Iraqi table tennis player Nur al-Huda Sarmad adjusts her wheelchair before striking the ball into play, braving sweltering heat, social stigma and inadequate facilities as she dreams of taking her team to the Paralympics.

Sarmad and seven other Iraqi women who live with disabilities train three times a week at a community centre in the southern city of Diwaniyah, preparing for an upcoming tournament that could qualify them for the national Paralympic team.

The facilities, however, are far from Olympic-standard.

PARIS -Arab countries will for the first time condemn Hamas and call for its disarmament early next week at aUnited Nations ministerial event in New York, a move meant to lure more European countries to recognize Palestinian statehood, France's foreign minister said on Saturday.

In an exclusive interview with French weekly Le Journal du Dimanche, Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Jean-Noel Barrot said the move was part of a long-planned initiative between France and Saudi Arabia.

(Reuters) -Israel will resume airdrop aid to Gaza on Saturday night, the Israeli military said, a few days after more than 100 aid agencies warned that mass starvation was spreading across the enclave.

"The airdrops will include seven pallets of aid containing flour, sugar, and canned food to be provided by international organizations," the military added in a statement.

(Reporting by Hatem Maher and Enas Alashray; Editing by Daniel Wallis)

Jordanian and Emirati planes dropped food into Gaza on Sunday, as Israel began a limited "tactical pause" in some military operations to allow the UN and aid agencies to tackle a deepening hunger crisis.

The Palestinian territory is gripped by dire humanitarian conditions created by 21 months of war and made worse by Israel's total blockade of aid from March to May.

Since the easing of the blockade, the levels of aid reaching Gaza have been far below what aid groups say is needed.

(Reuters) -A Sudanese coalition led by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) announced on Saturday a parallel government, a move fiercely opposed by the army that could drive the country further towards partition as a two-year-old civil war rages.

The government led by RSF General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, was announced west of the country.

The RSF and its allies signed in March a transitional constitution outlining a federal, secular state divided into eight regions.

By Timour Azhari and Laila Bassam

BEIRUT (Reuters) -Ziad Rahbani, the Lebanese composer and musician who built a distinct Lebanese sound from Western and Arabic musical roots, and whose sardonic critique of the country's sectarian politics rang true to Lebanese across the divides, has died.

He was 69.

Rahbani was much-loved across Lebanon and his words remained relevant across generations, from those who grew up with him during the 1975-90 Civil War, to the post-war generation who have struggled to shake the war's legacy.

The United Nations and NGOs are warning of an imminent famine in the Gaza Strip -- a designation based on strict criteria and scientific evidence.

But the difficulty of getting to the most affected areas in the Palestinian territory, besieged by Israel, means there are huge challenges in gathering the required data.

- What is a famine? -

The internationally-agreed definition for famine is outlined by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), an initiative of 21 organisations and institutions including UN agencies and aid groups.

(Reuters) -Syrian and Israeli officials agreed to meet again after no final accord was reached in U.S.-mediated talks in Paris on de-escalating the conflict in southern Syria, state-run Ekhbariya TV reported on Saturday, citing a diplomatic source.

The source described the dialogue as "honest and responsible", in the first confirmation from the Syrian side that talks had taken place.

On Friday, U.S. envoy Tom Barrack said officials from both countries spoke about de-escalating the situation in Syria during the talks on Thursday.

Renowned Lebanese musician and composer Ziad Rahbani, son of music icon Fairuz and pioneer of Oriental jazz, died on Saturday aged 69 after revolutionising Lebanese theatre and music.

"On Saturday at 9:00 am (0600 GMT), the heart of the great artist and creator Ziad Rahbani stopped beating," said a statement from the Beirut hospital where he was being treated.

He had long suffered from health problems.

Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli fire killed 25 people on Saturday in the Palestinian territory devastated by more than 21 months of war.

Agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP the dead included nine people killed in three separate air strikes in Gaza City.

Eleven people were killed in four separate strikes near the southern city of Khan Yunis, while two were killed in a drone strike in Nuseirat refugee camp, he added.