Iran's new president on Monday accused Israel of seeking regional war, as he attempted to cast Tehran as restrained and appealed to the West for talks on flashpoint issues.

President Masoud Pezeshkian, inaugurated in late July as a reformist within the cleric-run state, was visiting the United Nations as Israel steps up strikes in Lebanon on the Iranian-backed militia Hezbollah, following a wave of explosions on handheld communication devices.

Albania plans to establish a sovereign Muslim microstate within its borders run by a Sufi sect known for promoting "religious harmony and dialogue", Prime Minister Edi Rama announced.

The tiny Vatican-like enclave within Albania's capital Tirana will serve as the political home for Bektashi Muslims -- the fourth largest religious community in Albania after Sunni Muslims, Orthodox Christians and Catholics.

The order was founded in the 13th century in the Ottoman Empire and is regarded as a tolerant, mystic branch of Islam open to other religions and philosophies.

Lebanese official media said Monday people were receiving Israeli phone warnings telling them to evacuate, and Information Minister Ziad Makary's office told AFP it had received one of the messages.

The reports came after the Israeli military told people in Lebanon to move away from Hezbollah targets and vowed to carry out more "extensive and precise" strikes against the Iran-backed group.

It was the Israeli military's first official warning issued to Lebanese people since the war in Gaza erupted nearly a year ago.

Israeli air strikes on Lebanon killed at least 492 people on Monday, including 35 children, the health ministry said, marking the deadliest day of cross-border violence since the Gaza war began.

Arab states strongly condemned Israel for the escalating hostilities with Hezbollah, which have intensified to levels unseen in nearly a year.

The war erupted after Hamas and other Palestinian militants launched the unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel, drawing in Hezbollah and other Iran-backed groups.

In a year of war between Israel and Hamas, the people of Gaza have lost nearly everything: their loved ones, their homes, their careers and their dreams.

AFP spoke to a student, a paramedic and a former civil servant in Gaza, to hear how the conflict has destroyed their lives.

Here are their stories:

- The student stopped in his tracks -

Fares al-Farra, 19, was as brilliant at school as he was ambitious.

Once the pride of Gaza's medical community, the Palestinian territory's main Al-Shifa hospital has become a stark symbol of the utter devastation wrought by the Israel-Hamas war.

Until the war sparked by Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel, patients received for years the best care Gazan doctors and nurses could offer, but earlier this year, they had to cease all operations.

Al-Shifa was all but destroyed in two Israeli military operations -- one in November 2023, the other in March 2024.

On October 7, Hamas militants stormed across the Gaza border to carry out the deadliest attack on Israel in its history, traumatising the nation and sparking a devastating war.

Ahead of the attack's first anniversary, AFP spoke to three Israelis to find out how their lives have been impacted.

Here are their stories:

- The reservist colonel -

Time stopped on October 7 for Adi Levy-Slama, who lost five relatives gunned down by Hamas bullets in Kfar Aza, a kibbutz in southern Israel near the Gaza border.

"We found them wrapped around each other, all five of them, but we don't know what happened," Levy-Slama told AFP, her voice shaking at the memory.

The dead were Levy-Slama's 49-year-old sister Livnat Kutz and her family: her husband Aviv, 53, their 18-year-old daughter Rotem and their sons Yonatan, 16, and Yftah, 14.

Egypt's foreign minister warned Sunday of the risk of an all-out regional war as fighting between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah intensified, saying the escalation "negatively impacted" Gaza truce talks.

Badr Abdelatty spoke ahead of an annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations, with a chorus of international powers calling on Israel and Hezbollah to step back from the brink.

Israelis inspected air raid shelters and stocked up on groceries Sunday after Hezbollah rocket fire threatened northern cities, with some saying they were not too worked up about the danger.

Ilan Ravor, a 76-year-old retiree, ducked into a public shelter near his home in Haifa, Israel's third-largest city located about 30 kilometres (18 miles) from the border with Lebanon.

He found the shelter a bit dirty but acceptable. Everything was more or less in working order, with the refrigerator full and the internet functional.