An explosion at a weapons depot in northwest Syria's Idlib province killed five people and wounded nine others on Wednesday, security forces said in a statement.

The Idlib region was a bastion of rebel and jihadist groups including foreign fighters before Islamist-led forces overthrew longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad last December in a lightning offensive.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz on Wednesday warned there would be "no calm" in Lebanon if Israel's security was not guaranteed, as Israeli forces intensify operations despite a year-old ceasefire with Hezbollah.

"We will not allow any threats against the inhabitants of the north, and maximum enforcement will continue and even intensify," Katz told the Israeli parliament.

One year after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, the Israeli army still maintains five positions in south Lebanon, with fortifications and widened access routes, according to satellite images analyzed by AFP.

The November 27, 2024 truce, which sought to end more than a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, required Israel to fully withdraw troops from Lebanon within 60 days.

The Kremlin said Wednesday that parts of the latest U.S. plan to end the Ukraine war were positive, but that many other points required discussion.

"Some aspects can be viewed positively, but many require special discussions among experts," Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told a state TV reporter.

President Joseph Aoun informed FIFA President Gianni Infantino of his approval to grant him Lebanese citizenship, the head of the Lebanese Football Association told AFP.

"The President informed (Infantino) of the decree and the requirements of the file in order to complete its implementation," Hashem Haidar, head of the Lebanese Football Association (LFA), said.

The U.N. Security Council will visit Syria and Lebanon next week, the Slovenian mission said Tuesday, as it looks to chair the council starting in December.

The ambassadors for 15 member states are set to visit Damascus on December 4, a few days before the first anniversary of the ouster of Syria's longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad.

Several hundred people protested on Tuesday in Syria's coastal city of Latakia in the country's Alawite heartland to protest recent attacks against the minority community, AFP correspondents said.

Since longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad -- himself an Alawite -- was toppled by an Islamist alliance last December, the community has been the target of attacks, and hundreds of people were killed in sectarian massacres in the area in March.

Israel's military said Tuesday its forces shot dead a Palestinian man they said had killed an Israeli, with the Palestinian health ministry confirming the death near the occupied West Bank city of Jenin.

In a joint statement, the military and the Shin Bet internal security service said forces near Jenin "eliminated the terrorist... who carried out the terror attack against Gideon Perry".

Pakistan's military denied on Tuesday it had struck neighboring Afghanistan, rejecting accusations by the Taliban government that it was behind an overnight air raid that killed 10 people near the border.

"Pakistan has not attacked Afghanistan," army spokesman Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said in comments carried by state broadcaster PTV, adding that "the allegations of the interim Afghan government are baseless."

The European Union must ramp up efforts to break its dependence on China for rare earths faced with export curbs that amount to a "racket" by Beijing, the bloc's industry chief said Tuesday.

"It is high time for Europe to step up its game. To redouble its efforts to reduce our dependencies on China," European Commission vice president Stephane Sejourne told EU lawmakers.