Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump sharply criticized his Democratic political rivals and pledged to work for peace in the Middle East if reelected as he met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Florida on Friday.

The meeting capped a week in which Netanyahu addressed the US Congress and held talks with President Joe Biden and presumptive Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, the vice president, who took the Israeli leader to task over the situation in Gaza in a meeting the previous day.

The Saint Hilarion complex, one of the oldest monasteries in the Middle East, has been put on the UNESCO list of World Heritage sites in danger due to the war in Gaza, the body said Friday.

UNESCO said the site, which dates back to the fourth century, had been put on the endangered list at the demand of Palestinian authorities and cited the "imminent threats" it faced.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Thursday invoked the annihilation of US adversary Iran in a social media post reminiscent of his most incendiary outbursts while in the White House.

"If they do 'assassinate President Trump,' which is always a possibility, I hope that America obliterates Iran, wipes it off the face of the Earth — If that does not happen, American Leaders will be considered 'gutless' cowards!" he wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social.

When a grenade shredded his leg during a hostage rescue mission in Gaza, Israeli soldier Barak wanted to shoot himself to avoid being taken captive by Palestinian militants.

But it's the sound of the grenade exploding that haunts him months later.

"The grenade blew up right next to me," the 32-year-old from the northern Israeli town of Acre told AFP.

Barak, who did not wish to disclose his last name to maintain his privacy, was wounded in December in the central Gaza Strip, and has spent the last seven months recovering in hospital.

Iranian authorities on Thursday executed Kurdish man Kamran Sheikheh, the last surviving defendant in a case linked to a Muslim cleric's killing in 2008, rights groups said.

Sheikheh, one of seven men first arrested in the case more than 14 years ago, was put to death in Urmia prison in northwestern Iran, the Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) and US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said in separate statements.

Sheikheh's six co-defendants, also members of Iran's Kurdish minority, had all been executed in separate hangings since November 2023.

Israeli strikes hit Gaza on Thursday as the military said it had recovered the bodies of five Israelis taken to Gaza by Hamas militants after they were killed on October 7.

A group supporting Israeli hostages still held in the Palestinian territory welcomed the return of the bodies but alleged "sabotage" of diplomatic efforts to secure the release of others still in captivity.

France winger Moussa Diaby has joined Saudi Arabia's Al-Ittihad, where he will team up with compatriots Karim Benzema and N'Golo Kante under French coach Laurent Blanc, the Saudi club said Wednesday.

The 25-year-old who began his career with Paris Saint-Germain leaves English club Aston Villa after just one season following his transfer from Leverkusen a year ago.

He played 54 matches for Villa last season, scoring 10 goals and making nine assists.

President Vladimir Putin held talks with Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad in Moscow amid calls for Russian mediation to cool tensions between Turkey and Syria.

Wednesday's talks between the pair -- the first since since March 2023 -- come after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan flagged the potential of a three-way meeting to discuss normalising ties between Ankara and Damascus.

Putin highlighted his concerns over the situation in the Middle East, which he said was "tending to escalate," in opening remarks between the pair which were aired on state television Thursday.

Kamala Harris signaled a major shift on US Gaza policy Thursday, with the presidential hopeful telling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to seal a peace deal and insisting she would not be "silent" on the suffering in the Palestinian enclave.

Ripping up outgoing President Joe Biden's playbook of mostly behind-the-scenes pressure on Israel, the vice president said after meeting Netanyahu that it was time to end the "devastating" war.

Israeli forces retrieved the remains of five Israelis, killed during Hamas's October 7 attack on southern Israel, whose bodies had been taken to the Gaza Strip, the military said Thursday.

It said the bodies of Maya Goren as well as soldiers Tomer Ahimas and Kiril Brodski, along with Ravid Aryeh Katz and Oren Goldin -- military reservists -- had been returned to Israel following a rescue operation.