A US citizen told AFP he was shot by Israeli forces and wounded in the leg during a protest Friday against settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank, as the Israeli military confirmed it fired live rounds to disperse the gathering.

Palestinian medics reported that a foreign activist was shot during the demonstration in the town of Beita, while the Israeli military said he was "accidentally injured".

The activist, who asked to use a pseudonym, Amado Sison, for security concerns, said he joined the rally to help defend Palestinians.

Jailed Iranian Nobel peace prize winner Narges Mohammadi and other female inmates were hurt in clashes that erupted at Tehran's Evin prison following a spate of executions, her family said, raising new concerns for her health.

Iranian authorities acknowledged a confrontation had taken place on Tuesday but blamed Mohammadi for a "provocation" and denied any of the prisoners had been beaten.

An Israeli strike on a vehicle in the south Lebanon city of Sidon on Friday killed a Hamas commander, the Palestinian militant group and the Israeli military said.

It is the first strike of its kind in Sidon since Hamas launched its October 7 attack on Israel, triggering war in Gaza and prompting its Lebanese ally Hezbollah to begin trading near-daily cross-border fire with the Israeli army in a bid to tie down its troops.

Hamas said in a statement that its "commander" Samer al-Hajj was killed "in a Zionist strike in the city of Sidon".

Fears of a major escalation between Israel and Hezbollah have left many Lebanese on edge, exacerbating mental health problems and reviving traumas of past conflicts in the war-weary country.

One 29-year-old woman, who lives near the southern city of Sidon, said she dreaded the thunderous, explosive boom of Israeli jets regularly breaking the sound barrier.

"I feel the house will fall down on top of me... Sometimes I freeze... or start crying," said the woman, a contract worker for a non-governmental organisation.

Crowds fleeing Khan Yunis after an Israeli evacuation order gave way to empty streets on Friday as Palestinian residents tried to escape a new Israeli military operation in Gaza's main southern area.

"They threw leaflets at us, ordering us to evacuate", Reem Abu Hayya told AFP, referring to the flyers that Israeli forces drop from planes to order the evacuation of areas ahead of a military operation.

The Khan Yunis area had already seen evacuation orders in late July, and heavy fighting that devastated the area earlier this year.

Israel has agreed to resume Gaza ceasefire talks next week at the request of international mediators, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said, after intense diplomacy aimed at averting a region-wide conflagration.

The announcement followed an Iranian claim that Israel wants to spread war in the Middle East, as well as repeated accusations by Hamas officials, some analysts and critics in Israel that Netanyahu has prolonged the fighting for political gain.

Guards beat female inmates in clashes that erupted at Tehran's Evin prison following a spate of executions, the family of jailed Nobel peace prize winner Narges Mohammadi said, raising new concerns about her health.

Rights activist Mohammadi, 52, who won the 2023 prize for her campaigning including against the death penalty, has been jailed since November 2021, and has spent much of the past decade in and out of prison.

The Paris-based family of Mohammadi emphasised it had no direct contact with her since her right to make phone calls was cut in November.

A series of attempted attacks using missiles and a sea drone targeted a merchant vessel off areas of Yemen held by Iran-backed Huthi rebels, a British maritime security agency said Friday.

A rocket-propelled grenade exploded Thursday near the ship off the city of Mokha, which overlooks the strategic Bab al-Mandeb Strait linking the Gulf of Aden to the Red Sea, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said.

Since Hamas's unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, Yahya Sinwar has been at the top of Israel's most wanted list, but the newly appointed chief of the Palestinian group has remained elusive as ever.

Israeli commanders believe Sinwar, 61, is hiding in a labyrinthine maze of tunnels that Hamas has built under the Gaza Strip over the years.

In December, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that the army had surrounded Sinwar's house, but since then there has been little to no information on his whereabouts.

Kamala Harris does not support an arms embargo on US ally Israel, a top aide said Thursday, in one of the first substantive statements on her Gaza war policy since her July entry to the 2024 White House race.

The comment came a day after the US vice president was heckled by pro-Palestinian protesters at a rally for the first time since she became the Democratic candidate less than three weeks ago.

Harris also met with groups opposed to the war after the rally in Detroit, Michigan. Participants reportedly said they brought up the issue of halting US arms supplies to Israel.