Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, who died in a helicopter crash along with President Ebrahim Raisi, was known for his fierce anti-Israel sentiment and scepticism of the West.

A career diplomat and conservative figure with close ties to the Revolutionary Guards, Amir-Abdollahian took office following Raisi's 2021 election win.

State media at the time hailed his support for "the Axis of Resistance" of Tehran-aligned armed groups across the Middle East arrayed against arch-foe Israel.

US President Joe Biden's national security advisor briefed Benjamin Netanyahu on the "potential" of a normalization deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia after holding talks in the region, the White House said Sunday.

Jake Sullivan also called on the Israeli prime minister to link the military operation against Hamas in Gaza with a "political strategy" for the future of the Palestinian enclave, it said in a readout of the talks.

Filmmakers Nada Riyadh and Ayman El Amir spent so much time following an all-girl theatre troupe in a remote Egyptian village that at one point someone tried to sell them a house.

"He thought we were always there so we might as well live there," Riyadh told AFP after the premiere of their documentary at the Cannes Film Festival.

"The Brink of Dreams" follows a group of teenage girls in rural southern Egypt over four years, between rehearsals, as they navigate the tough decisions that will determine their adulthood.

Fear and worry weighed on Iran Sunday as the Islamic republic waited for news on the fate of President Ebrahim Raisi after his helicopter went missing in a foggy mountain area.

Thousands of Muslim faithful prayed for his safe return in mosques nationwide -- including amid the minarets of 63-year-old Raisi's hometown, the shrine city of Mashhad.

Tearful Iranians fearing the worst were also praying for Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, who was with him on the helicopter, in Valiasr Square in central Tehran.

An Israeli minister on Sunday criticised in Madrid Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's plans to recognise a Palestinian state, saying this would be "rewarding" the attack carried out by Hamas against Israel.

Israel's Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli was speaking at a Madrid meeting of global far-right leaders organised by Spain's Vox party.

"Unfortunately, the current prime minister of Spain, Sanchez, believes that the Palestinians should be rewarded for the massacre -- that this is the time to give them a state," he told the meeting.

US President Joe Biden said Sunday he heard the voice of Gaza war protesters as some students turned their backs on his graduation ceremony speech at the former university of civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr.

A small number of graduates carried out the silent protest, with some holding Palestinian flags and one holding up a fist as Biden spoke at Morehouse College, a historically Black university in Atlanta, Georgia.

Lying bedridden in her room at the recently reopened Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis in Gaza, Alaa Abu Ahmed is relieved that she can finally restart her medical treatment.

Displacement because of fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas militants in the Palestinian territory interrupted Abu Ahmed's treatment for a chronic condition.

Over a week in February, the hospital was attacked when Khan Yunis was the focus of fighting and soldiers raided it, saying Hamas was holding Israeli hostages there.

Iranians on Monday mourned the death of president Ebrahim Raisi whose helicopter crashed into a fog-shrouded mountain, setting off a period of political uncertainty in the Islamic republic.

Raisi, 63, his foreign minister and seven others died when the aircraft went down on Sunday in a remote area of northwestern Iran, where the wreckage was only found on Monday morning.

The stranglehold on aid reaching Gaza threatens an "apocalyptic" outcome, the UN's humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said on Sunday as he warned of famine in the besieged territory.

"If fuel runs out, aid doesn't get to the people where they need it, that famine, which we have talked about for so long, and which is looming, will not be looming anymore. It will be present," Griffiths said.

In a no-man's land on Syria's border with Iraq and Jordan, thousands are stranded in an isolated camp, unable to return home after fleeing the government and jihadists years ago.

When police defector Khaled arrived at Rukban, he had hoped to be back home within weeks -- but eight years on, he is still stuck in the remote desert camp, sealed off from the rest of the country.

Damascus rarely lets aid in and neighbouring countries have closed their borders to the area, which is protected from Syrian forces by a nearby US-led coalition base's de-confliction zone.