Tension is escalating between Israel's political and military top brass over accountability for the failures behind the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused of sidestepping blame.

Weekly protests against Netanyahu's leadership of the subsequent two-year war in Gaza and demanding the return of hostages became emblematic of the anger boiling within parts of Israeli society over how the attack and its fallout have been handled.

Iran will allow two French citizens held by the Islamic republic for over three years to return home in "exchange" for France freeing an Iranian citizen "in the next two months", Tehran's foreign minister said on Wednesday.

In an interview with TV channel France 24 after talks in Paris with his French counterpart Jean-Noel Barrot, Abbas Araghchi said "an exchange was negotiated between us and France".

By Ceyda Caglayan

SANLIURFA, Turkey (Reuters) -Turkey unveiled dozens of new finds at a major archaeological site in southeast Turkey on Wednesday, giving fresh insight into an area seen as showing humanity's transition from hunter-gatherers to settled societies more than 11,000 years ago.

On a plateau overlooking the fertile plains of what is often called the "cradle of civilisation", the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Gobeklitepe and nearby Karahantepe are transforming archaeologists' understanding of prehistoric times.

Rachelle Mazraani is travelling from Sydney to Beirut for Pope Leo XIV's visit this week, one of many Lebanese at home and abroad who hope the trip will revive their struggling country.

After visiting Turkey, Leo is to arrive in Lebanon on Sunday for a three-day trip that includes an open-air mass at Beirut's waterfront that organisers expect to draw 120,000 people.

He will also hold a special meeting with those aged 16 to 35 in Bkerke, north of Beirut, where the patriarchate of Lebanon's Maronite Church is located.

Israel's military on Wednesday launched a new operation against Palestinian armed groups in the occupied West Bank, where a local governor told AFP that Israeli forces had raided several towns.

The Israeli military, police and internal security service said in a joint statement that they had begun "a broad counter-terrorism operation" in the north of the Palestinian territory after they received intelligence about "attempts to establish terrorist strongholds".

In one afternoon, Amani Bazzi went from being a doting mother-of-four to a widow grieving three young children.

An Israeli strike in south Lebanon killed them as the family was returning home after having lunch with her parents.

"Our whole life was our kids. We did everything together," said Bazzi from the Beirut hospital where her eldest daughter Aseel, 13, is being treated for devastating head-to-toe wounds.

"Why should they have been part of this horrific scene?" asked 33-year-old Bazzi. "Why did this happen to us?"

JAL EL DIB, Lebanon (Reuters) -Staff at Lebanon's De La Croix Psychiatric Hospital are delighted that Pope Leo's visit will give its carers and residents, often abandoned by their families, recognition at last.

Established in 1952, the church-run hospital is one of only a few mental health facilities in Lebanon, a country where people diagnosed with psychiatric illnesses can experience social stigma and where state hospitals are severely underfunded.

BEIRUT/NICOSIA (Reuters) -Lebanon and Cyprus signed a long-awaited maritime demarcation deal on Wednesday, paving the way for potential exploration of offshore gas fields and energy cooperation in the Mediterranean.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides signed the agreement at Lebanon's presidential palace and told reporters it would signal deeper cooperation between Lebanon, European Union-member Cyprus and the broader EU.

JERUSALEM/CAIRO (Reuters) -Israeli security forces on Wednesday launched what the military described as a counter-terrorism operation in the northern West Bank, which Palestinians said was targeting the city of Tubas.

Tubas Governor Ahmed Al-Asaad told Reuters Israeli forces, backed by a helicopter that had opened fire, were encircling the city and establishing positions across several neighbourhoods.

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said on Wednesday that he will be in touch with U.S. presidential envoy Steve Witkoff about the purported leak of a phone conversation between the two men, which he called unacceptable.

Ushakov was asked by reporters if he would ask Witkoff about the leak when the American visits Moscow next week to meet President Vladimir Putin.

"About the leak? We will exchange opinions by phone," he replied.