Efforts towards a truce in the Israel-Hamas war appeared to rekindle yesterday after a new proposal from the Palestinian militant group which also called for more aid into Gaza, where the first food shipment by sea reached shore.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office yesterday said he had approved the military’s plan for an operation in Rafah, where most of war-battered Gaza’s population has sought refuge. 

Efforts yesterday grew to get more aid into the war-devastated Gaza Strip, where the UN warns of famine and desperate residents have stormed relief shipments.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees said one of its warehouses in war-ravaged Gaza was hit yesterday, amid mounting efforts to bring food to the besieged Palestinian territory.

A Spanish charity ship taking food aid to Gaza left the Mediterranean island of Cyprus yesterday in hopes of opening a maritime corridor to the war-ravaged Palestinian territory. 

The first day of Ramadan arrived yesterday like others for Palestinians in war-ravaged Gaza: stalked by famine and disease, shivering in tents and threatened by bombs more than five months into Israel’s offensive in the Palestinian territory.   

Deadly fighting raged in Gaza yesterday between Israeli forces and Hamas, with no truce in sight as the Muslim holy month of Ramadan neared and a dire humanitarian crisis gripped the besieged Palestinian territory.

Tomorrow will mark the first day of Ramadan in Saudi Arabia after the crescent moon was sighted in the country this evening

The war in Gaza has “ruptured any sense of a shared humanity,” the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross said yesterday.

Two young women were arrested in Tehran after the publication of a video in which they danced to celebrate the coming of the Persian New Year, Iranian media said yesterday.

An international effort led by the United States gathered pace yesterday to get desperately needed humanitarian relief into Gaza by sea, in the latest bid to counter overland access restrictions blamed on Israel as it battles Hamas militants.

Israel will push on with its offensive against Hamas, including into the southern Gaza city of Rafah, despite growing international pressure to stop, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday.

An Israeli tank crew killed a Reuters reporter in Lebanon in October by firing two shells at a clearly identified group of journalists and then “likely” opened fire on them with a heavy machine gun in an attack that lasted 1 minute and 45 seconds, according to a report into the incident published yesterday.

Talks on a ceasefire and hostage exchange between Israel and Hamas were at an impasse yesterday, as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza deepened and a merchant vessel was on fire after an attack in the Red Sea.

Crowds of men ran through rubble-strewn Gaza City streets past fires and bullet-riddled cars in hope of reaching a rare aid convoy, risking their lives to get food for starving families as famine looms five months into Israel’s military campaign.

Hamas negotiators stayed in Cairo for a third day of ceasefire talks yesterday after two days yielded no breakthrough, as a deadline approached to halt the fighting in time for Ramadan, free Israeli hostages and stave off famine in the Gaza Strip.

The Gaza war between Israel and Hamas is a “powder keg” with the potential to spark broader conflict in the Middle East, UN human rights chief Volker Turk said yesterday.

Iran yesterday announced a turnout of 41 percent in last week’s elections for parliament and a key clerical body -- a record low since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, according to voting records.

Mediators in Cairo yesterday made a renewed push for a Gaza ceasefire, but differences remained as fighting raged on in the Palestinian territory gripped by desperate food shortages.

Turnout for Iran’s parliamentary election, seen as a test of the clerical establishment’s legitimacy, appears to have hit a historic low of around 40 percent, according to unofficial reports in Iranian media yesterday. Heavyweight moderates and conservatives stayed away from Friday’s election and reformists called it unfree and unfair as it was mainly a contest between hardliners and low-key conservatives loyal to Islamic revolutionary ideals.