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.

Adrien Guihal, who claimed the 2016 Nice attack for the Islamic State group, will be tried in Iraq alongside 46 other French nationals recently transferred from Syria, a source close to the investigation told AFP.

"Adrien Guihal, known as Abu Osama al-Faransi, is still under investigation," said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity because they are not allowed to speak to the media.

Guihal "was brought to Iraq two months ago with another 46 French nationals that will be tried here," the source added.

By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Steven Scheer

CAIRO/JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israeli forces advanced deeper into Gaza City on Thursday as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu headed to New York to address the United Nations General Assembly, with U.S. President Donald Trump pursuing a deal to end the Gaza war.

Israeli strikes killed at least 19 people across the Palestinian enclave on Thursday, local health authorities said. They included 11 people from two families in Zawayda town in the central Gaza Strip, where planes hit a residential building.

ROME (Reuters) -Italy has sent a second navy ship in support of the international aid flotilla that has come under drone attack while trying to deliver aid to Gaza, Defence Minister Guido Crosetto said on Thursday.

The Global Sumud Flotilla is using about 50 civilian boats to try and break Israel's naval blockade of Gaza. Many lawyers and activists, including Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg, are on board.

"We have sent one ship and another is on its way, ready for any eventuality," Crosetto said in a speech to the lower house of parliament.

In Morocco's High Atlas mountains, shepherds Hammou Amraoui and his son hardly need words to speak. Across peaks, they whistle at each other in a centuries-old language, now jeopardised by rural flight.

"The whistle language is our telephone," joked Hammou, 59, the elder of a family known for the tradition in Imzerri, a hamlet in the remote commune of Tilouguit, about a two-hour drive from the nearest city.

In Tilouguit, Hammou said people learn it "like we learn to walk or to talk".

A court on Thursday sentenced former French president Nicolas Sarkozy to five years in prison over a scheme for late Libyan dictator Moamer Kadhafi to fund his 2007 presidential run.

In a verdict that will make the rightwinger the first French postwar leader to serve jail time, the Paris criminal court convicted Sarkozy, 70, on criminal conspiracy charges.

However, it acquitted the former head of state, France's president from 2007 to 2012, of corruption and personally accepting illegal campaign financing.

US President Donald Trump vowed Thursday to stop Israel from annexing the West Bank as he presses to end the Gaza war, ahead of a high-stakes visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Netanyahu will address the United Nations on Friday and later meet Trump in Washington as Israeli ministers muse of annexing the West Bank in response to recognition of a Palestinian state by France, Britain and several other Western powers.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -Ukraine and Syria formally restored diplomatic relations on Wednesday as their leaders met on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.

Ukraine broke off relations with Syria in June 2022 after ousted Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad's government recognised the independence of swathes of occupied Ukraine following Russia's full-scale invasion.

(Reuters) -Israel's prime minister's office said on Wednesday that negotiations were being held with Syria and the conclusions were contingent upon ensuring Israel's interests, which include the demilitarization of southwestern Syria and safeguarding the well-being and security of the Druze in Syria.

Under U.S. pressure, Syria is accelerating talks with Israel for a security pact that Damascus hopes will reverse Israel's recent seizures of its land but that would fall far short of a full peace treaty, sources briefed on the talks said.