By Humeyra Pamuk

WASHINGTON, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Dozens of civil rights and advocacy groups are urging Congress to scrap a defense bill provision that would deepen U.S.-Israeli military technology ties, according to a letter seen by Reuters, at a time of growing U.S. skepticism toward the longtime ally.

The provision would deepen cooperation between the U.S. and Israeli defense sectors by accelerating joint military technology development and other partnerships. The bill passed the House of Representatives in July and awaits Senate action.

US Vice President JD Vance said Thursday he would not categorize the Iran war as a war, despite continuing clashes with Tehran six months after the start of the conflict.

Vance's comments came amid growing signs that President Donald Trump is trying to draw a line under the conflict that has bogged down his administration.

"I wouldn't call it a war. Right now, there is no active shooting," Vance told a White House briefing when asked if the war would be over by US midterm elections in November.

Israel's ties with many Western allies were already fraught over its conduct in the Gaza war, but the worsening situation in the occupied West Bank has seen relations nosedive before close-fought October elections.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing government is pushing ahead with the expansion of Israeli settlements, which are illegal under international law, while daily reports of settler attacks against Palestinians provoke international outrage.

By Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON, Sept 3 (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation on Thursday to block federal aid for universities that boycott Israel, the latest Republican-backed pro-Israel measure amid growing Democraticcriticism of the Israeli government over the war in Gaza.

The Republican-majority chamber voted 237-169 in favor of the "Protect Economic and Academic Freedom Act," which would have to pass the Senate in order to become law.

The Democratic Republic of Congo said Thursday it would move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, joining a small group of countries including the United States in taking the symbolic step of backing Israeli sovereignty in the contested holy city.

After a visit by President Felix-Antoine Tshisekedi, the two countries in a statement said they would take steps for "the relocation of the embassy of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem", without giving a timeline.

BEIRUT, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Syria has begun destroying the remnants of a clandestine Assad-era chemical weapons program that it recovered in May, the first such destruction in a decade, a Syrian envoy and a U.N. representative said on Thursday.

Reuters reported in May that Syria's new leadership had located remnants of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's chemical weapons program, including raw materials and munitions similar to those used in deadly gas attacks during the country's civil war.

A Jerusalem cafe picketed for weeks by observant Jews said Thursday it had agreed to shut on the Sabbath, bowing to demands despite counter-protests by secular Israelis.

The coffeehouse opened in June near a neighbourhood of ultra-Orthodox Jews, who strictly shun working, exchanging money and using electricity on Saturdays.

Cafe Basimta had drawn increasingly heated protests, separated by police, as secular Israelis shouted down ultra-Orthodox protesters.

By Saurabh Sharma and Joseph Campbell

TARKESHWAR, Nepal, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Dhan Bahadur Tamang was at work in a hydropower project near Nepal's border with China when he sensed a sudden air pressure change in the underground tunnel at the Upper Trishuli 1 hydropower project.

Under the industrial floodlights, dust started to rise, the 32-year-old recalled: "Something was coming."

DUBAI, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Thursday the deaths of six more military personnel from U.S. strikes this week, bringing the military death toll to at least 13.

The U.S. strikes on Tuesday were the most extensive for weeks. In the latest report on military deaths, Tasnim said six members of the regular military, including three pilots, had been killed in southern Iran. It gave no additional detail on the location.

By Nayera Abdallah

BEIRUT, Sept 3 (Reuters) - The Ali al-Taher ridge in southern Lebanon, which is named after a Shi'ite Muslim scholar whose shrine sits at its summit, has become one of the most contested pieces of ground in the Israel-Hezbollah war.

The cluster of hills is not especially large. But what it overlooks in southern Lebanon — and what Hezbollah is suspected to have built beneath it — thrust it to the centre of the fight between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group.

WHERE IS IT?