Weeping men carried small coffins at a funeral ceremony attended by thousands from the Druze community on Sunday for many of the 12 youths killed in a rocket attack on the Israeli annexed Golan Heights.

The Israeli military said they were struck on Saturday by an Iranian-made rocket carrying a 50-kilogramme warhead that Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah group fired at a football field in the Druze Arab town of Majdal Shams.

Hezbollah has denied responsibility for the strike.

Local authorities said the dead were aged between 10 and 16.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei gave Sunday his official endorsement of Masoud Pezeshkian as the Islamic republic's ninth president, following snap elections won by the reformist camp's candidate.

In a message read by the director of Khamenei's office, he said: "I endorse the vote (for) the wise, honest, popular and scholarly Mr Pezeshkian, and I am appointing him as the president of the Islamic Republic of Iran".

The new reformist president is due to be sworn in before parliament on Tuesday.

Israel vowed on Sunday to "hit the enemy hard" after rocket fire from Lebanon killed 12 young people in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights and fanned fears that the war in Gaza will spread.

Iran warned Israel that any new military "adventures" in Lebanon could lead to "unforeseen consequences".

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned Saturday's rocket fire and called on all parties to "exercise maximum restraint".

Cocooned in white bags and nestled in the arms of volunteers, eight young rhim gazelles -- an endangered species native to North Africa -- have been transferred to an uninhabited Libyan island.

Environmentalist hope their new home on Farwa island, near Tunisia, will be a haven for the vulnerable animal.

Also known as Gazella leptoceros, or simply rhim, the slender-horned gazelle lives in desert areas in Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt.

But its population has declined significantly as it is a prized target for hunters.

Only two years ago, Abdesselam Ichou began growing cannabis legally as part of Morocco's legalisation of the plant for medicinal and industrial uses in an impoverished part of the country.

Now, he is among thousands of legal farmers whose area of cultivation has reached new highs and cut into the still-dominant illegal trade in Morocco, the world's biggest cannabis resin producer, according to the United Nations.

A rocket fired from Lebanon hit a football pitch in an Arab town in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights Saturday, killing 11 youngsters in what the army described as the "deadliest attack on Israeli civilians since October 7".

The army said Lebanese militant group Hezbollah fired the deadly rocket that killed the youngsters aged between 10 and 20 years when they were hit on the pitch in the town of Majdal Shams.

Many residents of the town retain Syrian nationality decades after the territory's occupation in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

Palestinian boxer Waseem Abu Sal wore a shirt depicting children being bombed for the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics in a test for organisers who have strict rules on political statements.

Abu Sal was one of two flag-bearers for the Palestinian delegation during the rain-soaked river parade along the Seine on Friday.

His white shirt had embroidered images of warplanes dropping missiles over children playing sport.

"This shirt represents the current picture in Palestine," Abu Sal told AFP on Saturday.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said an Israeli strike on a school killed 30 people Saturday, while a rocket fired from Lebanon killed 12 youngsters in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights.

Israel's military said Hezbollah fired the rocket from Lebanon, hitting a football pitch in the Druze town of Majdal Shams and killing the youngsters, who were between 10 and 20 years old.

Another 18 youths were wounded in the attack, said the emergency services.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump sharply criticized his Democratic political rivals, and warned of dire consequences for the Middle East if he was not 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.

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.