Mitra Hejazipour, one of the greatest chess players Iran has ever produced, knows what courage is after removing her headscarf in defiance of the Islamic republic's strict dress code for women at a tournament.

Now living in exile in France after being expelled from the Iranian team at the time, she says she is in awe of the bravery of Iranians who poured into the streets one year ago after the police custody death off Mahsa Amini, who had been arrested for allegedly violating the dress code.

Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi has met with families of security personnel killed during mass protests sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini last year, state media reported Saturday.

Raisi has been holding the meetings since Thursday during a visit to the northeastern city of Mashhad, ahead of Saturday's first anniversary of Amini's death.

Iran was gripped by nationwide demonstrations following Amini's death days after her arrest by Tehran's morality police for an alleged breach of the Islamic republic's strict dress code for women.

Sylvie Arnaud's first feeling when she learnt her son Louis had been detained in Iran in September last year was sheer incredulity, followed by a raging sense of injustice and impotence.

"We don't know how long this will last, we don't know what the Iranians are waiting for and we will probably never know," she told AFP.

Louis Arnaud, described by his family as a passionate traveller who simply wanted to see the world, is one of four French nationals held in prison in Iran.

Iranian authorities on Saturday prevented the family of Mahsa Amini from holding a ceremony to commemorate the first anniversary of her death, confining her father under "house arrest", as sporadic protests erupted nationwide despite heavy security, rights groups said.

Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, died a few days after her arrest by religious police for allegedly violating the strict dress code for women in force since shortly after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Her family says she died from a blow to the head but this is disputed by Iranian authorities.

Shipments of international aid began to arrive in Libya on Saturday, offering a lifeline to thousands despite dwindling hopes of finding more survivors days after deadly flash floods.

Sunday's disaster submerged the port city of Derna, washing thousands of people and homes out to sea after two dams burst under the pressure of torrential rains triggered by a hurricane-strength storm.

Conflicting death tolls have been reported, with the health minister of the eastern-based administration, Othman Abdeljalil, putting the number of lives lost at 3,166.

US President Joe Biden on Friday led international calls of solidarity with Iranians one year after Mahsa Amini's death sparked mass protests, with Western powers unveiling a series of new sanctions.

The anniversary of Amini's death in the custody of the clerical state's morality police comes as some activists criticize what they see as a return to business as usual with Tehran, which was already under a slew of sanctions.

The Israeli military said it launched an air strike on Gaza Friday, following violence at a border rally in which health officials said multiple Palestinians were wounded.

The strike was the first since early July, when Israel responded to rocket fire from Gaza launched after its deadliest Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank in years.

The army said it hit "a military post belonging to the Hamas terrorist organisation in the northern Gaza Strip."

US President Joe Biden will meet with Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Wednesday, a White House official said, after months of tensions.

The pair will meet to discuss "the shared democratic values between the United States and Israel and a vision for a more stable and prosperous and integrated region, as well as to compare notes on effectively countering and deterring Iran," National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters Friday.

Over a decade of bloody power battles in Libya have resulted in vital infrastructure falling into disrepair, culminating in the catastrophic death toll in Sunday's flood, politicians and analysts have said.

Wracked by conflict and division ever since a NATO-backed uprising toppled and killed longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011, the North African country is currently ruled by two rival administrations.

European Union member Cyprus said Friday it has asked the bloc to review whether Syria remains an unsafe country to which member states should be barred from repatriating asylum-seekers.

The move follows a flurry of racially-motivated attacks on foreigners in recent weeks amid growing anti-migrant sentiment on the Mediterranean island.

Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou said he would try to persuade the EU and the United Nations to end Syria’s status as an unsafe country for refugees to be returned to.