Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with US President Joe Biden on Saturday about the ongoing escalation in violence between Israel and terrorists in the Gaza Strip and said the IDF was doing everything possible to avoid harming civilians, according to an Israeli statement on the call.

Israel has intensified its assault on Gaza, as Palestinian militants continue to fire rockets into Israel on the fifth day of hostilities.

An Israeli airstrike on Saturday targeted and destroyed a high-rise building in Gaza City that housed offices of The Associated Press, Al Jazeera and other media outlets.

Sierra Leone's government will move to abolish the death penalty in the West African state, deputy justice minister Umaru Napoleon Koroma said on Wednesday.

An uncrewed Chinese spacecraft has successfully landed on the surface of Mars on Saturday, state news agency Xinhua reported, making China the second space-faring nation after the United States to land on the Red Planet.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had harsh words for Israel during a call with his Russian counterpart Wednesday.

India on Friday started inoculating its population with Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, the jab's developers said.

Relentless rocket fire and rioting in mixed Jewish-Arab towns fuelled growing fears Wednesday that violence between Israel and Palestinians that has claimed 50 lives could spiral into "full-scale war".