Israel has approved buying a third squadron of advanced F-35 fighter jets manufactured by Lockheed Martin in a $3-billion deal, the defence ministry said on Sunday.

Israel is the only Middle East nation with F-35s, the world's most advanced fighter which is stealth capable and can be used to gather intelligence, strike deep into enemy territory and engage in air duels.

The deal to purchase 25 F-35 jets -- expected to be signed in coming months -- will expand the country's fleet of the aircraft to 75, a ministry statement said.

A passion for snooker has swept Iran in recent years, a trend fans attribute largely to the country's first internationally renowned star Hossein Vafaei, known as the "Persian Prince".

Ever more enthusiasts in the Islamic republic have taken to the cue sport played on a billiards table, and Tehran last week hosted an Asian regional tournament.

"In the past, Iran did not have much of a place in the Asian and world championships in billiards and snooker," said referee Mohammad Afghil Morshedi, 34, of Iran's Bowling, Billiard and Boules Federation.

Israelis protested again on Saturday against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's proposed judicial reform plans, days after he said he had dropped a key provision in the controversial project.

The demonstrators have kept up the pressure with weekly rallies against Netanyahu, who returned to power last December at the head of a coalition with ultra-Orthodox Jewish and extreme-right parties.

As they have done every Saturday for months, protesters thronged the heart of Israel's commercial capital Tel Aviv to demonstrate against the government's judicial overhaul proposals.

Former US vice president Mike Pence and British ex-prime minister Liz Truss on Saturday gave their backing to an exiled Iran opposition movement, slamming Western "appeasement" of Iran's clerical authorities.

They addressed a meeting outside Paris of the People's Mujahedin (MEK) group outlawed by Tehran, as thousands of supporters of the group staged a rally in the centre of the French capital that had initially been banned by the police.

The armed wing of Gaza's Islamist rulers Hamas has put its weapons on public display, in a first open event drawing hundreds of Palestinians including children brandishing rocket launchers for selfies.

Dressed in black balaclavas and tactical camouflage suits, members of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades mingled with young men and women at the exhibition in Gaza City's Unknown Soldier's Square.

"Resistance is an image and a memory. Take souvenir photos with many of Al-Qassam's weapons," the group said in an invitation on social media and posters in mosques.

Several thousand Iraqis gathered near the Swedish embassy in Baghdad Friday for a second day of protests against a Koran burning outside a Stockholm mosque that outraged Muslims around the world.

On Thursday, one group of protesters managed to penetrate the embassy and stay inside for some 15 minutes before leaving when security forces arrived.

On Friday, police closed off the street past the embassy with concrete blocks and the protesters gathered on a nearby avenue.

An exiled Iranian opposition group said Friday that it would hold a demonstration in central Paris at the weekend after a French court overturned a police ban on the event.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), the de facto political wing of the People's Mujahedin (MEK) group outlawed by Tehran, said it would hold the protest on Saturday on Place Vauban in central Paris.

Paris police had angered the group last week by saying the rally had been banned because of the risk of tensions with other Iranian factions and the danger of an attack.

Tens of thousands of Muslims streamed out of Islam's holiest city on Friday after completing the annual hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia's scorching summer heat, an AFP correspondent said.

This year more than 1.8 million worshippers performed the hajj, which is one of the five pillars of Islam and is among the world's largest religious gatherings.

On Friday, two days after the last major ritual, tens of thousands of people packed roads and boarded buses out of Islam's holiest sites in Mecca, bringing the hajj to a close, the AFP correspondent said.

Hoping to escape a dire economy and bleak prospects, Egyptians are increasingly attempting the perilous sea crossing to Europe that this month claimed dozens of lives in a shipwreck off Greece.

"I spoke to my son for the last time on the evening of June 7. He told me they were taking off" two days later, said the father of a 14-year-old who had disappeared in the Mediterranean.

The US pointman on Iran has been placed on leave, the State Department said Thursday, as reports said that his handling of sensitive material was under review.

Special envoy Rob Malley, in a statement to several news outlets, confirmed that his security clearance was under review and said he hoped the investigation would be resolved "favorably."

CNN, quoting anonymous sources, said the review related to his handling of classified documents.