Qatar's emir said Monday that Israel had sought to derail Gaza talks by striking Hamas negotiators in his country last week, and that its premier Benjamin Netanyahu dreams of an Arab world under Israeli influence.

"Whoever works diligently and systematically to assassinate the party with whom he is negotiating, intends to thwart the negotiations... Negotiations, for them, are merely part of the war," Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani told Arab and Muslim leaders gathered in Doha to discuss the attack.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington would provide "unwavering support" to Israel in the war in Gaza as he called for the eradication of Hamas during a visit to the U.S. ally on Monday.

Interior Minister Ahmad al-Hajjar said Monday that authorities dismantled a network that was preparing to smuggle hashish and the illicit stimulant captagon to Saudi Arabia.

Lebanon has faced pressure from Gulf states to counter the production and trafficking of drugs, particularly the amphetamine-like narcotic captagon, for which the conservative monarchies are a major market.

French investigators have opened a corruption inquiry into former Lebanese prime minister Najib Mikati, lawyers who made the formal complaint said.

Mikati, a 69-year-old billionaire telecoms tycoon, was prime minister until January this year.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Monday urged Muslim countries to cut ties with Israel ahead of an summit responding to an unprecedented Israeli strike on Hamas members in Qatar.

The Lebanese health ministry said one person was killed on Sunday in an Israeli strike in the south of the country, where Israel frequently says it is targeting Hezbollah members or assets.

"A raid by the Israeli enemy on a car in the town of Burj Qalaway killed one person," the ministry said in a statement.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as Israel's vital ally voices unease over air strikes on Qatar that threaten to derail already flailing attempts to reach a Gaza ceasefire.

Leaders from Arab and Muslim countries will gather in a show of unity in Doha on Monday, a week after Israel's unprecedented strike on Hamas in Qatar prompted widespread anger.

The main Israeli group campaigning for the release of hostages held in Gaza said Saturday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was the chief obstacle to freeing the captives, shortly after he accused Hamas's leaders of prolonging the war.

"The targeted operation in Qatar proved beyond any doubt that there is one obstacle to returning the... hostages and ending the war: Prime Minister Netanyahu," the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement, referring to Israel's recent strike on a meeting of Hamas members in the Gulf state.

Sources close to the Iraqi government told AFP on Friday that no deal was made to secure the release of Israeli-Russian academic Elizabeth Tsurkov this week, saying her abductors had instead bowed to unspecified "pressure".

Kidnapped in Baghdad in March of 2023, Tsurkov was set free late Tuesday, hours after Israel carried out an unprecedented strike in Qatar targeting Hamas leaders. She was handed over to the U.S. embassy in Iraq, then flown the following day to Israel.