The Middle East has been transformed since 7 October, and almost two years on, the conflict in Gaza is at another inflection point.

Palestine requested the extraordinary session amid the escalating famine threatening the enclave's two million people.

U.N. officials, aid groups and experts have warned for months that Palestinians in Gaza are on the brink of famine without formally declaring one.

Israel launches a new ground offensive in the central Gazan city of Deir al-Balah for the first time since the war began

Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Jerusalem's Latin Patriarch, said on Tuesday he and church leaders had returned from a visit to Gaza with "broken hearts", calling the spiralling humanitarian crisis there "morally unacceptable".

The head of the agency that helps oversee international aid deliveries to the territory has criticized the impact of Israeli policy on civilians.

As Israel faces mounting pressure to end the Gaza war, a hospital director says the Palestinian enclave is facing "alarming numbers of deaths" from starvation.

The World Health Organization said the Israeli military attacked its staff residence and main warehouse in the Gazan city of Deir al-Balah on Monday, compromising its operations in Gaza.