Air strikes pummelled Khartoum Saturday, with representatives of Sudan's warring factions meeting in Saudi Arabia for talks to prevent a "humanitarian catastrophe" as the fighting entered a fifth week.

A witness in west Khartoum reported army air strikes on paramilitary forces, as brutal urban warfare continued in Sudan's densely-populated capital.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan led Saturday prayers at Istanbul's iconic Hagia Sophia mosque before entering the election battle of his political life against a powerful secular rival.

The 69-year-old was emulating a ritual that Ottoman sultans performed before they led their men off to war as he braces for Sunday's parliamentary and presidential ballot.

A shout of "God is greatest" went up over Istanbul's old city as the sun set and news of Erdogan's arrival at the mosque filtered in.

A ceasefire was in effect on the Gaza Strip Sunday, drawing people back into the streets after five days of cross-border exchanges killed at least 34 Palestinians and one Israeli.

The truce got off to a rough start after the final 30 minutes running up to the expected Saturday 10:00 pm (1900 GMT) deadline saw a volley of fire.

Dozens of rockets were launched from Gaza towards Israel, prompting renewed air strikes, AFP correspondents in the territory said.

Most of the rockets were intercepted by Israeli air defences.

Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad has entered a second conflict with Israel in less than a year, with experts saying the Iran-backed movement is balancing competing interests as it insists on armed resistance.

According to the Israeli army, the Gaza Strip-based group has fired more than 860 rockets at Israel from the coastal enclave since Wednesday, a day after Israel killed three of the group's commanders in a barrage of air strikes on the territory, controlled by Hamas.

Iran on Friday released two French citizens, including one also holding Irish nationality, as Paris urged Tehran to free other foreigners jailed by the Islamic republic.

French-Irish citizen Bernard Phelan, held since October, and Frenchman Benjamin Briere, whose ordeal in Iran lasted two years, were freed from their prison in the northeastern city of Mashhad, the French foreign ministry said.

They rapidly boarded a special flight to Paris and landed at the capital's Le Bourget airport -- no longer used for commercial flights -- in the evening, according to AFP TV images.

Grappling with sanctions and an exodus of foreign firms, Moscow is looking to investors from oil-rich Arab Gulf states as the West locks it out over the war in Ukraine.

At the Annual Investment Meeting in the United Arab Emirates this week, the Russian government touted investment opportunities, while Russian companies exhibiting in a special pavilion hunted for Arab funds.

"We are here to try to attract any investors, among them Arabs," said Pavel Kalmycheck, an official with Russia's ministry of economic development.

At a market outside Sudan's capital, where battles continue to rage, Ibrahim Abdelqadir sat for hours waiting for customers to buy his produce but by the end of the day, it remains unsold.

With fighting in Khartoum showing no signs of abating, small business owners are struggling to stay afloat.

Getting produce to market represents a significant challenge, let alone selling it -- with fuel prices skyrocketing 20-fold and trucks loaded with goods at risk of getting caught in the crossfire.

Israel and Gaza traded heavy fire on Friday but Egyptian mediators launched a new bid to end days of fighting that has killed dozens, all but one of them Palestinian.

The violence has been met with international calls for de-escalation, with the European Union pushing for an "immediate comprehensive ceasefire".

Israel announced it was "striking Islamic Jihad targets" in the densely populated Palestinian territory, while AFP journalists saw air strikes hit Gaza City.

A crushing economic crisis in Lebanon has impelled members of the security forces to take on side hustles to get by, raising concerns about security in the eastern Mediterranean country.

Soldiers in Lebanon have seen their salaries diminish to around an eighth of their value in dollar terms since the country's economy began tanking in late 2019.

To make ends meet, 28-year-old soldier Samer says he works three days a week with his uncle at a garage in the northern port city of Tripoli.

The clip lasted 14 seconds, presented by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as proof that his rival in Sunday's election was running "hand in hand" with outlawed Kurdish militants.

Aired at a huge rally and beamed live on TV, the video showed opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu trying to rally his supporters to the tune of his campaign song.

In the next sequence, members of Turkey's banned PKK group echoed that call while clapping their hands to the beat of Kilicdaroglu's election jingle.