Tunisia holds a presidential election Sunday with no real opposition to incumbent Kais Saied, widely tipped to win as his most prominent critics, including a key contender, are behind bars.

Three years after a sweeping power grab by Saied, the election is seen as a closing chapter in Tunisia's experiment with democracy.

The North African country had prided itself for more than a decade for being the birthplace of the Arab Spring uprisings against dictatorship.

Roasted by summer temperatures too hot for the beach, Dubai has turned to an innovative solution: opening them at night, complete with floodlights and lifeguards carrying night-vision binoculars.

The idea, in one of the world's hottest regions, with temperatures climbing ever higher through climate change, has proved popular -- more than one million people have visited the night beaches since last year, an official said.

Official Lebanese media said Israeli strikes hit south Beirut Saturday night into Sunday, some of them "very violent", with AFP correspondents hearing explosions for over two hours in one of the most intense barrages yet.

"Israeli enemy warplanes carried out four very violent strikes on (Beirut's) southern suburbs, and one strike on the Chweifat" area, with ambulances rushing to the site, Lebanon's National News Agency said.

AFP correspondents heard explosions in south Beirut and its outskirts for more than two hours following the NNA's statement.

French President Emmanuel Macron called Saturday for a halt on arms deliveries to Israel for use in Gaza, provoking a sharp response from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Macron also criticised Netanyahu's decision to send troops into ground operations in Lebanon.

"I think that today, the priority is that we return to a political solution, that we stop delivering weapons to fight in Gaza," Macron told French broadcaster France Inter.

"France is not delivering any," he added during the interview, which was recorded Tuesday.

Tens of thousands of protesters marched in cities around the world over the weekend calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon as the war in the Palestinian territory neared the one-year mark.

In Washington, a man set himself on fire as more than 1,000 people demonstrated outside the White House demanding an end to US military aid to Israel, AFP journalists said.

In Morocco Sunday, tens of thousands of protesters gathered in the capital, Rabat, waving Palestinian flags and calling to break off diplomatic ties with Israel, which the kingdom normalised in 2020.

Thousands of protesters marched through central London on Saturday calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon as the war in the Palestinian territory neared the one-year mark.

Pro-Palestinian supporters from across the country began the march from Russell Square to Downing Street demanding an end to the conflict, which has killed nearly 42,000 people in Gaza;

The head of the United Nations refugee agency arrived in Lebanon on Saturday on a "solidarity" visit for the hundreds of thousands of Lebanese affected by Israeli bombardment and needing international support.

UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi said on social network X that "Lebanon faces a terrible crisis" as "hundreds of thousands of people are left destitute or displaced by Israeli air strikes".

"I have come here in solidarity with those affected, to support the humanitarian effort and to ask for more international help," he said.

Tehran's top diplomat in Damascus on Saturday threatened an "even stronger" reaction to any aggression, as Israel readied its response to an Iranian missile attack earlier this week.

"Our reaction to any attack by the Zionist regime is completely clear," Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told reporters in the Syrian capital, where he met top officials including Tehran's ally President Bashar al-Assad.

"For every action, there will be a proportional and similar reaction from Iran, and even stronger," he said.

Israel marks the first anniversary Monday of the devastating October 7 Hamas attack that sparked the Gaza war and has now engulfed neighbouring Lebanon, creating a perilous regional crisis.

President Isaac Herzog will lead a memorial service at Sderot, one of the cities hardest hit during the onslaught by Palestinian militants.

A rally calling for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip will be held at Beeri, a kibbutz community where more than 100 people were killed last October 7.

After Israeli bombardment forced them flee their homes in haste, displaced Lebanese have been asking volunteers to enter their bombed out neighbourhoods to retrieve their pets.

Maggie Shaarawi, vice president of the Animals Lebanon charity, is one of the rescuers.

"A lot of people had to evacuate their homes in a hurry. In most cases, cats stressed by bombing hide," making it impossible to scoop them up quickly, she said.

"Our goal is to just enter, rescue and leave."