An explosion took place on Saturday at a building in the Iranian city of Bandar Abbas on the Gulf coast, state media reported, though the cause of the blast was as yet unknown.

Gold and silver prices dived Friday and European stock markets ended the week up while Wall Street pulled back with investors reassured by U.S. President Donald Trump's pick to take over as head of the Federal Reserve.

Iranian army chief Amir Hatami on Saturday warned the United States and Israel against an attack, saying his country's forces were on high alert following Washington's heavy military deployments in the Gulf.

Palestinian militant group Hamas called on Friday for Israel to reopen Gaza's Rafah crossing to Egypt immediately in both directions.

In a statement, the group called for the "immediate transition to the second phase" of the U.S.-brokered truce in Gaza, namely its provision for the reopening of Rafah, as well as the entry of a technocratic Palestinian committee to administer the territory.

U.S. President Donald Trump asked Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to halt strikes on Kyiv for a week "until February 1", the Kremlin said Friday, without mentioning when the request was made.

"I can say that President Trump did indeed make a personal request to President Putin to refrain from striking Kyiv for a week until February 1 in order to create favorable conditions for negotiations," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Friday that the success of diplomacy with the United States hinged on ending threating conduct after Washington's heavy military deployments in the Gulf.

"The success of any diplomatic initiative depends on the goodwill of the parties involved and the abandonment of belligerent and threatening actions in the region," said Pezeshkian in a call with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, according to a statement by the Iranian presidency.

Iran's top diplomat Abbas Araghchi landed in Istanbul on Friday for talks where Turkey was to offer help to mediate tensions with the United States, which has mooted a possible military strike.

Turkey Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan urged Washington to resist Israeli pressure to launch a military strike on Iran, warning it would cause "great harm" to a fragile region.

Teams negotiating an end to the Russian invasion of Ukraine have so far failed to find a compromise on the sticking point of control over Ukraine's Donetsk region, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said.

"So far, we have been unable to find a compromise on the territorial issue, specifically regarding part of eastern Ukraine," Zelensky told journalists including AFP in remarks made public Friday.

Kurdish forces in Syria said they had reached a comprehensive agreement with Damascus that included their gradual integration into the state on Friday, following weeks of clashes between the two sides that led to a ceasefire.

According to a statement shared by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, the agreement stipulates that government forces will enter the Kurdish-controlled cities of Hasakeh and Qamishli in the northeast, while three army brigades will be created out of SDF forces.

The Israeli military said on Friday it launched overnight strikes at "eight terrorists" in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, killing three of them, with a fragile ceasefire still in place in the Palestinian territory.

In a statement, the military said it had identified "eight terrorists" who emerged from underground and that the air force "struck and eliminated three of the terrorists".