In a Baghdad arena, a crowd cheers to the rhythm of drums, not for a football match but for a fiery centuries-old game enjoyed by Iraqis during Ramadan called "mheibes".

"It's a heritage game, the game of our ancestors, which unites all Iraqis," said Jassem al-Aswad, a longtime mheibes champion in his early seventies and now president of the game's national federation.

The game involves members of one team hiding a ring -- "mehbis" in Arabic -- and the captain of the opposing team trying to guess who has it in the palm of his hand.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah movement called on its Islamist rivals Hamas on Saturday to relinquish power in order to safeguard the "existence" of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

"Hamas must show compassion for Gaza, its children, women and men," Fatah spokesman Monther al-Hayek said in a message sent to AFP from Gaza.

He called on Hamas to "step aside from governing and fully recognise that the battle ahead will lead to the end of Palestinians' existence" if it remains in power in Gaza.

Sudan's military said Saturday it seized several key buildings in central Khartoum from paramilitary control after army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan promised "full liberation" following the recapture of the presidential palace.

Army spokesman Nabil Abdallah said the military was "continuing to pressure" the Rapid Support Forces throughout the city centre, giving a list of buildings recaptured including the Central Bank, state intelligence headquarters and the Sudan National Museum.

Israel launched a new wave of strikes on Lebanon in response to a rocket attack from across the border on Saturday, as militant group Hezbollah denied responsibility for the launch.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz ordered "a second wave of strikes against dozens of Hezbollah targets in Lebanon", the defence ministry said, in the largest escalation since a November 27 ceasefire.

Israel launched air strikes on Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon on Saturday after intercepting cross-border rocket fire, with Lebanese state media reporting a woman was killed.

The Israeli army said three rockets were fired from Lebanon into northern Israel, setting off air raid sirens in the region for the first time since a November ceasefire between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam warned the country risked being dragged into a "new war" after months of relative calm.

When he arrived in the town of Masaoudiyeh in northern Lebanon earlier this month, fleeing massacres on Syria's Mediterranean coast, Dhulfiqar Ali had escaped death not once but twice.

He is among thousands of Syrians who have fled across the border after armed groups descended on the Syrian coastal heartland of ousted president Bashar al-Assad's Alawite minority and killed hundreds of civilians, mostly Alawites.

"They didn't even speak Arabic... they knew only: 'Alawites, pigs, kill them'," Ali said of the gunmen.

The UN warned Friday that all of Gaza's approximately one million children were facing "massive trauma" as fighting in the war-ravaged territory resumed, and amid dire aid shortages.

Humanitarians described an alarming situation in Gaza, amid a growing civilian death toll since Israel resumed aerial bombardment and ground operations this week after a six-week ceasefire.

Three weeks after jailed PKK founder Abdullah Ocalan urged his militants to disband, Turkey's Kurds were celebrating their Newroz New Year Friday with peace prospects still remote.

The efforts to broker a solution to the decades-long Kurdish conflict have likely been complicated by the widespread unrest provoked by Wednesday's arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, a key opposition figure.

A French court on Friday sentenced a French jihadist to life in prison for holding four journalists captive more than a decade ago in war-torn Syria.

Mehdi Nemmouche, 39, was convicted of having held the French reporters hostage for the Islamic State jihadist group from June 2013 to April 2014.

The sentence carries a minimum term of 22 years before he is eligible for parole.

Israel's attorney general said on Friday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cannot name a new internal security chief, following a supreme court decision freezing the government's bid to oust him.

The unprecedented move to fire Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar has deepened divisions in the country while Israel resumes its military operations in the Gaza Strip.

The top court's decision earlier Friday came after opposition parties and a non-governmental organisation filed separate appeals following the government's decision to sack Bar.