The image depicts densely packed rows of tents stretching endlessly across a desert landscape overshadowed by mountains, alluding to the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled there during Israel's military campaign against Hamas.

Israel also continued deadly raids on Rafah in southern Gaza despite an order from the International Court of Justice to end attacks on the city, where half of Gaza's 2.3 million people had previously taken refuge.

Beijing has sought to build closer ties with Arab states in recent years, and last year brokered a detente between Tehran and its long-time foe Saudi Arabia.

"The Israelis have said this is a tragic mistake," National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters at the White House, when asked about whether the events over the weekend qualified as the type of "death and destruction" US officials have warned could result in the withholding of more aid to Israel. 

Indonesia and other members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) have intensified their diplomatic efforts to promote a two-state solution in the Middle East, appealing to European countries to push for a permanent ceasefire as well as to support Palestinian membership of the United Nations.

Biden has faced increasing pressure from within his own party to scale back support for Israel, even before the airstrike on Sunday night that set tents and rickety metal shelters ablaze in a Rafah camp, killing 45 people.

Since the Taliban seized power in August 2021 as US-led forces withdrew after 20 years of war, Russia has been slowly building ties with the Taliban, though the movement is still officially outlawed in Russia.

"The massacre committed by the Israeli occupation army in the refugee tents northwest of Rafah city in the southern Gaza Strip has left 40 martyrs and 65 wounded," Mohammad al-Mughayyir, a senior official at the civil defence agency, told AFP.

Indonesia supports an order by the United Nations top court for Israel to halt its military offensive in Rafah, calling on Israel to comply, while Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi is in Brussels to intensify diplomacy with European countries for a permanent solution in Gaza.

An Israeli official said the government had an "intention" to restart stalled negotiations over the coming days.

Ceasefire talks involving US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators ended shortly after Israel launched the Rafah operation, though Netanyahu's office this week said the war cabinet had asked the Israeli delegation "to continue negotiations for the return of the hostages".

The three nations hope other countries will follow suit, but France said now was not the right moment -- yet Paris noted recognition was not "taboo".

Delivering a keynote speech at the Israeli embassy's annual Independence Day reception, Johnson, the top congressional Republican and a critic of the Democratic president’s Israel policy, said it would be “a strong show of support for the Israeli government in their time of greatest need.”

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said the decision to recognise a Palestinian state undermined Israel's right to self-defence and efforts to return the 128 hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza. 

The warrants, if granted by the ICC judges, would mean that any of the 124 ICC member states would technically be obliged to arrest Netanyahu and the others if they travelled there.

The high-profile British-Lebanese barrister posted a statement on the website of the Clooney Foundation for Justice, which she founded with her husband, American actor George Clooney. 

President Jokowi told reporters during a visit to areas affected by flooding in West Sumatra on Tuesday that political instability in the Middle East as a result of the death of Raisi could drive up the global price of oil.

"What's happening is not genocide," Biden told a Jewish American Heritage Month event at the White House as he discussed the conflict sparked by Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel.

The rare request from Iran, which views the United States and Israel as its main adversaries, was disclosed by the State Department at a news briefing. 

Jokowi said that more efforts needed to be made by the UN to resolve Israel's illegal occupation of Palestine, which he believed was the root cause of the crisis between the two nations.

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has ultimate authority in Iran, declared five days of mourning and assigned vice president Mohammad Mokhber, 68, to assume interim duties ahead of elections within 50 days.

"I am deeply saddened by the tragic deaths of President Ebrahim Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and several other officials of the Islamic Republic of Iran," he said in a statement on social media.

* If a president dies in office, article 131 of the Islamic Republic's constitution says that the first vice president - who is Mohammad Mokhber - takes over, with the confirmation of the supreme leader, who has the final say in all matters of state in Iran.

Indonesia has joined other countries around the world in expressing concern over the fate of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and other dignitaries who were traveling in a helicopter that went missing in northwest East Azerbaijan province.

Raisi died when a helicopter carrying him back from a visit to the Azerbaijani border crashed in mountainous terrain, killing all aboard, a senior Iranian official said.

Citing the royal court, the state news agency said the 88-year-old king would be treated with antibiotics until the inflammation subsides.

The most recent fatal crash of a Bell 212 was in September 2023, when a privately operated aircraft crashed off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, according to the non-profit Flight Safety Foundation.

"President Raisi's helicopter was completely burned in the crash ... unfortunately, all passengers are feared dead," the official told Reuters.

Fears grew for the 63-year-old Iranian leader after contact was lost with the aircraft carrying him as well as Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and others in East Azerbaijan province on Sunday, reports said.

A Turkish drone identified a source of heat suspected to be the helicopter's wreckage and had shared the coordinates of the possible crash site with Iranian authorities, Anadolu news agency said on X.