The head of Iran's top security body, Ali Larijani, will visit Iraq on Monday before heading to Lebanon, where the government has approved a plan to disarm Tehran's ally Hezbollah, Iranian state media said.

"Ali Larijani departs today (Monday) for Iraq and then Lebanon on a three-day visit, his first foreign trip since taking office last week," state television reported

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended his plan to take control of Gaza City and target the remaining Hamas strongholds, saying Sunday it was "the best way to end the war", despite growing calls to stop the fighting.

More than 22 months into the war, sparked by Hamas' unprecedented attack on Israel, the country is gripped by a yawning divide pitting those demanding an end to the conflict and a deal for the release of the hostages against others who want to see the Palestinian militants vanquished once and for all.

Syria's interior ministry on Monday said it would hold accountable those responsible for the apparent killing of an unarmed man at a hospital during violence last month in Druze-majority Sweida province, after a purported video of the incident emerged.

Al Jazeera said two of its correspondents, including a prominent reporter, and three cameramen were killed in an Israeli strike on their tent in Gaza City on Sunday.

The Israeli military admitted in a statement to targeting Anas al-Sharif, the reporter it labelled as a "terrorist" affiliated with Hamas.

The Lebanese Army said a blast at a weapons depot near the Israeli border killed six soldiers on Saturday, with a military source saying the troops were removing munitions from a Hezbollah facility.

Lebanon slammed what it called "flagrant and unacceptable interference" by Iran on Saturday after an adviser to the Islamic republic's supreme leader expressed opposition to the disarmament of its ally Hezbollah.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will hold a press conference with international media in Jerusalem on Sunday at 4:30 pm local time (13:30 GMT).

The press conference marks his first time to meet with the international press following his security cabinet's decision on Friday to expand the war in Gaza and take control of Gaza City.

The streets were almost deserted in Yerevan Saturday because of the summer heat, but at shaded parks and fountains, Armenians struggled to make sense of what the accord signed a day earlier in Washington means for them.

Israel's far right pressed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to go harder against Hamas, ahead of a U.N. Security Council meeting Sunday on the premier's bid to conquer Gaza City.

Twenty-two months into the war in Gaza, Israel is gripped by a yawning divide, pitting those calling for an end of the conflict along with a deal for the release of the hostages against others who want to see Hamas vanquished once and for all.

Five Lebanese soldiers were killed on Saturday in a blast while removing munitions from a Hezbollah military facility in south Lebanon, a military source told AFP.