An international humanitarian relief effort in the form of a Freedom Flotilla Coalition was getting ready Friday to leave the western Turkish port of Tuzla and bring much-needed relief to residents of war-torn Gaza.

At least three vessels carrying some 5,000 tons of food, drinking water and medical aid were awaiting the green light from Turkish authorities to set sail from the port on the Sea of Marmara, south of Istanbul, organisers said.

French authorities Friday detained a man suspected of entering the Iranian consulate in Paris and falsely claiming to be armed with an explosive vest, police and prosecutors said.

No explosives or arms were found on the man or the premises after he surrendered to police following the incident.

The man, born in 1963 in Iran, had already been convicted for setting fire to tyres in front of the entrance of the Iranian embassy in Paris in 2023, the Paris prosecutor's office said.

When record downpours sent water flooding into his Dubai home, Riaz Haq expected the levels to drop once it stopped raining. But instead of falling, the water kept rising higher.

"We went to bed, the water was half-a-metre (half-a-yard)," the British lawyer said, recalling Tuesday's tempest that flooded homes, malls, offices and roads.

"We woke up and it was one metre. My cars were submerged, water to our waist. Everything is ruined."

Despite Friday's announcement of explosions in central Iran, many people appeared unfazed and planned rallies in the capital supporting last weekend's unprecedented Iranian attack on Israel still went ahead.

"We're going to the park to play board games. Everything is just like before," Bahar, 24, an instructor who works with children, told AFP from Isfahan province where the early morning blasts were heard.

"It's just like a normal Friday morning," added Bahar, who said she only heard about the explosions from a friend living abroad.

He might be 80 but Sebastiao Salgado, the Brazilian photojournalist who has spent five decades chronicling the world around us, is not ready to hang up his camera yet.

Salgado, known in particular for his work in the Amazon, insists there is still a need to "raise awareness" about the deforestation of the planet.

"Photography is the mirror on society," he said in an interview with AFP to mark the start of a London retrospective of his 50-year-career.

Gazans in the besieged southern city of Rafah told AFP they believed Israel's reported strike against Iran on Friday was little more than a show -- and called for peace in the region.

"As everybody knows, this is all staged and agreed upon in advance from both sides," resident Alaa Abu Taha said.

"If someone wants to strike, they don't give prior warning or threaten before."

Iran's state media reported explosions in the central province of Isfahan as US media quoted American officials saying Israel had carried out retaliatory strikes on its arch-rival.

French authorities Friday detained a man suspected of entering the Iranian consulate in Paris and claiming to be carrying explosives, police and prosecutors said.

No explosives or arms were found on the man or the premises after he surrendered to police after the incident.

Police arrested the suspect, born in 1963 in Iran, when he exited of his own accord after appearing to have "threatened violent action" inside, the Paris prosecutor's office said.

But "no explosive materials have been observed at this stage," either on him, in his car or in the building, it said.

The limited nature of Israel's reported strike on Iran and the restrained immediate Iranian reaction shows both sides, in particular Tehran, are looking to de-escalate after weeks of tensions but the situation remains dangerously explosive, analysts say.

There have been fears over the last weeks decades of enmity between Israel and the Islamic republic could spill over into all-out war as Israel pursues its offensive on Gaza in the wake of the October 7 attack on Israel by Palestinian militant group Hamas which is backed by Tehran.

Sitting around a fire in the hills of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Ibrahim Abu Alyah and some friends stood watch over his herd in the aftermath of a settler raid on their village.

"We are here so that we can put away the sheep and tell people to protect their homes in case settlers come," Abu Alyah told AFP.

After 14-year-old Israeli herder Benjamin Achimeir went missing on April 12 in the nearby illegal settler outpost of Malachi Hashalom, dozens of Jewish settlers stormed his village of Al-Mughayyir, north of Ramallah.

Three workers from the Philippines have died in heavy flooding in the United Arab Emirates, Filipino officials announced, as the desert country struggled Friday to recover from record rains.

Two women suffocated inside their vehicle during the flooding and one man died when his vehicle fell into a sinkhole, the Philippines' Department of Migrant Workers said.

The women died in Dubai -- the first confirmed deaths from the floods in the city -- and the man died in Sharjah, media officers from the department told AFP.