By Tarek Amara

TUNIS, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Tunisians took to the streets on Saturday for a third straight week to protest against President Kais Saied's expanding crackdown on the opposition, critics and NGOs, urging the release of political prisoners.

Protests against Saied are growing as rights groups accuse him of using the judiciary and police to suppress opponents and to cement an autocratic one-man rule.

Saied denies having become a dictator or using the judiciary against opponents.

A United Nations Security Council delegation on Saturday urged all parties to uphold a year-old ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, expressing support for a state weapons monopoly at the end of a Lebanon visit.

A November 2024 ceasefire was supposed to end more than a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah militants, but Israel has kept up strikes on Lebanon.

Israel has mainly said it is targeting the Iran-backed group, and has maintained troops in five south Lebanon areas it deems strategic.

By Samia Nakhoul

DOHA, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told Reuters on Saturday that a credible Palestinian civil administration and a vetted, trained police force should be in place to allow Hamas to disarm, saying the group is prepared to hand over governance of the enclave.

In an interview on the sidelines of the Doha Forum, Fidan said that without those initial steps, expecting Hamas to disarm in the first phase of the ceasefire deal is neither "realistic nor doable."

Qatar and Egypt, guarantors of the Gaza ceasefire, called on Saturday for the withdrawal of Israeli troops and the deployment of an international stabilisation force as the necessary next steps in fully implementing the fragile agreement.

The measures were spelt out in the US- and UN-backed peace plan that has largely halted fighting, though the warring parties have yet to agree on how to move forward from the deal's first phase.

By Samia Nakhoul

DOHA, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told Reuters on Saturday that he believed Turkey and the United States would find a way to remove U.S. CAATSA sanctions "very soon", and added the NATO allies had started working on the issue.

Washington removed Ankara from its advanced F-35 fighter jet programme and imposed the sanctions in 2020 over its acquisition of Russian S-400 air defence systems. Turkey has called the move unjust, and voiced hope that the sides could overcome the issue during President Donald Trump's second term.

It took Egyptian actor Mona Zaki more than a year's preparation to take on the hardest role of her career -- the iconic singer Umm Kulthum, a legend in the Arab world.

Marwan Hamed's "El Sett" ("The Lady") premiered this week at the Marrakech International Film Festival, where Zaki told AFP about the daunting task she faced.

"I was very scared at the beginning," she said. "I didn't know where to start."

Zaki is one of Egypt's more recognisable actors but her fears were not unfounded.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz flew into Israel Saturday for his first visit since taking office, and reaffirmed Berlin's support after traditionally solid ties between the countries were shaken by the Gaza war.

Merz landed at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport just before 8:00 pm (1800 GMT) and was met by Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, who called him "a friend of Israel". Germany, he added, was "an important partner".

Merz met Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Jerusalem later Saturday.

By Thomas Suen

NONG KHAI, Thailand, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Two years after Thai worker Sudthisak Rinthalak was killed by Hamas militants, his family in northeastern Thailand is preparing to welcome his remains home and hold a Buddhist ceremony they believe will bring his spirit peace.

Sudthisak was among 47 hostages whose bodies Hamas has returned under the current ceasefire agreement. The handover of deceased hostages was a key condition of the initial phase of the deal aimed at ending the war in Gaza.

DOHA, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani said Saturday that negotiations on the war in Gaza were at a "critical" moment.

Mediators are working together to force the next phase of ceasefire forward, he said during a panel at the Doha Forum conference in Qatar.

(Reporting by Andrew Mills; Editing by Aidan Lewis)

SYDNEY, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Australia on Saturday imposed financial sanctions and travel bans on four officials in Afghanistan's Taliban government over what it said was a deteriorating human rights situation in the country, especially for women and girls.

Australia's Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the officials were involved "in the oppression of women and girls and in undermining good governance or the rule of law" in the Taliban-run country.