Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas paid tribute to Pope Francis, who died Monday at 88, calling him a "faithful friend of the Palestinian people".

"Today, we lost a faithful friend of the Palestinian people and their legitimate rights," Abbas said, noting that Pope Francis "recognized the Palestinian state and authorized the Palestinian flag to be raised in the Vatican."

President Joseph Aoun mourned the death on Monday of Pope Francis, a "dear friend and strong supporter" of the crisis-hit multi-confessional country.

"We will never forget his repeated calls to protect Lebanon and preserve its identity and diversity," Aoun -- the Arab world's only Christian president -- said in a statement on the presidency's X account, calling Francis's death "a loss for all humanity, for he was a powerful voice for justice and peace" who called for "dialogue between religions and cultures".

Russia said Monday it had resumed strikes on Ukraine after a 30-hour surprise Easter truce, as Ukraine said drones and missiles pounded the Dnipropetrovsk and Mykolaiv regions.

"With the end of the ceasefire, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continued to conduct the special military operation," the Russian military said in a statement, using its term for the military offensive.

President Joseph Aoun visited Monday Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi who underwent surgery after breaking his hip during Easter Sunday mass.

At the start of a mass in Bkerke, north of Beirut, the 85-year-old Rahi "suffered a broken hip after stumbling on his robe while ascending to the altar", said a statement, carried by the official National News Agency.

Lebanon's health ministry said one person was killed Sunday in an Israeli strike in the country's south, the latest such raid despite a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.

An "Israeli enemy strike on a vehicle in Kawthariyat al-Siyyad," located inland between the southern cities of Sidon and Tyre, killed "one person and wounded two people," the health ministry said in a statement.

Qatar's chief negotiator voiced frustration over talks for a truce in Gaza in an interview with AFP, a month after Israel resumed its strikes on the Palestinian territory and another round of negotiations ended without a deal.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to bring home the remaining hostages in Gaza without yielding to Hamas' demands, insisting the military campaign in the Palestinian territory had reached a "critical stage".

The United States and Iran made progress in a second round of high-stakes talks on Tehran's nuclear program on Saturday and agreed to meet again next week, both sides said.

Hezbollah "will not let anyone disarm" it, its chief Sheikh Naim Qassem said Friday evening, as Washington presses Beirut to compel the Iran-backed group to hand over its weapons.

Hezbollah, long a dominant force in Lebanese politics, was left weakened by more than a year of hostilities with Israel sparked by the Gaza war, including an Israeli ground incursion and two months of heavy bombardment that decimated the group's leadership.

The United States will roughly halve the number of troops it has deployed in Syria to less than 1,000 in the coming months, the Pentagon said Friday.