MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia and Ukraine exchanged 146 prisoners of war from each side on Sunday after mediation by the United Arab Emirates, the Russian defence ministry and the Ukrainian president said.

The Russian ministry said all of the freed Russians were in Belarus receiving psychological and medical assistance.

Ukraine also returned to Moscow eight Russian citizens, residents of the Kursk region, the ministry said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, writing on the Telegram messaging app, announced that the exchange had taken place, but gave no figures.

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview published on Sunday that a group of nations including United Nations Security Council members should be the guarantors of Ukraine's security.

Reuters reported last week that President Vladimir Putin is demanding that Ukraine give up all of the eastern Donbas region, renounce ambitions to join NATO, remain neutral and keep Western troops out of the country, three sources familiar with top-level Kremlin thinking told Reuters.

(Reuters) -Top U.S. envoy Thomas Barrack arrived in Israel and met on Sunday with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu regarding the U.S. request that Israel restrain its strikes in Lebanon, and negotiations with Syria, Axios reporter Barak Ravid said in a post on X, citing three Israeli and U.S. sources.

Barrack also met with Israel's minister for Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer, Foreign Minister Gideon Saar and Minister of Defense Israel Katz, the reporter added.

(Reporting by Gursimran Kaur in Bengaluru; Editing by Jan Harvey)

DUBAI (Reuters) -Iran will stand strongly against the United States wanting to make Tehran 'obedient', the country's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in comments carried by state media on Sunday.

"Those who threaten us to have direct negotiations with the U.S. only see appearances in my opinion ... the issue is unsolvable", Khamenei said.

(Reporting by Elwely Elwelly)

(Reuters) -The World Health Organization said a staff member was released on Sunday more than four weeks after being detained in Gaza by Israeli forces.

"Extremely relieved that our colleague, detained since 21 July in Gaza, was released this morning," agency Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a post on X. He reiterated a call for protection of all WHO staff and personnel, and health and humanitarian workers.

In July, the United Nations agency said the Israeli military had attacked its staff residence and main warehouse in the Gazan city of Deir al-Balah.

By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Lili Bayer

CAIRO/JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israeli planes and tanks pounded the eastern and northern outskirts of Gaza City overnight Saturday to Sunday, destroying buildings and homes, residents said, as Israeli leaders vowed to press on with a planned offensive on the city.

Witnesses reported the sound of explosions non-stop overnight in the areas of Zeitoun and Shejaia, while tanks shelled houses and roads in the nearby Sabra neighbourhood and several buildings were blown up in the northern town of Jabalia.

(Reuters) -Thousands of Australians joined pro-Palestinian rallies on Sunday, organisers said, amid strained relations between Israel and Australia following the centre-left government's decision to recognise a Palestinian state.

Irish rap group Kneecap repeated their criticism of Israel's war in Gaza during a performance outside Paris on Sunday, despite objections from French Jewish groups and government officials.

The concert, which began shortly before 6.30 pm (1630 GMT) in front of several thousand people in the Paris suburb of Saint-Cloud, went ahead despite complaints from the Belfast trio's critics.

"Free, free Palestine!," the group shouted at the start of their show, rallying an enthusiastic crowd where keffiyehs and Irish jerseys were visible, before insisting they were not against Israel.

Desperate Palestinians clutching pots and plastic buckets scrambled for rice at a charity kitchen in Gaza City on Saturday, a day after the United Nations declared a famine in the war-battered territory.

AFP footage from Gaza's largest city, which Israel plans to seize as part of an expanded military offensive, showed women and young children among the chaotic jostle of dozens clamouring and shouting for food.

(Reuters) -Syria's first parliamentary election under its new Islamist administration, scheduled for September, will not include the southern province of Sweida and two other provinces because of security concerns, the electoral commission said on Saturday.

Hundreds of people were reported killed in July in clashes in Sweida province pitting Druze fighters against Sunni Bedouin tribes and government forces.

Israel intervened with airstrikes to prevent what it said were mass killings of Druze by government forces.