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Around 9,000 people in Gaza need to be evacuated for life-saving medical care abroad, the World Health

Organization said.

In recent days there has been intense fighting around Al-Shifa Hospital, one of the few in the enclave to remain somewhat open.

Separately an official from America State Department told Reuters that famine might already

be present in some areas of Northern Gaza.

Israel's High Court ordered a freeze on funding for religious institutions

whose ultra-Orthodox students have not registered for military service, despite being eligible for

conscription.

The ruling intensifies the infighting in the coalition government over whether young

heredi men should be obliged to fight.

Ultra-Orthodox parties want to codify an exemption in law,

which many Israelis and some in the coalition government oppose.

Jerome Powell, the head of the Federal Reserve, said that he expects inflation to fall just hours after the personal consumption expenditures index, the Fed's preferred measure of inflation,

showed it had risen by 0.1 percentage points to 2.5% in February.

Mr Powell said that, though the road was sometimes bumpy inflation was heading towards the

Central Bank's target of 2%. Donald Tusk, Poland's Prime Minister, said Europe is entering a pre-war era and urged European countries to increase defence spending.

Mr Tusk also called for more military aid for Ukraine in its war against Russia as the next two years would decide everything.

The comments came days after Russia launched an aerial assault on Ukraine's

Parliament took a first step towards abolishing the country's

clan-based voting system in favor of universal suffrage.

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