On a lush green hilltop on Israel's northern border with Lebanon, Carmela Keren Yakuti proudly shows off her home in Dovev, which she fled more than 16 months ago over fears of a Hezbollah attack.

"Now that everyone is back, it's an amazing feeling," said Yakuti, 40, standing on her freshly washed patio and breathing in the crisp country air.

"It's great here. We have a beautiful moshav, a beautiful view," she added, referring to what Israelis call a small agricultural community. "It's simply great to be back home."

Syria's leader Ahmed al-Sharaa on Friday urged insurgents from ousted president Bashar al-Assad's Alawite minority to lay down their arms and surrender after the fiercest attacks on the war-torn country's new rulers yet.

The warning came as Syria's security forces "executed" 162 Alawites on Friday, according to a Syrian war monitor, in a massive operation in the ethnic group's Mediterranean heartland triggered by deadly clashes with gunmen loyal to Assad the day before.

Hidden behind imposing brick walls in the heart of Tehran, a renovated industrial cellar where decades ago Iranian beer was made has been transformed into a hub for contemporary art.

The ambitious restoration of the derelict Argo factory has made it "one of the most beautiful buildings of Tehran", said architect Nazanin Amirian, visiting the latest exhibition there.

While the former factory with its towering chimney and cavernous cellar has been given a new life, many other historic buildings in the Iranian capital face a grimmer fate.

Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) is to finance a joint initiative with the WTA for paid maternity leave of "up to 12 months" for players on the women's tennis circuit, it was announced on Thursday.

The PIF WTA Maternity Fund Program "will offer benefits to more than 320 eligible WTA players", the Women's Tennis Association said in a statement.

"WTA players will for the first time receive paid maternity leave up to 12 months, and have access to grants for fertility treatments to build families, as well as other benefits," it read.

More than 70 people were killed and dozens more wounded in Syria in fighting between government security forces and militants loyal to deposed ruler Bashar al-Assad, a war monitor said Friday.

"More than 70 killed and dozens wounded and captured in bloody clashes and ambushes on the Syrian coast between members of the Ministry of Defense and Interior and militants from the defunct regime's army," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in a post on X.

Unprecedented direct talks between the US and Hamas are a sign of dysfunction in fraught negotiations to prolong a truce in Gaza, analysts said Thursday.

Washington revealed it held talks with Hamas, which it designates as a "terrorist" organisation, amid a standoff between Israel and the Palestinian militant group over how to proceed with the ceasefire, whose first phase expired last weekend.

A major Israeli offensive which over several weeks has displaced tens of thousands of Palestinians and ravaged refugee camps increasingly appears to be aligned with the "vision of annexation" of the West Bank, a UN official told AFP.

Israeli forces carry out regular raids targeting militants in the West Bank, occupied since 1967, but the ongoing operation since late January is already the longest in two decades, with dire effects on Palestinians.

The United States' move to re-classify Yemen's Iran-backed Huthi rebel group as a foreign terrorist organisation could have "devastating" effects on the country's largely aid-dependent, war-wracked population, humanitarian groups warned on Thursday.

The listing, which bans any interaction with the Huthis -- who control large swathes of the Arabian Peninsula's poorest country -- could push up prices and make it difficult to import essential goods, aid groups said.

Turkey on Thursday insisted the PKK and all groups allied with it must disarm and disband "immediately", a week after a historic call by the Kurdish militant group's jailed founder.

"The PKK and all groups affiliated with it must end all terrorist activities, dissolve and immediately and unconditionally lay down their weapons," a Turkish defence ministry source said.

Hamas said Thursday that Donald Trump's threats would encourage Israel to ignore the fragile ceasefire, after the US president warned that unless hostages were freed, the people of Gaza would be "DEAD".

Trump had earlier floated a widely condemned plan to relocate Palestinians from Gaza.

Weighing in Thursday, France welcomed an alternative Arab plan to rebuild the territory while keeping Palestinians on their land, but insisted Hamas must be excluded from governing Gaza.