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.

An Israeli strike killed 31 people in central Gaza Sunday, the Palestinian territory's civil defence agency said, as US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan visited for talks on the conflict.

Israeli troops have moved in on the Gaza Strip's far-southern city of Rafah, which the army describes as the last Hamas stronghold and where the United States says 800,000 civilians have been newly displaced by the fighting.

Social dramas have made Iranian films and their directors renowned at international festivals such as Cannes, but at home it's comedy that sells and has long been the favoured genre.

There are around 750 screens in the Islamic republic, and going to the movies is a preferred leisure activity for people seeking distraction from often difficult daily lives.

An Iranian film may be in competition at this year's Cannes, but it was comedy that monopolised the top six box office places in the Iranian year 2023-2024 that ended in March.

Saudi designer Tima Abid got her start at a time when fashion shows were taboo and tourism, apart from religious pilgrimages, was almost nonexistent in the Gulf kingdom.

So she was as surprised as anyone to see models draped in her latest couture collection gliding down an overwater boardwalk connecting beachfront villas that go for nearly $2,000 per night.

Hussein Julood is taking legal action against British energy giant BP after he lost his son to leukaemia, which he alleges was caused by gas flaring at Iraq's largest oil field.

The bereaved father, who lives near the Rumaila field in the southern province of Basra, is demanding that the firm compensate him for his son Ali's medical expenses, which have left him in crushing debt.

He wants BP to cover the costs of his 21-year-old's medical treatment -- including chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant -- and his funeral following his death in April last year.

Oleksandr Usyk beat Tyson Fury by split decision to win the world's first undisputed heavyweight championship in 25 years on Sunday, an unprecedented feat in boxing's four-belt era.

Britain's Fury was the early aggressor but Usyk gradually took charge and the "Gypsy King" was saved by the bell in the ninth round before slumping to his first career defeat.

Ukraine's Usyk, who remains undefeated, joins the likes of Muhammad Ali, Joe Louis and Mike Tyson as undisputed heavyweight champion, the first since boxing recognised four major belts in the 2000s.

The Israeli army said Saturday that troops had retrieved the body of hostage Ron Benjamin from the war-torn Gaza Strip after he was "murdered" during the October 7 Hamas attack.

Military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said Benjamin's body was recovered in the same operation that saw troops retrieve the remains of three other hostages, which was announced on Friday.

Benjamin was "murdered during the October 7th massacre at the Mefalsim intersection, and his body was abducted to Gaza by Hamas militants", the military said in a separate statement.