By Mohammed Aty

CHIBAYISH MARSHES, Iraq, May 7 (Reuters) - After years of drought that left large swathes of Iraq's historic marshes cracked and empty, rising water levels are beginning to revive the wetlands, drawing buffalo herders and fishermen back to areas once abandoned.

In Chibayish marshes in southern Iraq, canoes once again glide through waterways that had dried up in recent years, while water buffalo wade through restored marshland and patches of green pasture have reappeared.

BEIRUT, May 7 (Reuters) - Israel said on Thursday it had killed a commander of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force in an airstrike on Beirut a day earlier, the first Israeli attack on the Lebanese capital since a ceasefire agreed last month.

The Israeli military said the commander was killed when Israel struck the southern suburbs of Beirut. There was no immediate confirmation from Hezbollah. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz announced the attack in a joint statement on Wednesday.

US President Donald Trump said the ceasefire with Iran was still in place despite an Iranian attack on three American destroyers in the Strait of Hormuz that fanned fears Friday that the truce was faltering.

The US military said it carried out strikes on Iranian military targets in response, although Tehran charged that it was Washington that had initiated the exchange of fire.

Counter-terrorism forces arrested two women for slavery on Thursday as they returned to Australia from Syria, where they allegedly committed "crimes against humanity" while supporting Islamic State jihadists.

The women and their children -- all Australian citizens -- landed on Thursday evening after years spent in a Syrian detention camp where they have languished since the group's demise.

Police arrested the women immediately after they landed at Melbourne international airport.

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

CAIRO, May 7 (Reuters) - An Israeli air strike has killed the son of Hamas' chief negotiator in U.S.-mediated talks over Gaza's future, a senior Hamas official said on Thursday, as leaders of the militant group held talks in Cairo aimed at safeguarding their truce with Israel.

Azzam Al-Hayya, son of Khalil Al-Hayya, succumbed to his injuries on Thursday after being struck in an Israeli attack on Wednesday night, said senior Hamas official Basim Naim. He is the fourth son of Hamas' exiled Gaza chief to have been killed in Israeli attacks.

By Emma Farge and Dave Graham

GENEVA, May 7 (Reuters) - When in 1937 the League of Nations vacated the 225-room Palais Wilson in Geneva, the global intergovernmental body created to preserve peace after World War One was on its last legs. It died soon afterwards with World War Two.

This summer the League's successor, the United Nations, is set to abandon the same building as it and other global bodies in the Swiss city are increasingly sidelined by funding cuts and a U.S. government that is turning its back on multilateralism.

SYDNEY, May 7 (Reuters) - A group of Australian women and children linked to the extremist group Islamic State are on their way home from a camp in Syria and are expected to arrive in the country on Thursday night, Australian media reported.

The Australian government said on Wednesday that four women and nine children who had been detained in northeast Syria planned to return to Australia, but would receive no government assistance.

By Ariba Shahid, Steve Holland and Alexander Cornwell

ISLAMABAD/WASHINGTON/TEL AVIV, May 7 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump predicted a swift end to the war with Iran as Tehran considered a U.S. peace proposal that sources said would formally end the conflict while leaving unresolved key U.S. demands that Iran suspend its nuclear programme and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

By Joshua McElwee

VATICAN CITY, May 7 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will meet Pope Leo at the Vatican on Thursday, in a potentially fraught encounter as President Donald Trump has continued a series of disparaging attacks on the Catholic leader over the Iran war.

Rubio, who also serves as Trump's national security adviser, was due to arrive at the Vatican's Apostolic Palace around 11:15 a.m. (0915 GMT) for the visit, the first between the pope and a Trump cabinet official in nearly a year.

Global stocks mostly fell Thursday as US indices pulled back from records while Washington awaited Tehran's response to a US plan to end the Middle East war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Crude oil fell sharply early in the session amid hopes for a peace deal that ends the strait disruption. But oil prices later cut losses.

The benchmark international oil contract Brent Crude finished just above $100 at $100.06 a barrel, down 1.2 percent.