Lebanese leaders said they were in contact with the United States and France to press Israel to fully withdraw, branding its continued presence in five places an "occupation" after a ceasefire deadline expired on Tuesday.

The UN called the incomplete pullout a violation of a Security Council resolution, though it has allowed many displaced residents to return to devastated border villages after more than a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah.

Near a south Lebanon border town, residents waited Monday to go home after months of displacement, on the eve of an extended deadline for Israel to withdraw troops under a fragile truce.

"It's our right to return to our town, to our homes, to retrieve the bodies of our martyrs, and return in full freedom," said Hula resident Amin Koteish, a farmer, surrounded by his neighbours.

But their return is not yet guaranteed.

For 500 days since an unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel triggered the Gaza Strip's deadliest war, Mohammed Abu Mursa has grappled with "humiliation, suffering and bloodshed" in his fight for survival.

Abu Mursa and his family have been displaced more than a dozen times since the war began, moving from place to place across the Palestinian territory in a desperate attempt to stay safe, he said.

"It's been 500 days of humiliation, suffering and bloodshed," said the resident of northern Gaza, finally able to return home after a fragile ceasefire took hold on January 19.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday, during talks with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, that any deal on the future of war-torn Gaza must boost regional security, the US State Department said.

Rubio, who arrived from Israel accompanied by National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and special Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, met the de facto ruler ahead of talks expected on Tuesday with a Russian delegation in the Saudi capital.

But the 500-day-old Israel-Hamas war dominated discussions, according to a State Department statement.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned Monday against what he called "soft war" tactics employed by enemies in a bid to sow discord within the Islamic republic.

"Today, we have no concerns regarding hard defence or the enemy's military threats. Islamic Iran possesses strong capabilities to counter such threats, ensuring a high level of security for its people," said Khamenei during a speech in Tehran.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer will meet US President Donald Trump in Washington next week to discuss a "wide range of issues", a British government spokesperson confirmed on Monday.

Starmer is seeking to foster ties with Trump in a delicate balancing act of maintaining good relations with both the new US administration and the European Union, which Britain left five years ago.

Top US and Russian diplomats will meet in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday for talks on resetting the countries' fractured relations and making a tentative start on trying to end the Ukraine war.

Both sides played down the chances that the first high-level meeting between the countries since Moscow invaded Ukraine in 2022 would result in a breakthrough.

Nevertheless, the very fact of the talks has triggered concern in Kyiv and Europe -- left reeling by Washington's dramatic diplomatic moves towards the Kremlin.

Five men went on trial in France on Monday charged with holding four French journalists hostage for the Islamic State jihadist group in war-torn Syria more than a decade ago.

IS emerged in 2013 in the chaos that followed the outbreak of the Syrian civil war, slowly gaining ground before declaring a caliphate in large parts of Syria and neighbouring Iraq.

The jihadists abducted a number of foreign journalists and aid workers before US-backed forces eventually defeated the group in 2019.

Holding pictures of their loved ones, families of Israeli hostages held in Gaza marked 500 days of captivity on Monday, urging authorities to secure their release.

Dozens of demonstrators were seen marching to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's residence in Jerusalem, chanting slogans and carrying banners that read "Home Now", before meeting lawmakers in parliament.

"My eyes burn from the tears I have shed for the past 500 days," said Einav Tzangauker, whose son Matan is among those still held captive since Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that sparked the Gaza war.

The head of the World Health Organization insisted on Monday it was "now or never" to strike a landmark global accord on tackling future pandemics, after the United States withdrew from negotiations.

WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said no country could protect itself from the next pandemic on its own -- three days after US President Donald Trump's administration told the UN health agency it was leaving the pandemic agreement talks.