Dozens of Israeli air strikes on Gaza have killed "only women and children" after a ceasefire collapsed last month, the United Nations said, as an Israeli attack in the territory's south killed a family of 10 on Friday.

A UN human rights office report also warned that expanding Israeli evacuation orders were resulting in the "forcible transfer" of people into ever-shrinking areas, raising "real concern as to the future viability of Palestinians as a group in Gaza".

When US and Iranian negotiators meet in Oman on Saturday they will be just the latest to turn to crisis mediation in the Gulf Arab states, whose wealthy rulers are increasingly seeking out the role.

Oman is a long-established venue for Iranian talks, while promoting peace is a pillar of Qatar's foreign policy and even enshrined in its constitution.

More recently Saudi Arabia has caught on, hosting Ukraine ceasefire talks including the latest round in a lavish hotel in Riyadh last month.

Washington and Tehran waged a war of words Thursday ahead of key talks in Oman after US President Donald Trump said military action was "absolutely" possible if the talks fail.

A senior adviser to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned that Iran could expel UN nuclear watchdog inspectors over "threats" ahead of Saturday's talks.

Rear Admiral Ali Shamkhani's comments came after US Trump Wednesday failed to rule out military action against Iran in the event the planned talks fail to produce a deal.

An Iranian court has handed two Iranian film directors suspended jail terms over a film that angered authorities in the Islamic republic but was acclaimed in Europe and the United States, rights groups said on Thursday.

Maryam Moghadam and Behtash Sanaeeha were convicted earlier this week by a Revolutionary Court for the film "My Favourite Cake", the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) and Dadban legal monitor said in separate statements.

The Tesla electric vehicle company owned by billionaire Elon Musk on Thursday opened its first showrooms in oil-rich Saudi Arabia -- where hybrid cars remain a rare sight.

The opening of showrooms in the capital Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam comes as Tesla global sales fall.

Showrooms in the United States have been attacked, reportedly because of links between Musk, the world's richest person, and US President Donald Trump. The company's share price has slumped since Musk started working with the US government.

Hamas said on Thursday the announcement by President Emmanuel Macron that France could recognise a Palestinian state by June was an "important step", after Israel's foreign minister slammed the plan.

"We welcome the statements made by French President Emmanuel Macron regarding his country's readiness to recognise the State of Palestine," Hamas official Mahmud Mardawi told AFP.

He called the announcement "an important step that, if implemented, would constitute a positive shift in the international position towards the legitimate national rights of our Palestinian people".

Near front lines where they once battled each other, former fighters in Lebanon's civil war now gather to bear the same message, half a century after the devastating conflict erupted: never again.

The war killed 150,000 people, destroyed the country and left an indelible mark on the Lebanese psyche.

Years after it ended in 1990, some buildings in the freewheeling capital remain riddled with bullet holes, and 17,000 people who went missing were never found.

Liam Lawson on Thursday reflected on a "crazy" start to his first full season in Formula One.

Axed after just two races by Red Bull he was demoted to their sister team RB for last weekend's race in Japan, with Yuki Tsunoda replacing him as Max Verstappen's teammate.

"Obviously it's been a crazy couple of weeks and months and a lot of it has been not the most enjoyable," confessed the young New Zealander.

Lawson is preparing for his second run out with the RB team he had 11 races with last season at this weekend's Bahrain Grand Prix.

US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi will be in Oman for breakthrough talks on Tehran's nuclear programme this weekend.

Here are short profiles of the two negotiators:

- Witkoff: real estate to world stage -

With no prior experience in foreign policy, he landed one of the world's biggest jobs as US President Donald Trump's special envoy to the Middle East, and has since led high-stakes talks on Gaza and Ukraine.

Sudan told the International Court of Justice Thursday that the United Arab Emirates was the "driving force" behind what it called a genocide in Darfur, a charge the UAE said "couldn't be further from the truth".

Khartoum has dragged the UAE before the ICJ, accusing it of complicity in genocide against the Masalit community by backing the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) battling the Sudanese army since 2023.