Israel launched a missile strike near Syria's main northern city of Aleppo early Friday prompting air defences to respond, Syrian state media reported.

The United Arab Emirates announced Saturday it had repealed legislation imposing a boycott of Israel after the two countries struck a US-brokered deal to normalise relations.

Israeli tanks and warplanes bombed Hamas positions in Gaza Friday and the Islamists retaliated with rockets as a three-week-old flare-up showed no let-up despite international mediation efforts.

Foreign Minister Heiko Maas agreed with his Israeli counterpart Thursday that an effort must be made to extend a weapon embargo on Iran, while stressing Germany still sees the landmark 2015 deal between Tehran and world powers as the best way to prevent the country from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

With a current U.N. arms embargo on Iran due to expire on Oct. 18, Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi told reporters in Berlin an extension was needed to prevent Iran from getting "more advanced weapons systems and spreading them around the Middle East."

The Israeli army said Monday it had again hit Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip overnight, in retaliation for incendiary balloon and rocket attacks launched from the Palestinian enclave.

Israeli tanks shelled military positions of Gaza's ruling Hamas movement early Saturday, the army and Palestinian security sources said, hours after a rocket was launched at southern Israel. 

Israeli tanks shelled Hamas positions in the Gaza Strip overnight in response to continued waves of incendiary balloons across the border, the army said Thursday.

Israeli warplanes bombed the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip overnight after Palestinians fired a rocket into southern Israel, the army said.

The leaders of Israel and the United Arab Emirates will sign their historic peace accord in the White House in around three weeks, US President Donald Trump announced on Thursday.

Israel announced Thursday it was halting the "import of fuel into the Gaza Strip", the latest punitive measure over a wave of airborne fire bombs from the Palestinian territory.