Iran vowed reciprocal action on Tuesday after Australia expelled its ambassador over accusations that Tehran was behind antisemitic arson attacks in Sydney and Melbourne.

Prime Minister Francois Bayrou said Monday his government would request a vote of confidence on September 8 as he sought parliamentary backing for his battle against soaring public debt.

An extraordinary session of the National Assembly would be asked to conform the "confirm the scale of the effort", Bayrou told a news conference, as the government seeks 44 billion euros (51 billion dollars) in spending cuts.

The United Nations insisted Monday that journalists and hospitals should never be targeted, after an Israeli strike on a hospital killed at least 20 people including five journalists.

"The killing of journalists in Gaza should shock the world -- not into stunned silence but into action, demanding accountability and justice," U.N. rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said in a statement, insisting: "Journalists are not a target. Hospitals are not a target."

The Iranian and Russian presidents discussed Tehran's nuclear program on Monday as European powers threaten to reimpose sanctions on Tehran over the moribund 2015 deal.

Britain, France and Germany have threatened to trigger a "snapback mechanism" to reintroduce U.N. sanctions that were lifted under the agreement unless Iran agrees to curb its uranium enrichment and restore cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) inspectors.

Reuters and the Associated Press said they were devastated after contributors were killed Monday in strikes on Gaza blamed on the Israeli military.

"We are devastated to learn of the death of Reuters contractor Houssam al-Masri and injuries to another of our contractors, Hatem Khaled, in Israeli strikes on the Nasser hospital in Gaza today," a Reuters spokesperson said in a statement.

Syria's interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, will speak at the United Nations General Assembly next month, a foreign ministry official told AFP on Monday.

Sharaa "will take part in the United Nations General Assembly in New York where he will deliver a speech", the official said, requesting anonymity as they were not authorized to brief the media, adding that he will be the first Syrian president to address the assembly since 1967.

The Russian army Monday claimed to have captured another village in Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region, grinding deeper into Ukrainian territory as progress towards a peace deal stalls once again.

Russia's defense ministry said its forces had seized the settlement of Zaporizke in the region, which Russian troops recently advanced into for the first time in its three-and-a-half-year offensive.

An Israeli airstrike hit the fourth floor of southern Gaza's main hospital Monday, killing at least 20 people, including 5 journalists, Gaza's civil defense said.

Reuters and the Associated Press said they were devastated after contributors were killed Monday in strikes on Gaza blamed on the Israeli military.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday said Israel was ready to back Lebanon's efforts to disarm Hezbollah and offered "a phased" pullout of its troops if Lebanon followed through with plans to seize the group's weapons.

"Israel stands ready to support Lebanon in its efforts to disarm Hezbollah and to work together towards a more secure and stable future for both nations," said Netanyahu, according to a statement released by his office.

The United Nations Security Council will vote Monday on the future of the blue helmet peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon that has faced U.S. and Israeli opposition.

The Council will vote on a French-drafted compromise that would keep the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), deployed in 1978 to separate Israel and Lebanon, in place for one more year while it prepares to withdraw.