The first aid lorries to use a temporary US-built pier have come ashore in Gaza, the US military announced on Friday. No US troops went ashore during the operation, US Central Command (CENTCOM) wrote on X.

North Korea on Friday denounced a plan by South Korea and the US to stage their joint annual military drills in August, warning that they could face a "catastrophic aftermath" if they carry out the exercise.The Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS) by Seoul and Washington is a "nuclear attack exercise" against Pyongyang that will involve state-of-the-art military equipment, including nuclear strategic assets, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Ile Lewotolok Volcano in Indonesia's East Nusa Tenggara erupted on Thursday, causing a flight to cancel its landing at Wunopito Airport. A plane of Wings Air on the Kupang-Wunopito Lembata route with 40 passengers was supposed to land at Wunopito Airport at 11 a.m. local time, but the pilot decided to return to the departure airport.

New Zealand on Thursday said that it remains "gravely concerned" about the situation in New Caledonia, a French overseas territory in the Pacific Ocean. "New Zealand, as a neighbour of New Caledonia and fellow member of the Pacific Islands Forum, has a strong interest in the peaceful resolution of the situation there. France and New Zealand are close partners in the Pacific. We are urging all sides to engage in constructive dialogue," said Foreign Minister Winston Peters.

A search and rescue operation was launched off the Greek island of Crete on Thursday for three people missing after their migrant boat sank, local authorities said. A total of 42 passengers were rescued by the Hellenic Coast Guard -- the national coast guard of Greece -- and Navy forces as well as commercial ships sailing in the area where the incident took place, some 27 nautical miles southwest of Crete island's coast.

Five Israeli soldiers were killed and seven others injured, three of them seriously, by errant Israeli tank fire in the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement on Thursday. The casualties were with a force that entered Gaza City and seized buildings as part of a resumed attack on the refugee camp. Two IDF tanks, positioned several dozen meters away, apparently spotted a gun in a window of one of the buildings and fired two shells towards the target.

Israel has carried out airstrikes in northeastern Lebanon’s Baalbek, considered a stronghold of the Hezbollah group. The area is around 100 km from the Israeli border. The airstrike was in retaliation to the Hezbollah attack in northern Israel on Wednesday late night and Thursday early morning hours. However, the IDF did not reveal whether there were any casualties in the attack. According to the media reports, multiple targets were hit in the Nabi Chit and Brital areas in the Baalbek area. This is considered the largest attack of the Israeli Army into the Baalbek area.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has cancelled all trips abroad in the coming days in light of the advancing Russian offensive in the Kharkiv region, his spokesman Serhiy Nykyforov said on Wednesday. Zelensky was to visit Spain and Portugal at the end of the week. Russia began a ground and air assault on Ukraine's second city Kharkiv, in the north-east and the surrounding region last week.

Russia's air defences have shot down 10 US-made ATACMS missiles over the annexed Black Sea peninsula of Crimea overnight, the Defence Ministry in Moscow said on Wednesday morning. It was not possible to independently verify the claim. The Defence Ministry also reported that 17 Ukrainian drones and other projectiles were shot down over the Russian border regions of Belgorod, Kursk and Bryansk.

The Ukrainian army on Wednesday said that it has been forced to withdraw soldiers from some of its positions in the north-eastern Ukrainian region that has been the target of a new Russian offensive in recent days. "As a result of combat and offensive actions by the enemy, our units carried out a manoeuvre at certain sections in the Lukyantsi and Vovchansk areas and moved to more advantageous positions in order to save the lives of our soldiers and avoid casualties," the Ukrainian general staff announced on Facebook overnight.