Russia said Sunday it had captured four more villages in Ukraine's Kharkiv region and thousands of residents were evacuated from the surprise ground offensive and a key border town came under intensive shelling.

Israel struck Gaza on Sunday and troops were battling militants in several areas of the Hamas-run territory, where the health ministry said the death toll in the war had exceeded 35,000 people.

Israel on Saturday hit parts of Gaza including Rafah where it expanded an evacuation order, as the UN warned an outright invasion of the crowded city risked an "epic" disaster.

Tens of thousands of Georgians descended onto Tbilisi's Europe Square Saturday in the latest mass protest against a "foreign influence" bill likened to repressive Russian legislation that has sparked outrage.

Russia on Saturday said it had captured five villages in Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region during a surprise ground offensive that prompted mass evacuations, as President Volodymyr Zelensky made an urgent call for military aid. 

North Korea will equip its military with a new 240mm multiple rocket launcher starting this year, state media said Saturday, adding a "significant change" for the army's artillery combat capabilities was under way.

A long-awaited State Department report on Friday said that Israel likely violated norms on international law in its use of US weapons but it did not find enough evidence to block shipments.

UN chief Antonio Guterres warned Gaza risked an "epic humanitarian disaster" Friday as Israel pressed military operations around its far-southern city of Rafah crippling the work of aid agencies.

Ukraine vowed Friday to quash a surprise Russian ground offensive, after troops launched a major cross-border assault in the Kharkiv region, looking to chalk up fresh battlefield gains with Ukraine on the back foot.