After a week of occupying a central area of the sprawling campus in protest at Israel's war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, police in riot gear forcibly removed demonstrators in an operation that lasted through the night.

A working draft lays out principles and proposals aimed at putting back on track a US-led effort to reshape the volatile region that was derailed by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel and the outbreak of war in Gaza, according to two sources who have seen the document.

Blinken "reiterated the United States' clear position on Rafah," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said, two days after Blinken again voiced opposition to an assault over concerns for the safety of civilians sheltering in the southern Gaza city. 

Truce proposal envisages return of 33 Israeli hostages.

The ICC - which can charge individuals with war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide - is investigating Hamas' Oct. 7 cross-border attack and Israel's devastating military assault on Hamas-ruled Gaza, now in its seventh month.

As the size of the pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of California at Los Angeles expanded in recent days, counter-protesters have become increasingly vocal and visible on the campus, although both sides remained peaceful until Sunday. 

In Gaza City, in the north of the strip, Israeli planes struck two houses, killing and wounding several people, health officials said.

Other officials upheld support for Israel's representation.

Police have carried out large-scale arrests in universities across the United States, at times using chemical irritants and tasers to disperse protests over Israel's war with Hamas.

Trump, the Republican candidate for president in the November elections, also sought to place blame for the campus protests on Democratic President Joe Biden.

"What's happening in America's college campuses is horrific," he said in a recorded statement, accusing "antisemitic mobs" of taking over leading universities.

A spokesperson for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government said Israel was "moving ahead" with a ground operation, but gave no timeline.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken hinted at such steps when asked by a reporter in Italy about reports that his department had recommended cuts in military aid to an Israeli unit involved in violent incidents in the West Bank.

The ministry of interior official said the attack had killed one person and wounded eight others, while the military source reported three Iraqi military personnel had been wounded.

Analysts said spiraling tit-for-tat violence could still be avoided, provided Iran continues to play down the reported Israeli strike and Israel takes no further action.

The United States vetoed a draft resolution that would recommend the 193 members of the United Nations General Assembly to accept Palestine's full membership to the world body, stopping the UN from recognizing a Palestinian state.

"The foreign source of the incident has not been confirmed. We have not received any external attack, and the discussion leans more towards infiltration than attack," the Iranian official said on condition of anonymity.

NBC and CNN, citing sources familiar with the matter and a US official, respectively, said Israel had provided Washington with pre-notification of the strike.

"We urge Australians in both Israel or the Occupied Palestinian Territories to depart if it's safe to do so," the Department of Foreign Affairs said in a travel advisory update.

The hub has struggled to clear a backlog of flights in the aftermath of heavy rain that swamped the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday.

Several drones "have been successfully shot down by the country's air defence, there are no reports of a missile attack for now," Iran's space agency spokesman Hossein Dalirian said on X.

Israel had warned it would hit back after Iran fired hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel over the weekend. Most of them were intercepted. 

The picture taken by Reuters news agency's Mohammed Salem shows Inas Abu Maamar cradling the body of five-year-old Saly, who was killed with her mother and sister when a missile hit their home in Khan Younis in October.

The Islamic republic carried out its first-ever direct attack on Israel, firing drones and missiles on the weekend. The barrage -- to which Israel's army chief has vowed a response -- was retaliation for an April 1 air strike on Tehran's consulate in Damascus. Iran blamed Israel for the consular attack.

Iran launched more than 300 drones and missiles at Israel over the weekend in an attack that caused little damage after most of the projectiles were intercepted.

At least 20 people were reported to have died in the deluge in Oman while another person was said to have died in floods in the UAE that closed government offices and schools for days. 

Tailbacks snaked along waterlogged, six-lane expressways after up to 259.5 millimetres (10.2 inches) of rain, the most since records began 75 years ago, fell on the desert United Arab Emirates on Tuesday.

The war in the besieged territory and its soaring civilian toll have revived the push for a two-state solution, with the UN Security Council preparing to vote Thursday on full United Nations membership for a Palestinian state, according to diplomatic sources.

An expert advised the government not to be careless and to prioritize diplomatic efforts in evacuating the Indonesian citizens from impacted regions following the Iran-Israel conflict.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi has reached out to a dozen countries to call for de-escalation and promote restraint following Iran's assault on Israel over the weekend, with experts expecting that Indonesia will use its diplomatic channels for its own benefit amid escalating tensions in the Middle East.