WASHINGTON, Oct 23 (Reuters) - Some of Israel's actions in its war against Hamas, like cutting off food and water for Gaza, could "harden Palestinian attitudes for generations" and weaken international support for Israel, former U.S. President Barack Obama said on Monday.

In rare comments on an active foreign policy crisis, Obama said any Israeli military strategy that ignores the human costs of the war "could ultimately backfire."

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Rapidly expanding Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip killed more than 700 people in the past day as medical facilities across the territory were forced to close because of bombing damage and a lack of power, health officials said Tuesday.

The soaring death toll from Israel’s escalating bombardment was unprecedented in the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It could signal an even greater loss of life in Gaza once Israeli ground forces backed by tanks and artillery launch an expected offensive into the territory aimed at crushing Hamas.

WASHINGTON, Oct 23 (Reuters) - (This Oct. 23 story has been refiled to add dropped words in paragraph 2)

The White House on Monday said Iran was in some cases "actively facilitating" rocket and drone attacks by Iranian-backed proxy groups on U.S. military bases in Iraq and Syria, and President Biden has directed the Department of Defense to brace for more and respond appropriately.

JAKARTA, Oct 24 (NNN-ANTARA) – At least four teenagers have been killed, after the bus they were on hit a cliff, in the Indonesian regency of Cianjur in West Java province, early today, local police said.

According to a preliminary report, the crash occurred at around 2:30 a.m. local time, on a highway towards the resort and tourism area of Puncak.

Cianjur Traffic Police Chief, Adhi Prasidya, told local media that, the bus was carrying 24 people, mostly teenagers, from the town of Bogor to Cianjur.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — By the time the scuba dive boat sank off the Southern California coast after catching fire, 34 people had been killed in the deadliest maritime disaster in recent U.S. history.

The Labor Day tragedy in 2019 spurred changes to maritime regulations, congressional reform and civil lawsuits. Now four years later, a federal trial for the Conception’s captain, Jerry Boylan, is set to begin Tuesday with jury selection in Los Angeles.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A local security secretary and 12 police officers were shot dead in Guerrero state Monday, authorities said, the worst episode in a day of violence across southwestern Mexico that killed at least 19 people.

Another person was slain in the Guerrero state capital and five people, including a police officer, were killed in the neighboring state of Michoacan, officials said.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — At least seven people were killed Monday after a “superfog” of smoke from marsh fires and dense morning fog caused a series of wrecks on Interstate 55 near New Orleans that left a long stretch of mangled and scorched cars, trucks and tractor-trailers.

An estimated 158 vehicles were involved and 25 people injured, according to the Louisiana State Police, who warned the death toll could climb as first responders worked into the night looking for victims, the smell of burnt wreckage still heavy in the air.

ROME, Oct 23 (Reuters) - All of the three people with dual Italian-Israeli citizenship who went missing after the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by the Hamas militant group have died, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said on Monday.

"Unfortunately Nir Forti has also died. He was the last of the 3 missing Italian-Israelis," Tajani said on X, the social media platform. "Dying at the age of 29, brutally killed by terrorists, is profoundly unjust," he added.

TAIPEI. Taiwan (AP) — China has replaced Defense Minister Gen. Li Shangfu, who has been out of public view for almost two months, state media reported Tuesday. No further information was given.

Li is the second senior Chinese official to disappear this year, following former Foreign Minister Qin Gang, who was removed from office in July with no explanation offered.

MOSCOW, Oct 24 (Reuters) - The Kremlin on Tuesday denied a report that President Vladimir Putin was ill, and laughed off persistent rumours that he used body doubles to cover for him in public appearances.

"Everything is fine with him, this is absolutely another fake," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said when asked about an unsourced report by a Russian Telegram channel, picked up by some Western media, that the president had suffered a serious health episode on Sunday evening.

UNITED NATIONS, October 24. /TASS/: UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said the only realistic foundation for peace and stability in the Middle East is coexistence of Israeli and Palestinian states.

"Even in this moment of grave and immediate danger, we cannot lose sight of the only realistic foundation for a true peace and stability: a two-State solution," he said at UN Security Council debate dedicated to the situation in the Middle East.

KINSHASA, Oct. 24 (Xinhua) -- Elaboration on the withdrawal plan of the peacekeeping mission from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) will be completed by Nov. 15, DRC Vice Prime Minister Christophe Lutundula said late Monday.

Lutundula, also the Congolese foreign minister, outlined the key phases of the withdrawal plan of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO), at a press conference held Monday evening in Kinshasa, the capital of DRC, saying the elaboration on the plan already began Monday between the Congolese side and MONUSCO.