The masked and armed security contractor atop a dirt mound watches thousands of Palestinians who have been kettled into narrow lanes separated by fences below.He makes a heart shape with his hands and the crowd responds - the fence begins to bend as they push against it.

Israel has said it will “not cooperate” with plans from the Palestinian Authority (PA) to host a Saudi-led delegation of foreign ministers in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, an Israeli official told CNN on Friday.

Some E.U. states are calling for a full suspension of trade relations. Others are trying to distance themselves from the grisly images emerging from the enclave.

Israel is blocking all but a trickle of humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said, with almost no ready-to-eat food entering what its spokesperson described as "the hungriest place on earth".

Israel is facing growing international pressure as aid distribution efforts in Gaza devolved into chaos during the first days of a controversial new mechanism backed by the United States and Israel.

Facing rising pressure over the acute suffering of civilians in Gaza, the British government is considering sanctions on two far-right ministers, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich.

France could harden its position on Israel if it continues to block humanitarian aid to Gaza, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday, reiterating that Paris was committed to a two-state solution to resolve the Israel-Palestinian conflict.