Israel confirms it killed Hamas leader Haniyeh in Tehran

Israel's defence minister has for the first time acknowledged that Israel killed Hamas's political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July.

Israel Katz made the comments in a speech vowing to target the heads of the Iran-backed Houthi movement in Yemen, which has been firing missiles and drones at Israel.

Haniyeh was killed in a building where he was staying in the Iranian capital in an attack widely attributed to Israel.

Separately, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said some progress had been made towards agreeing a ceasefire in Gaza with Hamas, but he could not give a timeline for when a deal would be reached.

Humanitarian and rights groups have warned of a catastrophic situation for civilians in Gaza.

On Sunday Oxfam said just 12 trucks had distributed food and water in northern Gaza over the past two-and-a-half months and blamed the Israeli military for "deliberate delays and systematic obstructions".

"For three of these, once the food and water had been delivered to the school where people were sheltering, it was then cleared and shelled within hours," Oxfam added.

The Israeli authorities said the report was "deliberately and inaccurately" ignoring the "extensive humanitarian efforts made by Israel in the northern Gaza Strip".

Israel insisted that specific shipments "including food, water, and medical supplies" had been sent to northern areas of Gaza, including Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahia and Jabalia, where the Israeli military has for several months been carrying out a military operation that it says is targeting Hamas fighters who had regrouped there.

The Oxfam report comes after rights groups Amnesty accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza and Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused Israel of committing "acts of genocide" by deliberately depriving Palestinian civilians in Gaza of adequate access to water.

Israel's foreign ministry described the Amnesty report as "entirely false and based on lies" while the Israeli foreign ministry's spokesman said Human Rights Watch was "once more spreading its blood libels... The truth is the complete opposite of HRW's lies".