By Timour Azhari

(Reuters) -Foreign fighters and others who joined Syria's civil war from abroad have petitioned the new Islamist-led government for citizenship, arguing they have earned it after sweeping to power with rebels who ousted former leader Bashar al-Assad.

The fate of foreign fighters has loomed large since Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) took power, with few states willing to take back people they often view as extremists and some Syrians wary of their presence.

By Alexander Cornwell

TEL AVIV (Reuters) -Israel's far-right national security minister visited prominent Palestinian Marwan Barghouti in jail and told him "you will not win", a video showed on Friday, a day after another hardline cabinet member vowed to "bury" the idea of a Palestinian state.

Security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir shared the video on his X account, also telling Barghouti - a potential unifying figure among Palestinians who has been jailed for more than two decades - that anyone who threatens Israel would be eliminated.

The cutting down of an olive tree planted in memory of a young French Jewish man tortured to death in 2006 stirred outrage in France on Friday, with President Emmanuel Macron vowing punishment over an act of antisemitic "hatred".

Politicians across the political spectrum condemned the act as an attack against the memory of Ilan Halimi, who was kidnapped by a gang of around 20 youths in January 2006 and tortured in a low-income housing estate in the Paris suburb of Bagneux.

Found three weeks later, the 23-year-old died on the way to hospital.

(Reuters) -The U.N. human rights office said on Friday an Israeli plan to build to build thousands of new homes between an Israeli settlement in the West Bank and near East Jerusalem was illegal under international law, and would put nearby Palestinians at risk of forced eviction, which it described as a war crime.

Israeli far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Thursday vowed to press on a long-delayed settlement project, saying the move would "bury" the idea of a Palestinian state.

By Riham Alkousaa

BERLIN (Reuters) -Advocacy groups filed a criminal case against Germany's foreign and interior ministers on Friday, accusing them of failing to protect Afghan nationals in Pakistan with German admission approvals from deportation to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.

Pakistan has begun deporting documented Afghan refugees ahead of a September 1 deadline, a move the United Nations warns could force more than one million to leave.

Baker Eid Ahmed just can't get away from Saudi Arabia's notorious heat: he makes bread next to a sweltering oven for 13 hours a day, only to step outside into summer temperatures that can soar past 45C.

Armed with an ice-cold water bottle and a wet cloth, the 35-year-old Egyptian was doing his best to stay cool while wearing his mandatory mask and hair cap.

"It's hot outside, but inside, it's like fire," he said, shoving a board loaded with flatbreads into a large wood-fired oven.

KARBALA, Iraq (Reuters) -Majid al-Kareem is poorly equipped for his 500 km pilgrimage by foot through the scorching deserts of southern Iraq. He wears sandals and black clothes that absorb the heat, and carries a wooden broom handle for a walking stick.

But suffering is the point.

His journey mourns and glorifies the Muslim Prophet Mohammad’s grandson Hussein, slain in battle nearly 1,400 years ago at the end of this very route.

BEIRUT (Reuters) -Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem warned the Lebanese government on Friday against confronting the Iran-backed militant group, saying there would be "no life" in Lebanon in that event.

Qassem said Hezbollah and the Amal movement, its Shi'ite Muslim ally, had decided to delay any street protests against a U.S.-backed disarmament plan as they still see room for dialogue with the Lebanese government. But he said any future protests could reach the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon.

(Reporting by Maya Gebeily and Jana Choukeir; editing by Mark Heinrich)

BERLIN (Reuters) -Germany on Friday called on the Israeli government to stop settlement construction in the West Bank after Israel's far-right finance minister said work would start on a plan for thousands of home that would divide the Palestinian territory.

Germany "firmly rejects the Israeli government's announcements regarding the approval of thousands of new housing units in Israeli settlements in the West Bank," said a foreign ministry spokesperson in a statement.

By Nate Raymond

BOSTON (Reuters) -A Massachusetts man was sentenced on Thursday to more than two years in prison after he threatened to bomb synagogues and kill Jewish children in a series of calls he placed to two local houses of worship and the Israeli consulate in Boston after Israel and Hamas went to war in 2023.