Israel's stated commitment to defending the Syrian Druze is, by the admission of some of its leaders, consistent with a long-term strategic goal -- the weakening of Syria.

Israel, which has occupied part of Syrian territory since 1967, claimed to be protecting the Druze minority to justify several strikes following recent, bloody inter-communal clashes in Syria.

In the aftermath of one strike near the Presidential Palace in Damascus on May 3, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the bombardment should serve as a "clear message".

The United States and Iran will hold a new round of nuclear talks Sunday in Oman ahead of a visit to the region by Donald Trump, whose key negotiator staked out an increasingly hard line on the issue of uranium enrichment.

Trump, who will visit three other Gulf Arab monarchies next week, has voiced hope for reaching a deal with Tehran to avert an Israeli military strike on Iran's nuclear program that could ignite a wider war.

Thousands gathered for a rare peace event in Jerusalem on Friday, with the Gaza war in its 20th month, the UN warning of humanitarian catastrophe and Palestinian militants still holding dozens of Israelis captive.

In recent days, Israel has announced plans for an expanded military campaign in Gaza entailing the "conquest" of the Palestinian territory. Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has said this meant that the Gaza Strip would be "entirely destroyed".

It is "very difficult" to imagine any operation to deliver humanitarian aid to the besieged Gaza Strip without the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, a UNRWA spokeswoman said on Friday.

The United States on Thursday announced a new foundation to provide aid to Gaza, sidelining the United Nations as Israel's two-month blockade brings severe shortages to the war-battered Palestinian territory.

During his nine years living in Tennessee, Fahd, a Saudi national, found comfort and consistency at Dunkin Donuts, where he placed the same order every day.

Now back in Riyadh, Fahd is doing something similar, highlighting the Saudi Arabian love affair with all things American that many find surprising.

"When I came here, thank God, the same cafe and same order were here too," said the 31-year-old mechanical engineer, who did not want to give his family name.

"I started living the same lifestyle here as I did in America."

Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa told AFP on Thursday he had sought assistance from Israel and the United Arab Emirates to combat the drug cartels that are terrorising the South American country.

In an exclusive interview with AFP in Paris, the iron-fisted 37-year-old who won re-election last month said Israel and the UAE had agreed to provide intelligence "to help" fight cocaine traffickers.

Once-peaceful Ecuador averaged a killing every hour at the start of the year, as cartels battled for control over cocaine routes that pass through the nation's ports.

The United States said Thursday that a new foundation will soon announce plans for aid to Gaza, sidelining the United Nations as Israel's two-month blockade brings severe shortages to the war-battered territory.

State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said the foundation was non-governmental and would make an announcement "shortly," without offering further details.

"We welcome moves to quickly get urgent food aid into Gaza... in a way that the food aid actually gets to those to whom it's intended," Bruce told reporters.

Yemen's Iran-backed Huthi rebels have emerged bruised but defiant from a blistering US bombing campaign, cementing their role as one of the Middle East's most powerful non-state actors after a truce with Washington.

US President Donald Trump said the rebels had "capitulated" after the intense, seven-week campaign that came in response to Huthi threats to renew attacks on Red Sea shipping over Israel's blockade on Gaza.

Paramilitary drone strikes targeting Sudan's wartime capital have sought to shatter the regular army's sense of security and open a dangerous new chapter in the war, experts say.

Since April 2023, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) group has been at war with the army, which has lately recaptured some territory and dislodged the paramilitaries from the capital Khartoum.

The latter appeared to have the upper hand before Sunday, when drone strikes began blasting key infrastructure in Port Sudan, seat of the army-backed government on the Red Sea coast.

The Red Cross on Thursday denounced the human cost of the war raging in Gaza, slamming Israel's "unacceptable" full blockade on aid into the besieged and conflict-ravaged Palestinian territory.

Aid agencies have repeatedly warned of a growing humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, which they say has been exacerbated by an Israeli blockade on all aid since early March.

"It is unacceptable that humanitarian aid is not allowed into the Gaza Strip," Pierre Krahenbuhl, director general of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), told reporters in Geneva.