Two Palestinian sources told AFP Friday the leaders of pro-Iran Palestinian factions who were close to former Tehran-backed ruler Bashar al-Assad have left Syria under pressure from the new authorities.

One pro-Iran Palestinian factional leader who left after Assad's December ouster said on condition of anonymity that "most of the Palestinian factional leadership that received support from Tehran has left Damascus", while another still based there confirmed the development.

The disarmament of Palestinian camps in Lebanon will begin next month based on an accord with visiting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, a Lebanese government official told AFP on Friday.

The Lebanese and Palestinian sides agreed on starting a plan "to remove weapons from the camps, beginning mid-June in the Beirut camps, and other camps will follow," the source told AFP, requesting anonymity as they were not authorized to brief the media.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov cast doubt Friday on the Vatican as a potential place for peace talks with Ukraine, after the United States, Italy and the pope expressed hope the city-state could host negotiations.

"It would be a bit inelegant for Orthodox countries to discuss on Catholic ground issues related to eliminating root causes (of the conflict)," Lavrov said, accusing Kyiv of "destroying" the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and adding: "For the Vatican itself it would not be very comfortable to, in these circumstances, host delegations from Orthodox countries."

Lebanese state media said an Israeli air strike hit a building in southern Lebanon on Thursday after Israel's military issued an evacuation call warning of imminent action against an alleged Hezbollah site.

Israel has kept up its air strikes in neighboring Lebanon despite a November truce aimed at halting more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah that included two months of full-blown war.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Iran will hold the United States responsible for any Israeli attack on its nuclear facilities after U.S. media reported Israel is preparing for an attack.

"We believe that in the event of any attack on the nuclear facilities of the Islamic Republic of Iran by the Zionist regime, the U.S. government will also be involved and bear legal responsibility," Araghchi said in a letter to the United Nations published on Thursday.

President Xi Jinping urged China and France to "strengthen solidarity and cooperation" and told counterpart Emmanuel Macron he was ready to work "hand in hand with Europe", Chinese state media reported Thursday.

China and France should "strengthen solidarity and cooperation", Xi told Macron in a call, adding that China was "willing to work hand in hand with Europe to address global challenges", state broadcaster CCTV reported.

As Lebanon suffered a war last year, Ali Chahrour was determined to keep making art, creating a performance inspired by the plight of migrant workers caught up in the conflict.

Months after a ceasefire largely halted the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, Chahrour's work premiered in Beirut in early May with plans to take it to stages across Europe including at France's famed Avignon Festival.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar accused European governments of incitement against his country on Thursday after the fatal shooting of two embassy staffers in Washington.

"There is a direct line connecting anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli incitement to this murder," Saar told a press conference. "This incitement is also done by leaders and officials of many countries and international organizations, especially from Europe."

Air raid sirens sounded in Jerusalem, where AFP journalists reported loud booms overheard, as the Israeli military announced it had intercepted a missile launched from Yemen on Thursday.

"Following the sirens that sounded a short while ago in several areas in Israel, a missile launched from Yemen was intercepted," the army said in a statement.

EU lawmakers greenlighted tariffs on fertilizer imports from Russia on Thursday, despite European farmers' fears the move could send prices soaring.

The European Parliament voted 411-100 for a bill that will enact duties in July and gradually increase them to a point where they would make imports unviable.