U.S. and allied forces shot down 15 one-way attack drones fired by Iran-backed Yemeni rebels into the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden on Saturday, the U.S. military said.

Turkish President Recep Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday Ankara "firmly backs" Palestinian militant group Hamas.

"No-one can make us qualify Hamas as a terrorist organization," he said in a speech in Istanbul. "Turkey is a country that speaks openly with Hamas leaders and firmly backs them."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky landed in Istanbul on Friday for talks with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan over the Russian invasion and navigation on the Black Sea.

Zelensky, accompanied by a delegation including his defence minister, is due to meet with Erdogan at his office at Dolmabahce palace, the state-run TRT television reported.

The Israeli military on Friday denied it targets reporters after an expert report gave further details of a tank crew opening fire and killing a journalist and wounding others in Lebanon last year.

The military said it "does not deliberately shoot at civilians, including journalists" after a probe by the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) found troops "likely" opened fire on the journalists with a machine gun after deadly shelling.

Talks for a truce in Gaza have not yet "broken down," the U.S. ambassador to Israel said, after a Hamas delegation voiced dissatisfaction with Israel's positions and left Cairo.

"The differences are being narrowed. It's not yet an agreement. Everyone's looking towards Ramadan, which is coming close. I can't tell you that it will be successful, but it is not yet the case that it is broken down," Jack Lew said at a conference in Tel Aviv.

Russia summoned the U.S. Ambassador on Thursday and threatened to expel American diplomats in protest against what it said was American interference in Moscow's domestic affairs.

Moscow said Washington was funding "anti-Russian" non-profit groups and "spreading disinformation" around this month's Russian presidential elections and its offensive against Ukraine.

Israel's war cabinet, seen as a symbol of national unity in the war against Hamas, has been shaken by political rivalry between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and centrist Benny Gantz, analysts say.

A former military chief and ex-defense minister, Gantz visited Washington Monday before heading to London on Wednesday for high-level talks in a trip which was not authorized by Netanyahu.

Hezbollah attacked Thursday a command center in northern Israel as the conflict stretched into its sixth month.

The group said it has attacked a "newly created" command center in Liman while Israeli artillery shelled Aita al-Shaab, Salib near al-Ghajar, the Yaroun reserve and the outskirts of Rmeish in southern Lebanon.

Moscow said Wednesday that an election official had been killed by a car bomb in the Russian-controlled city of Berdyansk in southern Ukraine.

A number of Russian-installed officials have been targeted in apparent assassination attempts since Moscow launched its full-scale military operation in Ukraine two years ago.

International mediators were set for a fourth day of talks with Hamas in Cairo on Wednesday after U.S. President Joe Biden called on the militant group to agree a truce deal with Israel by the start of Ramadan.

Envoys have discussed plans to halt the fighting that has raged since Hamas's October 7 attack before the Muslim fasting month starts on Sunday or Monday, depending on the sighting of the full moon.