Live updates on Israel's war against Hamas

The Israeli Defense Forces reportedly martyred Mohammed Abu Alwan, head of Hamas’ finance department, in Khan Younis on Wednesday, a joint statement by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz read.

The statement did not provide further details about the operation, including the circumstances of the strike or Abu Alwan’s specific responsibilities within Hamas’ financial apparatus.

Iranian airlines were forced to cancel some international flights on Wednesday after the US tightened sanctions on Iran's aviation industry in a new effort to cripple its economy.

A travel agent in Tehran told AFP that flights to Baghdad, Muscat, Qatar, Georgia and Azerbaijan had all been suspended, but routes to multiple other destinations remained available, including China.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced the new measures on Monday as part of an earlier threat to impose "economic D-Day" on Iran, an attempt to force it into submission following their nearly seven-month war.

But Iran's aviation sector has already been a target of sanctions for years, and it remains unclear what the full impact will be and whether other countries will comply.

US President Donald Trump's Board of Peace will unveil a six-month, $2.45 billion recovery plan for Gaza at a meeting of its members on Wednesday, Axios reported.

The proposed plan includes projected spending for temporary housing, rubble removal, hospital repairs, economic recovery and the deployment of a multinational security force, the report added, citing a copy of the plan.

Reuters could not immediately verify the report.

An Israeli airstrike killed at least two Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, local health officials said.

Medics said the two men were killed when an Israeli airstrike hit a vehicle in western Khan Younis, in the south of the enclave. Two other people were wounded, they added.

A spokesperson for the Israeli military confirmed the strike, saying it had targeted a member of a resistance force and that more information would be released later. No Palestinian militant group claimed the two dead men.

France's President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday dismissed peace efforts in Gaza, saying that not one humanitarian corridor had been opened and that what was happening was a spectacle that should shame everybody.

In an impassioned moment during a speech to world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly, Macron also took a swipe at increased settler violence in the West Bank, saying it was removing the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people to exist.

Gaza health officials said Israeli fire killed three people, including a woman and a child, and injured several others across the Palestinian territory on Monday.

Officials at Nasser hospital in the southern city of Khan Yunis said the body of a child, Ismail Al-Bardawil, was brought to the medical facility after Israeli tanks opened fire on tents for displaced people in the Al-Mawasi area.

Mahmoud Bassal, the spokesman for Gaza's civil defence agency, which operates as a rescue force under Hamas authority, said the child was 11 years old.

In the central Gaza Strip, Al-Awda hospital officials said 31-year-old Fidaa Toutah died from her wounds after being shot by Israeli forces on Salah al-Din street east of Nuseirat refugee camp.

Officials at Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City said a man, Mohsen Ahmed Bahjat, died after being shot in the head by a drone in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip.

Gaza's civil defence agency confirmed the identities of the dead to AFP.

Pop star Ed Sheeran said Saturday the situation in Gaza is "unjustifiable," following a wave of criticism that he had failed to back his opening act who was booted from the tour after making pro-Palestinian comments.

The singer, who had previously maintained an apolitical stance, broke his silence on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in his first show since the controversy involving US rapper Macklemore.

"What is happening in Gaza is catastrophic and unjustifiable and disproportionate," Sheeran said in Philadelphia.