Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas called Thursday on the international community to stop sending weapons to Israel in order to halt bloodshed in the West Bank and Gaza.

"Stop this crime. Stop it now. Stop killing children and women. Stop the genocide. Stop sending weapons to Israel. This madness cannot continue. The entire world is responsible for what is happening to our people in Gaza and the West Bank," Abbas said in an address to the U.N. General Assembly.

Families of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza for nearly a year are urging Israel to ensure than any possible cease-fire deal with Hezbollah includes provisions for the war in Gaza.

Gil Dickmann, whose cousin, Carmel Gat, was kidnapped and was one of six Israelis killed in Hamas tunnels in August, said the families of the hostages are feeling forgotten as attention shifts to the northern front.

Qatar, a mediator in the Gaza war, said on Thursday there was no direct link between talks for a truce in Gaza and an international push for an immediate ceasefire between Lebanon's Hezbollah and Israel.

"I'm not aware of a direct link, but obviously both mediations are hugely overlapping when you are talking about the same parties, for the most part, that are taking part," foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari told reporters.

U.S. President Joe Biden warned Wednesday of the possibility of an "all-out war" in the Middle East as Israel put troops on alert for possible entry into Lebanon and the war in Gaza grinds on.

"An all-out war is possible," Biden told ABC chat show "The View." "What I think is, also, the opportunity is still in play to have a settlement that could fundamentally change the whole region."

The United Nations, the European Union and the World Bank have called for the Palestinian Authority to have a postwar role in Gaza in an administration united with the West Bank.

The three bodies released a postwar recovery strategy Wednesday that provided few details on how the war-ravaged territory would be governed or rebuilt.

As Israeli bombs flattened buildings and sent smoke billowing skywards over Lebanon this week, Gazans looked on with both empathy and fear over how the widening war might affect them.

Israel carried out a third day of air strikes against Lebanon on Wednesday, saying it was targeting weapons caches and infrastructure belonging to Hezbollah.

From the dais of the U.N. General Assembly just a year ago, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu triumphantly hailed a new peace he said would sweep through the Middle East. A year later, as he travels back to that same world stage, that vision is in tatters.

The devastating war in Gaza is about to hit the one-year mark. Israel is on the cusp of a wider regional war with Hezbollah. And the country finds itself increasingly isolated internationally and led by a polarizing leader whose handling of the conflict has sparked protests both in global capitals and on the streets of his own country.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has delayed his departure for the U.N. General Assembly in New York, his office said Wednesday, as the army pounds Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.

"Prime Minister Netanyahu will leave for his speech at the U.N. tomorrow (Thursday), instead of tonight, and will return on Saturday night," his office said. "During the day, the prime minister will hold consultations to discuss the continuation of the attacks in Lebanon."

U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday urged a diplomatic solution as Israel strikes Hezbollah targets, warning against a "full-scale war" in Lebanon.

"Full-scale war is not in anyone's interest. Even though the situation has escalated, a diplomatic solution is still possible," Biden said in an address to the UN General Assembly.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian denounced the United Nations' "inaction" against Israel, describing it as "senseless and incomprehensible", amid surging tensions across the Middle East.

"In my meeting with the Secretary General of the United Nations, I said the UN inaction against the crimes of the occupying regime is senseless and incomprehensible," he said in a post on social media platform X, adding that "I expressed my deep concern about the spread of the conflict in the entire Middle East."