(Reuters) -Israeli forces struck the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Thursday, Houthi-run Al Masirah TV and residents said, a day after the group claimed a drone attack on a hotel in Israel’s Red Sea resort of Eilat.

The strikes are the latest in more than a year of attacks and counterstrikes between Houthi militants in Yemen and Israel, part of a spillover from the war in Gaza.

Yemeni residents told Reuters that the strikes were directed at areas in the south and west of Sanaa.

ROME (Reuters) -Italy's navy will assist the Gaza international aid flotilla with just one ship and not two as was previously understood, the defence ministry said on Thursday, adding that the vessel would not have any escort duties.

The ministry said a frigate that was dispatched on Wednesday hours after the convoy known as the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) was targeted by drones on its way to Gaza would be replaced by another vessel.

(Reuters) -Slovenia on Thursday imposed a travel ban on Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a move that follows a ban against two far-right Israeli cabinet ministers in July, according to a government statement.

Slovenia, an EU member state which last year recognised a Palestinian state, imposed an arms embargo on Israel in August and introduced a ban on imports of goods produced in Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories.

(Reporting by Daria Sito-Sucic)

The Israeli military said Thursday that 700,000 Palestinians have fled Gaza City since late August, as it presses an air and ground assault on the urban centre.

Contacted by AFP, the military said that "700,000 Palestinians have evacuated" from Gaza City, in the north, to the south of the Gaza Strip.

The UN's humanitarian agency, OCHA, on Thursday said that 388,400 displacement movements had been recorded since mid-August, most of them from Gaza City.

DUBAI (Reuters) -Iran's Foreign Ministry on Thursday branded the U.S. saying it wanted a diplomatic solution to Iran's nuclear programme as a "deception".

U.S. President Donald Trump's Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff said on Wednesday Washington was talking to Iran and that the U.S. had a "desire" to realise a permanent solution to the dispute.

The United States, its European allies and Israel accuse Tehran of using its nuclear programme to conceal efforts to try to develop the capability to produce weapons. Iran says its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes only.

(Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump will host Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan at the White House on Thursday, seeking to agree arms and trade deals that could help ease a series of diplomatic disputes that have dogged U.S.-Turkish ties for years.

Though the leaders' good personal relations have helped ease bilateral strains, issues still linger between the NATO allies. Here are the main ones:

ARMS AND SANCTIONS

ANKARA (Reuters) -Turkey temporarily deployed a warning and control aircraft to Lithuania as part of NATO security measures, the defence ministry said on Thursday, following repeated airspace violations by Russian drones.

Lithuania, Estonia, Denmark and Poland have all said Russian drones or fighter jets have violated their airspace in recent weeks, prompting the NATO alliance to beef up defence around Europe's eastern flank.

LONDON (Reuters) -The British government on Thursday sought to block the co-founder of pro-Palestinian campaign group Palestine Action from bringing a legal challenge over the banning of the group under anti-terrorism laws.

Palestine Action has increasingly targeted Israel-linked companies in Britain, often spraying red paint, blocking entrances or damaging equipment. It accuses Britain's government of complicity in what it says are Israeli war crimes in Gaza.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israeli police said on Thursday they had arrested a man for threatening to assassinate Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Police said that just before the Jewish New Year holiday began on Monday evening, a man in his forties from the southern town of Kiryat Gat walked into the local police station saying he would kill Netanyahu.

"The suspect told officers that he planned to purchase a firearm and shoot the Prime Minister three times," police said.

By Mike Stone and Tuvan Gumrukcu

WASHINGTON/ANKARA (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump will host President Tayyip Erdogan at the White House on Thursday, where the Turkish leader hopes to leverage the countries' warmest bilateral ties in years to convince Washington to drop U.S. sanctions and allow it to purchase F-35 fighter jets.

Erdogan's first visit to the White House in about six years comes at a time when Ankara is keen to take advantage of a U.S. administration eager to make deals in return for big-ticket arms and trade agreements.