The moment Israel's strikes on Lebanon's Bekaa Valley cease, Roland Abou-Khater straps a white flag to his truck, watches the sky for warplanes then whisks a harvesting team to near the firing line.

His vineyards in Lebanon's wine heartland, where Hezbollah holds sway, have become a death trap since Israel last month shifted its focus from Gaza to its northern neighbour after nearly a year of cross-border fire.

"We are harvesting quickly and then scurrying away," said Abou-Khater, whose Coteaux Du Liban winery is headquartered in the Christian-majority district of Zahle.

Iran on Monday executed 69-year-old German-Iranian Jamshid Sharmahd after years in captivity, media in the Islamic Republic said, sparking outrage in Germany and beyond.

Berlin called the execution a "scandal" and warned of "serious consequences" for Iran's "inhumane regime", while a Norway-based human rights group labelled the execution the "extrajudicial killing of a hostage".

Sharmahd, a German citizen of Iranian descent and a US resident, was seized by Iranian authorities in 2020 while travelling through the United Arab Emirates, according to his family.

Paramilitaries in Sudan killed more than 120 people in al-Jazira state, the health minister said on Monday, after the UN secretary general warned Sudanese are living a "nightmare".

The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have been at war with Sudan's regular army since April 2023 but for about the past week have intensified their violence against civilians in al-Jazira, south of the capital Khartoum, after their commander in the state defected to the army.

The execution of German citizen Jamshid Sharmahd by Iran is an extrajudicial killing of a "hostage" who was abducted by the Iranian authorities abroad, an NGO said on Monday.

Iranian authorities on Monday executed Sharmahd, detained since 2020 on charges of "corruption on earth", the judiciary's Mizan website said.

His family have long maintained that Sharmahd, a German citizen of Iranian descent, was entirely innocent and was seized by Iranian authorities in August 2020 while travelling through the United Arab Emirates.

The flow of displaced families crossing from Lebanon into Syria via a secondary crossing has slowed to a trickle after an Israeli strike there last week, a local official told AFP on Monday.

The land crossing on Lebanon's northeastern border, known as Jousieh on the Syrian side, connects to Qusayr in Syria's Homs province.

It was put out of service last Friday when the Israeli strike created a large crater that blocked vehicle traffic.

Iranian authorities on Monday executed German-Iranian Jamshid Sharmahd, who had been detained since 2020, the judiciary's Mizan website said.

"After going through the judicial process and the final approval of the court decision by the Supreme Court, the death sentence of Jamshid Sharmahd... was carried out this morning," the website said, following Sharmahd's conviction for "corruption on earth".

Ankara is leaning towards a rapprochement with the Kurds despite last week's deadly attack on a Turkish defence firm that was claimed by PKK militants.

The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) claimed responsibility for Wednesday's attack on the headquarters of the state-owned TAI company that killed five and injured 22.

It came less than a day after a Turkish nationalist hardliner and government ally had extended a shock olive branch to the jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan.

The social media network X on Monday suspended an account that published Hebrew-language messages on behalf of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, just days after it was opened.

The account had a short notice reading "X suspends accounts which violate the X Rules," though the Elon Musk-owned platform did not specify which rule had been violated.

Khamenei's office runs several social network accounts in his name, broadcasting messages in different languages.

Flagrant violations of the laws of war in the escalating conflict in the Middle East are setting a dangerous precedent, aid workers in the region warn.

Since Hamas's deadly October 7 attack on Israel from Gaza last year, humanitarians say the warring parties are flouting international humanitarian law (IHL).

"The rules of war are being broken in such a flagrant way... (it) is setting a precedent that we have not seen in any other conflict," Marwan Jilani, the vice president of the Palestine Red Crescent (PCRS), told AFP.

Hezbollah's new leader on Wednesday said the beleaguered Lebanese movement could agree to a ceasefire under certain terms, as Israeli forces expand their bombardment of the group's bastions.

Naim Qassem's statement came as Israel's security cabinet met to discuss a possible truce, but also as Israel attacked the eastern Lebanese city of Baalbek and said it had killed another senior Hezbollah commander.

Lebanon's premier Najib Mikati said he was "cautiously optimistic" about a ceasefire in "the coming hours or days".