The UN rights chief voiced alarm Thursday at the number of Palestinian children killed and wounded this month and demanded those responsible be brought to account.

Last week saw three days of intense conflict between Israel and Islamic Jihad militants in the densely populated Palestinian enclave of Gaza.

"Inflicting hurt on any child during the course of conflict is deeply disturbing," Michelle Bachelet, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, said in a statement.

"The killing and maiming of so many children this year is unconscionable."

A Tunisian court dismissed all charges Thursday against the crew of a tanker that sank off the coast in April triggering a pollution alert before it emerged its tanks were empty,

The court in the southern port city of Gabes ordered the immediate release of the seven crew members -- a Georgian, four Turks and two Azerbaijanis -- who had been in custody since April, spokesman Mohamed Karray told AFP.

Prosecutors said they would appeal against the court's decision.

A customer armed with a rifle and threatening to set himself ablaze held bank workers hostage Thursday in Lebanon's capital, demanding to withdraw his trapped savings to pay hospital fees, security sources and a family member said.

The incident is the latest between local banks and angry depositors unable to access their savings held in cash-starved banks because of informal capital controls in economic crisis-hit Lebanon.

Security forces cordoned off a Federal Bank branch near west Beirut's busy Hamra street where the armed man was holding staff hostage for several hours.

Iran dismissed as "fiction" Thursday US allegations it had plotted to kill former White House national security adviser John Bolton in retaliation for the assassination of one of its top commanders.

The US claim comes at a crunch moment in talks on reviving a nuclear deal between Iran and major powers that Washington had abandoned in 2018 but has said it wants to rejoin, with Iran now considering what European Union mediators have called a "final" text.

Israeli artist Sigalit Landau wades into the warm, briny waters of the Dead Sea to inspect her latest creations -- everyday objects coated in salt crystals that glisten in the bright morning sun.

The lowest point on Earth is also Landau's studio where she submerges objects -- from a ballet dress to a lampshade's wire frame -- for weeks until they are magically transformed by ice-like layers of salt.

Iraq's powerful Shiite Muslim leader Moqtada Sadr on Wednesday called on the judiciary to dissolve parliament by the end of next week, urging his supporters to keep up a sit-in outside the legislature.

Iraq, which has been without a new government in the wake of elections last October, has been facing a deepening political crisis after Sadr's supporters stormed parliament late last month.

US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called on Syria to help secure the release of American journalist Austin Tice, who was abducted a decade ago in Damascus.

"We know with certainty that he has been held by the Syrian regime," Biden said in a statement. "We have repeatedly asked the government of Syria to work with us so that we can bring Austin home.

"On the tenth anniversary of his abduction, I am calling on Syria to end this and help us bring him home," he said.

US President Joe Biden on Wednesday signed into law a bill boosting benefits for veterans exposed to toxic fumes, a cause close to his own heart after his son died of brain cancer.

Burn pits, lit up with jet fuel, were commonly used to dispose of waste in military camps during the years of the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

They exposed large numbers of servicemen and women to potentially harmful toxins, although there is not always a proven link between the exposure and later illnesses.

Iran dismissed as "fiction" Thursday US allegations it had plotted to kill former White House national security adviser John Bolton in retaliation for the assassination of one of its top commanders.

The US claim comes at a crunch moment in talks on reviving a nuclear deal between Iran and major powers that Washington had abandoned in 2018 but has said it wants to rejoin. Iran is now considering what European Union mediators have called a "final" text.

Tunisia's judicial authorities on Wednesday revoked the sacking in early June by President Kais Saied of almost 50 judges, a court spokesman told AFP.

A June 1 presidential decree in the North African country saw Saied fire 57 judges, after accusing many of corruption and other crimes.

His move, which rights groups called "a deep blow to judicial independence", sparked a nationwide strike by judges.

Fifty-three of those sacked -- including some accused of "adultery" -- had lodged appeals with the administrative court against Saied's move.