Labour's landslide UK election victory announced on Friday had one notable blip: a chunk of its core Muslim voter base chose to back pro-Palestinian independent candidates instead.

Areas with significant Muslim populations saw a dip in support for Labour, with four independent candidates elected to parliament running on a pro-Gaza ticket.

Zarah Sultana, a Labour MP who was re-elected, told the BBC that the party had "clearly lost support in parts of the country because of its position on Gaza".

On October 6, 2023, Palestinian karate champion Mais Elbostami went to bed thrilled after winning a competition in the Gaza Strip. She awoke the next day to a different world.

"I'd won first place," the shy 18-year-old told AFP from a Cairo suburb, where her family now lives after escaping the war and where she is training in the hope to one day represent her country internationally.

On a floating hospital near Gaza, doctors aren't just treating physical wounds -- they're providing emotional support too for children and adults haunted by months of terrifying war.

Child amputees and elderly people in wheelchairs are among the patients on the converted ship off Arish, northern Egypt, funded and operated by the oil-rich United Arab Emirates.

About 2,400 people have been treated at the temporary facility, whose rows of tents below deck hold about 100 patients at a time, says deputy medical director Abdullah al-Zahmi.

Iranians voted Friday in a presidential election runoff between a reformist advocating improved ties with the West and an ultraconservative former nuclear negotiator.

The election, called early after the death of ultraconservative president Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash, followed a first round marked by a historically low turnout last week.

Israel said Friday that "gaps" remained with Hamas on how to secure a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release but that it will send a delegation for fresh talks with Qatari mediators next week.

The statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's spokesman came after a delegation led by the head of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency, David Barnea, held a first round of talks with mediators in Doha on Friday.

"It was agreed that next week Israeli negotiators will travel to Doha to continue the talks. There are still gaps between the parties," the spokesman said in a statement.

Blindfolded, beaten and sometimes bitten by dogs, Gazans released from Israeli prisons allege being tortured amid the Israel-Hamas war, which rights groups say has worsened conditions for detainees.

Mohammed Abu Salmiya, former director of Al-Shifa, Gaza's biggest hospital, is the latest to report mistreatment by Israel.

Salmiya, one among dozens of detainees freed Monday, said "several inmates died in interrogation centres and were deprived of food and medicine."

Iranians voted on Friday in a presidential runoff election where the choice is between a reformist advocating improved ties with the West and an ultraconservative former nuclear negotiator.

The election, called early after the death of ultraconservative president Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash, follows a first round marked by a historically low voter turnout last week.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday ordered his spy chief to Qatar for talks with mediators on a Gaza war ceasefire that could see Hamas militants release hostages seized in the October 7 attacks, sources said.

Amidst new optimism over a possible breakthrough, Netanyahu called a meeting of his security cabinet for late Thursday to discuss new Hamas proposals sent through Qatari and Egyptian mediators, reports said.

After almost 800 days in Iran's notorious Evin prison, the now-free Swedish diplomat Johan Floderus recalled the darkest moments throughout his imprisonment and how he survived them.

Released in mid-June, Floderus and another Swedish citizen were part of a prisoner exchange that saw a former prison official return to Iran.

When asked how he has been since gaining his freedom, Floderus smiled while choosing his words carefully.

"I'm doing well. My family has done everything to give me the sort of soft landing that I think I really needed upon my return," he told AFP.

Lebanon's Hezbollah launched more than 200 rockets and drones at Israeli army positions on Thursday, escalating tensions between the two adversaries as the Israel-Hamas war rages in Gaza.

After months of deadlock in Gaza ceasefire efforts, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to send a delegation for talks aimed at securing the release of hostages seized in Hamas's October 7 attack, which sparked the war.