As Hezbollah's leader threatened Israel with crushing retaliation for killing their top commander, thousands in Beirut flocked to a dance extravaganza in a stark illustration of Lebanon's deep divisions.
In the capital's southern suburbs -- a Hezbollah stronghold -- tens of thousands of black-clad women and men in military uniform joined Thursday's funeral procession for slain commander Fuad Shukr.
A senior Muslim cleric was detained on suspicion of inciting "terrorism" on Friday after he mourned slain Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh at Jerusalem's flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque, his lawyer told AFP.
Sheikh Ekrima Sabri, 85, the former grand mufti of Jerusalem and current head of its Supreme Islamic Council, called Haniyeh a "martyr" in his sermon at the mosque in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, the lawyer said.
Haniyeh was killed in Tehran early on Wednesday in an attack that Iran and the Palestinian group blamed on Israel. Israel has not commented on Haniyeh's death.
Palestinian militant group Hamas is preparing to choose a political leader after the killing of Ismail Haniyeh in a Wednesday attack in Tehran blamed on Israel.
Speculation is swirling over the crucial succession almost 10 months into the Gaza war which erupted following Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel.
Qatar-based Haniyeh, elected Hamas's political chief in 2017, died in a pre-dawn strike on his accommodation while he was visiting the Iranian capital for the swearing-in ceremony of President Masoud Pezeshkian.
Sitting in a tent in southern Gaza, Palestinian food blogger Hamada Shaqoura surveys cans of beans and tinned meat and longs for something that could conjure a sense of home.
Before the war, before his house was destroyed and his family uprooted three times, the 32-year-old was a YouTuber reviewing Gaza City's buzziest burger, pizza and noodle spots.
To satisfy his craving for comfort food on a war-rations diet, he taught himself to cook using food aid packages and whatever fresh vegetable he can scrounge up.
An Israeli strike that killed seven charity workers in a Gaza aid convoy was the result of "mistaken identification" and a raft of other serious failures, the Australian government found in a report released Friday.
Australian national Lalzawmi "Zomi" Frankcom was among a group of seven World Central Kitchen staff killed when their convoy -- working to distribute food and water -- was mistakenly hit by Israeli missiles in April.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was buried in Qatar on Friday after his killing in Tehran, an attack blamed on Israel that has heightened regional tensions as the Gaza war drags on.
Haniyeh was laid to rest in Lusail, north of the capital Doha, following funeral prayers at the Gulf emirate's largest mosque attended by thousands of people.
Haniyeh, the Palestinian militant group's political chief, played a key role in negotiations for an end to nearly 10 months of war between Hamas and Israel in the Gaza Strip.
Iran's new reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian has named the negotiator of the 2015 nuclear deal with major powers, Mohammad Javad Zarif, as his vice-president for strategic affairs, state media reported Thursday.
"You are tasked with overseeing major national and international developments as well as how far we succeed in achieving the goals of the constitution," Pezeshkian said in a letter of appointment carried by the official IRNA news agency.
When Ibrahim Ibrahim heard the sirens warning of incoming rocket fire on the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, his first thought was for his son Guevara, who was out at the playing field.
When the family realised the rocket fired from nearby Lebanon on Saturday had struck the playing field in their Druze Arab hometown of Majdal Shams, 47-year-old Ibrahim ran there, heart racing.
"When I heard the siren, I felt something had happened to Guevara," Ibrahim told AFP from the balcony of his home, just a few hundred metres (yards) from the armistice line with Syria.
Israel's biggest ever Olympic team has faced a "tough" environment during the Paris Games, the head of their delegation told AFP after a week featuring sometimes hostile crowds, online harassment and tragedy back home.
The 88-person Israeli team won its first medals on Thursday through judokas Peter Paltchik and Inbar Lanir and remains hopeful of clinching another two or three over the remaining 10 days, Israeli Olympic Committee president Yael Arad told AFP.
Shouting slogans and waving national flags, hundreds of Israelis marched in Tel Aviv to demand the return of hostages, as they endured their 300th day of captivity in Gaza Thursday.
"There is no victory until the hostages are back," chanted the demonstrators, many wearing t-shirts emblazoned with "300 Days", near the defence ministry in the country's commercial hub, an AFP correspondent reported.
