Families of the French citizens jailed in Iran held a rally Saturday to urge their release, warning that their loved ones were enduring a sometimes years-long "inhuman" psychological and physical ordeal.

Seven French citizens are currently held by Iran, according to the French foreign ministry. They are among two dozen foreign nationals campaigners say Iran has jailed in a strategy of hostage-taking to extract concessions from the West.

Iranian Olympic skier Atefeh Ahmadi has quit her home country and applied for asylum in Germany, a Persian-language media outlet outside Iran reported Saturday, publishing an emotional interview with the athlete.

Ahmadi, in her early 20s, was the only Iranian woman to qualify for last year's Beijing Winter Games.

"I left Iran to reach my goal, but my heart is with Iran. I love my Iran. I love my people," she told London-based Iran International.

"If I could, I would stand by the people so that we can reach freedom together," she said.

Rwandan authorities on Saturday said they had arrested six people for allegedly hurling insults at a woman who made history as one of the first female referees chosen for the men's World Cup.

Offensive slurs were repeatedly chanted at Salima Mukansanga by fans from Kiyovu Football Club as she refereed their 0-0 draw against Gasogi United on January 20 in Nyamata, south of Kigali.

Thierry Murangira, spokesman for the Rwanda Investigative Bureau (RIB), told AFP that three women and three men were arrested on Thursday.

Italian energy giant Eni signed an $8 billion gas deal with Libya's state-run National Oil Corporation Saturday as Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni visited Tripoli.

European governments have been scrambling to find alternatives to Russian gas since last year's invasion of Ukraine saw deliveries slashed to less than half their pre-war levels, sending prices soaring to record highs and triggering costly state subsidies to protect consumers.

Eni said it was the first major project in Libya since early 2000 and involved the development of two offshore gas fields.

Israel on Sunday prepared to demolish the east Jerusalem family home of a Palestinian man who killed seven people near a synagogue, as part of measures to punish the relatives of attackers.

The step comes as violence rages in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which also saw dozens of Palestinians killed this month, sparking global alarm.

French President Emmanuel Macron urged all parties to avoid feeding a "spiral of violence" during a telephone call on Sunday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said the president's office.

At least seven people were killed in a shooting outside a synagogue in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem on Friday, with the gunman killed at the scene, police and medics said.

"Earlier this evening at around 8:30 pm (1830 GMT), a terrorist arrived at a synagogue in the Neve Yaakov boulevard in Jerusalem and proceeded to shoot at a number of people in the area," a police statement said.

"Police forces quickly arrived at the scene, engaged with the terrorist and opened fire at him. The terrorist was neutralised," it added.

The US Justice Department announced the indictment Friday of three members of a European criminal gang who allegedly undertook a Tehran-backed plot to assassinate dissident Iranian-American journalist Masih Alinejad.

The Justice Department said one of the three, Rafat Amirov, a leader of the unnamed gang who lives in Iran, directed the plot last year to kill Alinejad at her home in New York.

Before carrying out one of the deadliest West Bank raids in recent memory, Israeli soldiers reportedly snuck into Jenin refugee camp hiding in the back of a milk truck.

The operation, which Israel said targeted Islamists planning an attack, killed nine people and for Palestinians recalled the bloodshed of the second intifada or uprising between 2000 and 2005, when Jenin was plagued by fighting.

Analysts have warned of more violence to come, after the deadliest year in the West Bank since the UN started tracking the death toll in the occupied territory in 2005.

Turkey summoned Denmark's ambassador Friday to condemn it for allowing a far-right extremist to burn Korans over Ankara's refusal to let Sweden and Finland join NATO.

An AFP team witnessed anti-Islam activist Rasmus Paludan, a Danish-Swedish dual national, first burn a copy of the Muslim holy book near a Copenhagen mosque and then a second copy outside the Turkish embassy.

A decision by Swedish police to allow Paludan to stage a similar protest in Stockholm prompted Turkey to postpone planned NATO accession talks with Sweden and Finland.

A gunman stormed Azerbaijan's embassy in Tehran on Friday, killing the mission's head of security in an attack Iran said was motivated by personal reasons but Baku labelled an act of "terrorism".

Azerbaijan's foreign ministry said "responsibility" for the shooting, which also wounded two embassy security guards, lies with Iran -- with spokesman Ayxan Hacizada telling media in his country a recent anti-Azerbaijani campaign in Iran had "encouraged the attack".

Hacizada later told Turkey's state broadcaster TRT Haber that embassy staff were "being evacuated from Iran".