An estimated five million children under the age of five died in 2021, the United Nations said Tuesday, urging health care investment in underserved communities around the globe to avoid this "immense, intolerable and mostly preventable loss of life."

"Every day, far too many parents are facing the trauma of losing their children, sometimes even before their first breath," said Vidhya Ganesh, a specialist with the UN's children's agency, UNICEF.

Bolstered Israeli restrictions against flying the Palestinian flag are "a shameless attempt to legitimise racism", rights group Amnesty International said Tuesday.

Israel's new firebrand National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir ordered the police commander on Sunday to authorise officers to remove Palestinian flags flying in public spaces.

"I have instructed the Israeli police to enforce the ban on flying a PLO (Palestine Liberation Organisation) flag in public spaces, a sign of identification with a terrorist organisation", Ben-Gvir wrote on Twitter.

Iran's judiciary said Tuesday it will "firmly punish" women who violate strict dress rules, as the United Nations warned Tehran is trying to crush protests by weaponising the death penalty.

Demonstrations have swept Iran since the September 16 death of Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini, 22, after her arrest in Tehran for allegedly failing to adhere to the dress rules which demand women wear hijab headscarves.

A trial in Greece of 24 migrant rescue workers accused of espionage, including Syrian swimmer Sarah Mardini who inspired a Netflix film, resumed Tuesday after more than a year as leading rights groups slammed the case as a masquerade.

The trial began in November 2021 but was swiftly adjourned. The suspects are also being probed for human trafficking, money laundering, fraud and the unlawful use of radio frequencies.

The US Navy said Tuesday it had seized more than 2,000 assault rifles smuggled on a fishing boat along a maritime route from Iran to Yemen.

The cargo was discovered on Friday off the coast of Oman "on a route historically used to traffic illicit cargo to the Huthis in Yemen," the Bahrain-based US Fifth Fleet said in a statement, noting the vessel "was crewed by six Yemeni nationals".

"This shipment is part of a continued pattern of destabilising activity from Iran," Vice Admiral Brad Cooper was quoted as saying.

Qatari driver Nasser Al-Attiyah's strategy of playing it safe saw him move a step closer to retaining his Dakar Rally title but Tuesday's ninth stage was overshadowed by the death of an Italian tourist.

The spectator was standing "behind a sand dune" on the rally track when the accident occurred, and died on the transfer by helicopter to hospital, race organisers Amaury Sport Organisation (AMO) said in a statement.

The UN Security Council on Monday renewed the cross-border aid mechanism to Syria for another six months, a length of time that several member nations consider too short.

The 15-member Council voted unanimously to extend the resolution, which provides life-saving assistance to millions of people living in northern Syria, until July 10.

The aid delivery mechanism across Turkey's border into rebel-held Syria at the Bab al-Hawa crossing is the only way UN assistance can reach civilians without navigating areas controlled by Syrian government forces.

Saudi Arabia will not impose limits on the number of pilgrims for this year's hajj, a Saudi minister said Monday, after three years of restrictions to curb the Covid-19 pandemic.

"The number of pilgrims will return to what it was before the pandemic, without any age limit," Minister of Hajj and Umrah Tawfiq al-Rabiah told reporters in Riyadh.

The pilgrimage -- one of five pillars of Islam, and which all able-bodied Muslims with the means are required to perform at least once -- is scheduled for June.

Gazans drove a convoy of ambulances along the Israeli border Monday to protest import restrictions on medical equipment, which the health ministry in the Palestinian enclave warned puts patients at risk.

Israel bans the transfer of goods to Gaza which it deems could be used for military purposes, as part of a blockade it has imposed on the coastal territory since the armed group Hamas took power in 2007.

"Preventing the entry of medical devices means the slow death of Gaza patients," read a banner spread across one of around 25 ambulances used in the border rally.

International aid groups warn that millions of people in northern Syria could be completely cut from lifesaving assistance should a United Nations vote fail to extend cross-border aid operations from Turkey.

The concerns revive those of six months ago before the Security Council eventually extended the cross-border mechanism for another half-year, as demanded by Syria's ally Russia.

A new UN vote was scheduled later Monday.