Hezbollah has welcomed the decision of a French appeals court to release pro-Palestinian Lebanese militant Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, imprisoned for 40 years for the 1982 killings of two foreign diplomats.

The injustice suffered by Georges Abdallah would remain a stain on the record of the French judicial and political system, Hezbollah said in a statement Thursday.

Four people were killed on Thursday in separate Israeli strikes on south Lebanon, the Lebanese health ministry reported, as Israel said it had targeted two Hezbollah members.

The attacks are the latest despite a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday said a ceasefire in Syria was "obtained by force", after Israel struck military targets in the heart of Damascus in response to government troops attacking the Druze in Sweida.

"It is a ceasefire obtained by force. Not by demands, not by pleas -- by force," he said in a statement.

Over 500 people people have been killed in southern Syria's Sweida province, a war monitor said Thursday, giving an updated toll after several days of clashes that triggered the deployment of government forces.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights counted 79 Druze fighters and 154 civilians from Sweida among the dead, including 83 people "who were summarily executed by members of the defense and interior ministries". The clashes also claimed the lives of 243 government personnel and 18 Bedouin fighters, in addition to three members of Bedouin tribes "who were summarily executed by Druze fighters".

Russia said Thursday it had captured Ukrainian villages in three separate areas of the front line, expanding its summer offensive despite U.S. calls to end the fighting.

In a statement, the Russian Defense Ministry said its forces had "liberated" the settlements of Popiv Yar in the eastern Donetsk region, Degtiarne in the northeast Kharkiv region and Kamianske in the southern Zaporizhzhia region.

The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said an Israeli strike on Gaza's only Catholic church killed two people on Thursday, as Israel said it "never targets" religious sites.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said Thursday that "Israeli strikes on Gaza have also hit the Holy Family Church", slamming "unacceptable" attacks on the civilian population.

Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Thursday hailed U.S., Arab and Turkish mediation for saving the region from an "unknown fate", while criticizing Israel for targeting civilian and government facilities.

"The Israeli entity resorted to a wide-scale targeting of civilian and government facilities," he said in a televised address.

A French court Thursday ordered the release of pro-Palestinian Lebanese militant Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, who has been imprisoned for 40 years for the 1982 killings of two foreign diplomats.

Abdallah, 74, was sentenced to life in prison in 1987 for his involvement in the murders of US military attache Charles Robert Ray and Israeli diplomat Yacov Barsimantov. He is one of the longest serving prisoners in France.

The United States' special envoy for Syria on Wednesday called on all parties to step back and engage in dialogue for a lasting ceasefire in Syria following clashes with Druze factions in the south and Israeli strikes in Damascus.

"We unequivocally condemn violence against civilians in Sweida... All parties must step back and engage in meaningful dialogue that leads to a lasting ceasefire," Tom Barrack said on X, adding that "perpetrators need to be held accountable".

The Syrian presidency vowed to punish those who committed violations against Druze-majority Sweida's residents, as government forces were accused of summary executions and other abuses by right groups, witnesses and local factions.

In a statement, the presidency said they "strongly condemn these heinous acts and affirm our full commitment to investigating all related incidents and punishing all those proven to be involved".