US President Donald Trump has indicated that Israel's assault on Gaza could soon come to an end, amid rising international condemnation over the mass killings of civilians, targeting of journalists and medics, and famine conditions imposed on the besieged territory.

"I think within the next two to three weeks, you're going to have pretty good, conclusive ending," Trump told reporters yesterday (25 August).

While Trump has repeatedly vowed to bring the war to an end, none of his promises have so far translated into a ceasefire or even the unimpeded delivery of humanitarian aid to Palestinians trapped under Israel's blockade, reports Al Jazeera.

His administration has continued to provide Israel with billions of dollars in weapons and dismissed global efforts to recognise a Palestinian state.

"It's got to get over with because between the hunger and all of the other problems – worse than hunger, death, pure death – people [are] being killed," Trump said.

Back in February, he had proposed the removal of all Palestinians from Gaza – a move widely regarded as ethnic cleansing and a crime against humanity.

Yesterday, Trump also appeared unaware of an Israeli strike on Nasser Hospital in Gaza that killed 21 Palestinians, including five journalists.

When asked about the attack, he responded: "Well, I'm not happy about it. I don't want to see it. At the same time, we have to end that whole nightmare."

Trump then shifted focus to his efforts to secure the release of remaining Israeli captives in Gaza.

MSH

At least 34 people, including two babies were killed when a contraband fuel depot exploded into flames in southern Benin near the border with Nigeria on Saturday.

According to Beninese Interior Minister Alassane Seidou, “a serious fire occurred in the town of Seme Podji. Another 20 people were seriously wounded in the incident.”

"I can't really give you the cause of the fire, but there is a large gasoline warehouse here and cars, tricycles and motorcycles come from morning to evening,” he added.

Nigeria is a main oil and gas producer where fuel smuggling is very common along its borders, particularly when the government maintains a subsidy to keep fuel prices low.

The majority of the victims were burnt and they could not be not be identified.

It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using 'Content here, content here', making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for 'lorem ipsum' will uncover many web sites still in their infancy. Various versions have evolved over the years, sometimes by accident, sometimes on purpose (injected humour and the like).