza, authorities said, triggering widespread condemnation from religious leaders and politicians.

Iraq on Monday announced a nationwide power outage as rising temperatures pushed demand on the electricity grid to unprecedented levels.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended his plan to take control of Gaza City and target the remaining Hamas strongholds, saying Sunday it was "the best way to end the war", despite growing calls to stop the fighting.

More than 22 months into the war, sparked by Hamas' unprecedented attack on Israel, the country is gripped by a yawning divide pitting those demanding an end to the conflict and a deal for the release of the hostages against others who want to see the Palestinian militants vanquished once and for all.

Syria's interior ministry on Monday said it would hold accountable those responsible for the apparent killing of an unarmed man at a hospital during violence last month in Druze-majority Sweida province, after a purported video of the incident emerged.

Al Jazeera said two of its correspondents, including a prominent reporter, and three cameramen were killed in an Israeli strike on their tent in Gaza City on Sunday.

The Israeli military admitted in a statement to targeting Anas al-Sharif, the reporter it labelled as a "terrorist" affiliated with Hamas.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will hold a press conference with international media in Jerusalem on Sunday at 4:30 pm local time (13:30 GMT).

The press conference marks his first time to meet with the international press following his security cabinet's decision on Friday to expand the war in Gaza and take control of Gaza City.