Damascus's top diplomat Asaad al-Shaibani is set to meet an Israeli minister on Thursday in Paris to discuss recent sectarian violence in Syria's south that had drawn in Israel's military, a senior diplomat told AFP.

Sitting near a poster of Che Guevara inside his French prison cell before his release this week, pro-Palestinian Lebanese militant Georges Ibrahim Abdallah said the "struggle" kept him going during his four decades behind bars.

A court last week ordered the 74-year-old -- who was jailed over the 1982 killings of two foreign diplomats in Paris -- be released from the Lannemezan prison in southern France on Friday.

Hamas said it has responded to an Israeli proposal for a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza, as pressure mounted for a breakthrough to end almost two years of devastating conflict that has triggered a humanitarian crisis for civilians.

Iranian forces warned a U.S. destroyer to stay out of waters claimed by Tehran, state television reported, an interaction a U.S. defense official said was "safe and professional" and did not affect the ship's mission.

A Saudi delegation visiting Damascus on Wednesday sealed investment and partnership deals valued at more than $5 billion to help rebuild war-battered Syria, the oil-rich Gulf kingdom announced.

A plane carrying a Russian delegation taking part in a third round of talks with Ukraine in Istanbul has left Moscow, Russian news agencies reported Wednesday.

"The plane with the Russian delegation has left Moscow for Istanbul," a source told the state RIA news agency.

Pakistan's disaster agency on Tuesday said 221 people have been killed and more than 500 others injured in incidents linked to nearly a month of heavy monsoon rains.

"Since June 26 up to July 21, 221 people have lost their lives, including 104 children and 40 women," a spokesperson from the national disaster management agency told AFP.

Yemen's Houthis said they targeted Israel's main airport Tuesday for the second time since Israel struck a rebel-held port a day earlier, with the Israeli army reporting it had intercepted the missile.

The Houthis targeted Ben Gurion International Airport "using a 'Palestine 2' hypersonic ballistic missile", according to military spokesman Yarya Saree, who had hours earlier claimed a similar attack.

The Roman Catholic church's most senior cleric in the Holy Land said Tuesday that the humanitarian situation in Gaza was "morally unacceptable", after visiting the war-torn Palestinian territory.

"We have seen men holding out in the sun for hours in the hope of a simple meal," Latin Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa told a news conference. "It's morally unacceptable and unjustified," he added.

The Kremlin on Tuesday said it wasn't expecting "miraculous breakthroughs" from upcoming talks with Ukraine, the third such round of negotiations in recent months.

"We don't have any reason to hope for some miraculous breakthroughs" at the talks on Wednesday, spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters during a briefing.