The U.S. military has finished installing a floating pier for delivering humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, besieged after seven months of fighting in the Israel-Hamas war. Israel has been pressing its military operations in Rafah, a city along Gaza’s southern border, and in northern Gaza, where Hamas has regrouped. Some 80% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million Palestinians have fled their homes, many of them multiple times. No food has entered the two main border crossings in southern Gaza for more than a week. Some 1.1 million Palestinians are on the brink of starvation. Israel has portrayed Rafah as the last Hamas stronghold, brushing off warnings that any major operation there would be catastrophic for civilians.

The U.S. military has finished installing a floating pier for the Gaza Strip. Officials said Thursday that they are poised to begin ferrying badly needed humanitarian aid into the enclave besieged over seven months of intense fighting in the Israel-Hamas war. The final, overnight construction sets up a complicated delivery process more than two months after U.S. President Joe Biden ordered it to help Palestinians facing starvation as food and other supplies fail to make it in. Israel recently seized the key Rafah border crossing in its push on that southern city on the Egyptian border, complicating those shipments. American officials insist U.S. troops will not set foot in Gaza, though they acknowledge the danger of operating near the war zone.

Violence has raged across New Caledonia for the third consecutive day, hours after France imposed a state of emergency in the French Pacific territory. Authorities boosted security forces’ powers to quell deadly unrest in the archipelago, where some residents have long sought independence from France. French authorities in New Caledonia and the interior ministry in Paris reported four people, including a police officer, have been killed in the violence. The unrest came after protests earlier this week over voting reforms pushed by President Emmanuel Macron’s government turned deadly. At least sixty members of the security forces were injured and 214 people were arrested in Thursday's clashes with police, arson and looting, according to the territory’s top French official.

Cambodia and China have begun 15-day military exercises as questions grow about Beijing’s increasing influence in the Southeast Asian nation. Some 1,315 Cambodian military personnel and 760 Chinese are participating in the regular “Golden Dragon” ground and sea maneuvers, including three Chinese and 11 Cambodian ships. As the first stage of the exercises got underway Thursday at a Cambodian military base about 90 kilometers northwest of Phnom Penh, Cambodian army commander in chief Gen. Vong Pisen thanked China for providing new equipment and helping to upgrade military facilities, including the Ream Naval Base.