Israeli air strikes destroyed the Iranian embassy's consular annex in Damascus on Monday, Syrian and Iranian officials said, with a top Revolutionary Guard commander among seven members the force said were killed.

Israel said it would not comment on the attack, but Iranian officials vowed a stiff response, with fears of even further violence between Israel and Iran's allies amid the Gaza war.

Israeli forces on Monday pulled out of Gaza's largest hospital complex after an intensive two-week military operation against Hamas, leaving behind charred buildings and bodies in the sprawling complex.

Further raising regional tensions during the Gaza war, Israeli air strikes destroyed an Iranian embassy consular annex in Syria, Damascus and Tehran said. Iran's Revolutionary Guards confirmed two high-ranking generals were among 11 people reported dead.

Far from Dubai's glitzy towers, Mariam al-Kalbani's henna-dyed fingers weave brightly coloured threads in a skill she hopes young Emirati women watching her can preserve for the future.

The art of hand-weaving braided shiny ribbons to adorn traditional clothing and bags is called Al Talli, and is on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list.

But with the relentless pace of change in the United Arab Emirates, its days may be numbered.

Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi begins his third term this week buoyed by massive fresh financing, but experts say the road out of economic crisis will still be long and arduous.

Sisi won December's presidential election with 89.6 percent of the vote, standing against three unknowns.

He is set to begin his third term officially on Wednesday, with local media reporting that he will swear the oath before parliament the day before.

This six-year term is set to be the 69-year-old's last, unless another constitutional amendment again prolongs his tenure.

Opposition supporters on Sunday filled an Istanbul square to celebrate the re-election of Ekrem Imamoglu as mayor, who dealt a second blow to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling party by repeating his landmark 2019 win.

Tens of thousands of people lit torches and waved Turkish flags after partial local election results showed that support for the government had weakened in the wake of nearly 70 percent inflation and the crumbling of the Turkish currency against the dollar.

Thousands of Israelis calling for boosted efforts to free the hostages held in Gaza and the ouster of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu marched in Jerusalem Sunday, the second consecutive night of mass protests.

Demonstrators blocked a main city highway after earlier rallying in front of the Israeli parliament, lighting fires and waving Israeli flags.

Police used water cannon against them, jostling and pushing protesters back as they shouted that Netanyahu "must go".

Protesters claimed the Jerusalem protest was the biggest since the war in Gaza broke out in October.

A new Palestinian government that contains both Gazans and four women was sworn in Sunday, but was already facing scepticism from its own people.

The Palestinian Authority led by Mahmud Abbas is under pressure from Washington to prepare to step into the breach in the aftermath of the Gaza war and undertake reforms.

Newly-appointed prime minister Mohammed Mustafa said his government's "top national priority" was ending the war as he named his new team.

Israel's decades-old exemption from military service for ultra-Orthodox Jews is poised to end Monday, a divisive move that imperils the coalition government as the nation is at war with Hamas.

Barring a last-minute delay, ultra-Orthodox Israelis would for the first time be subject to the mandatory service that is compulsory for nearly all other Jewish men in Israel.

The issue carries significant implications because the ultra-Orthodox allies that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has depended on in his government are fiercely opposed to conscription for their community.

Metres away from the concrete and steel fence separating the Gaza Strip from Egypt, 11-year-old Malak Ayad flies a paper kite high in the sky -- a welcome distraction from the horrors of war.

"Every day I play with my brothers and cousins with kites next to the Egyptian border," said the Palestinian girl, displaced from Gaza City with her family to the southern city of Rafah.

"When I do, I feel free and safe," she added, gently manoeuvering her kite, which she calls "Butterfly", back and forth across the border with a white string.

Ben Binyamin was left for dead by Hamas militants when they stormed into Israel on October 7.

Six months later, he is the rock at the heart of the defence for Israel's national amputee football team, dreaming of lifting the Euro 2024 cup in France in June.

Binyamin was celebrating his 29th birthday at the Supernova music festival where 364 people were killed.

He lost his right leg when the attackers threw four grenades and shot into an air raid shelter where he and his friends were taking cover. His fiancee also lost a leg.