ANKARA, July 6 (Reuters) - NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said the right to hold demonstrations and media freedom were essential in democracies, when asked about Turkey’s recent crackdown on dissidents and restrictions ahead of this week’s summit.

Turkey will host leaders from the 32 allied countries, as well as officials from NATO's partners, in Ankara for a summit on Tuesday and Wednesday. Authorities have stepped up security across the capital, banning demonstrations, erecting barricades and closing roads.

By Parisa Hafezi and Angus McDowall

DUBAI, July 6 (Reuters) - Iran's theocratic rulers are mobilising mass crowds of the revolutionary faithful on the streets of Tehran, but behind the display of unity it is far from clear they have resolved gaping internal fractures over the economy and state repression.

Vast numbers are attending a week of funeral events for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, killed in U.S.-Israeli strikes at the start of the war, in mourning ceremonies, marches and demonstrations across Iran.

By Jana Choukeir and Khalil Ashawi

TYRE, July 6 (Reuters) - On a beachfront in the coastal city of Tyre, war has finally abated just enough for children to play in the waves and families to gather under parasols as life slowly returns to southern Lebanon.

But away from the shore, people coming home after months of exile are having to adapt to harsh new realities: the threat of conflict between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah flaring up again and the challenge of rebuilding from the destruction Israeli bombs have wreaked on their hometowns.

By Samia Nakhoul

BEIRUT, July 6 (Reuters) - The funeral of late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was more than a national farewell. The sea of mourners in Tehran sent a message to the United States and Israel that their attempt to break the Islamic Republic had failed.

Rather than looking weakened by the war that began with U.S. and Israeli strikes on February 28, Iran presented itself as defiant, unified and determined to shape what comes next.

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

CAIRO, July 6 (Reuters) - Hamas said on Monday it had dissolved its de facto government in Gaza and signalled it was ready to hand over to a group of Palestinian technocrats, as it presses Israel to honour other parts of a stalled U.S.-backed peace plan.

The group's promise to end the body overseeing ministries — which has run for more than a decade — was a key part of the plan for a post-war Gaza set out by U.S. President Donald Trump after the start of a fragile ceasefire with Israel in October.

JERUSALEM, July 6 (Reuters) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government has threatened to fight a Supreme Court order regarding a media regulator, reigniting a judicial row that shook Israel in the months leading up to Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack.

The decision comes ahead of a national election expected by late October.

WHAT DID THE GOVERNMENT SAY?

In a statement on Sunday, the government said that a June 17 ruling by the Supreme Court regarding the composition of the Second Authority for Television and Radio was a clear case of judicial overreach.

By Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON, July 2 (Reuters) - Seven protesters who blocked traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge in a 2024 pro-Palestinian protest against Israel's assault on Gaza were convicted of misdemeanor charges by a San Francisco jury that remained deadlocked on the more serious charge of felony conspiracy.

The jury convicted each of the seven protesters on six misdemeanor counts, including false imprisonment, obstruction of thoroughfare and unlawful assembly, San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said in a statement on Thursday.

Lebanese state media said an Israeli strike on a car in the country's south on Monday killed four people, including three women, despite a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.

Lebanon's official National News Agency (NNA) said a school principal, her mother, a foreign female domestic worker and a male Syrian worker were killed when an Israeli drone targeted their car as they returned from inspecting their family home in Nabatieh al-Fawqa.

ROME, July 6 (Reuters) - Italy's defence minister stressed the importance of good transatlantic relations on Monday after U.S. President Donald Trump again goaded erstwhile ally Giorgia Meloni, the Italian prime minister.

Meloni last month accused Trump of fabricating a story about her after the U.S. president told an Italian TV channel that she had "begged" him to take a photo with her at a G7 summit in France.

By John Irish, Angelo Amante and Tuvan Gumrukcu

PARIS/ROME/ANKARA, July 6 (Reuters) - France is open to a possible sale of the Franco-Italian SAMP/T air-defence system to Turkey after years of political opposition, according to five sources familiar with the matter, paving the way for more substantive talks with Ankara.

Four sources said the shift in position followed talks between French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni during a summit on June 25 ahead of this week's NATO summit in Turkey, although negotiations remain at an early stage.