The leaders of the United States, Britain, France and more than a dozen other countries called in a joint statement Thursday for Hamas to release the scores of hostages it is holding, the White House said.

"We call for the immediate release of all hostages held by Hamas in Gaza for over 200 days. They include our own citizens," the leaders said.

An under-construction pier for a U.S.-led project to bring aid into the Gaza Strip has come under fire, forcing U.N. officials to take shelter there, Israeli and U.N. officials said.

No militant group immediately claimed responsibility for the assault, which the Israelis described as a mortar shell attack.

A memorial at the National Cathedral in Washington on Thursday will honor the seven World Central Kitchen aid workers killed by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza earlier this month.

José Andrés, the celebrity chef and philanthropist behind the Washington-based World Central Kitchen disaster relief group, is expected to speak at the celebration of life service, and famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma will perform, organizers said.

Hamas released a hostage video on Wednesday showing a well-known Israeli-American man who was among scores of people abducted by the militants in the attack that ignited the war in Gaza.

The video was the first sign of life of Hersh Goldberg-Polin since Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel, and its release ignited new protests in Jerusalem calling on the government to do more to secure the captives' release.

A top Hamas political official told The Associated Press the Islamic militant group is willing to agree to a truce of five years or more with Israel and that it would lay down its weapons and convert into a political party if an independent Palestinian state is established along pre-1967 borders.

The comments by Khalil al-Hayya in an interview Wednesday came amid a stalemate in months of talks for a cease-fire in Gaza. The suggestion that Hamas would disarm appeared to be a significant concession by the militant group officially committed to Israel's destruction.

US-led coalition forces shot down four drones and an anti-ship missile launched by Yemen's Houthi rebels, American authorities said Thursday, as the Iran-backed group announced strikes against U.S. and Israeli ships.

A Greek vessel deployed in the Gulf of Aden as part of an EU naval coalition also shot down a drone off Yemen's coast early on Thursday, the Greece general staff said in a statement.

The head of the Arab League on Wednesday hailed the conclusion of an independent review of the neutrality of the U.N. relief agency for Palestinians.

Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit said the wide-ranging 48-page report by the independent panel showed that Israel’s allegations were baseless and part of a "systematic campaign” meant to end the mandate of the agency, known as UNRWA.

The Israeli military says its forces shot dead a Palestinian woman after she allegedly ran toward Israeli soldiers with a knife in the southern West Bank on Wednesday.

The military said it took place at Okfim junction near the Palestinian city of Hebron. No soldiers were injured.

A ship near the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait saw an explosion in the distance Wednesday, marking what may be a new attack by Yemen's Houthi rebels through the crucial waterway for international trade.

The explosion, reported by the British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center, comes after a relative lull from the Houthis after they launched dozens of attacks on shipping in the region over Israel's ongoing war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The European Union on Wednesday called for an independent probe into the reported discovery of mass graves at two Gaza hospitals destroyed in Israeli sieges.

"This is something that forces us to call for an independent investigation of all the suspicions and all the circumstances, because indeed it creates the impression that there might have been violations of international human rights committed," EU spokesman Peter Stano said.