The Swiss government said on Wednesday it would commit 23 million Swiss francs ($28.5 million) to support the US peace plan for Gaza, bringing its total humanitarian contribution there to 150 million francs since October 2023.

The ruling Swiss Federal Council said 17.5 million francs would be allotted to humanitarian aid for Gaza and the needs of children, and another 5.5 million francs towards strengthening Palestinian institutions, mostly via the Palestinian Authority, Reuters reported.

The Federal Council said that despite an increase in aid following an October 10 ceasefire, needs on the ground in Gaza remain "immense", noting that persistent restrictions continue to limit the population's access to essential goods.

An explosion at a weapons depot in northwest Syria's Idlib province killed five people and wounded nine others on Wednesday, security forces said in a statement.

The explosion in the town of Kafr Takharim was "caused by a warehouse containing missiles and ammunition, and occurred due to work underway" at a site nearby, the Idlib security forces said, adding that five site workers were killed, AFP reported.

State television reported the same toll, without saying what caused the blast. Nine other people were injured, the security forces added.

Images circulating online showed widespread destruction, fire and damage to farmland, while videos showed shrapnel reaching shops and residential buildings.

In August, four people were killed in an explosion at a weapons depot on the outskirts of Idlib, authorities said.

Sudan's army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, at war with rival Rapid Support Forces group since April 2023, called on US President Donald Trump on Wednesday to bring peace.

"The Sudanese people now look to Washington to take the next step: to build on the US president's honesty and work with us -- and those in the region who genuinely seek peace -- to end this war," he wrote in an op-ed published in The Wall Street Journal.

Attempts to broker peace between Burhan and his one-time deputy, Rapid Support Forces commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, have repeatedly failed over the course of the war that has killed tens of thousands, displaced 12 million and created the world's largest hunger and displacement crises.

Trump took an interest in the war for the first time last week, vowing he would end it after Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman asked him to get involved.

"The consensus among Sudanese is that Mr Trump is a leader who speaks directly and acts decisively. Many believe he has the resolve to confront the foreign actors prolonging our suffering," Burhan wrote.

In his 1,200-word piece published Wednesday, Burhan said the choice was "between a sovereign state trying to protect its citizens and a genocidal militia bent on destroying communities".

Burhan's government is internationally recognized, and in January the US determined the RSF had committed genocide in the western region of Darfur.

But his own forces have also been accused of atrocities since the war began, including targeting civilians and indiscriminately shelling residential areas.

The career soldier, who in 2021 collaborated with Daglo to oust civilians from a transitional government, wrote on Wednesday: "I long recognized that the RSF was a powder keg."

RSF commander Daglo, whose fighters were originally contracted by Khartoum to fight its wars on Sudan's periphery, became Burhan's right-hand man after Sudan's 2018-2019 uprising.

A long-simmering power struggle between them erupted into all-out war on April 15, 2023.