France's President Emmanuel Macron and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman have given "their full support" to the formation of a "strong government" in Lebanon, the French presidency said.

The new government must "bring together Lebanon's diverse people, ensure the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon is respected and carry out the reforms necessary for the prosperity, stability and sovereignty of the country", the presidency said Thursday.

The UN Security Council has called for Lebanese leaders to rapidly form a new government, describing it as a "critical" step for stability in the war-battered country and region.

In a statement adopted unanimously, the Council welcomed the January 9 election of President Joseph Aoun, who filled a role that was vacant for over two years, and the nomination of Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, urging the new Lebanese leaders to continue to "work constructively to promote the country's stability" and "swiftly" form a government.

Israel's security cabinet approved in a vote on Friday a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal that should take effect this weekend, the prime minister's office said.

The agreement, which must now go to the full cabinet for a final green light, would halt fighting and bombardment in Gaza's deadliest-ever war.

France's President Emmanuel Macron was in Lebanon on Friday, where he was due to meet his newly-elected counterpart and offer support to leaders seeking to open a new chapter in their country's turbulent history.

After more than two years of a political vacuum at the top, Joseph Aoun was elected president on January 9 and chose Nawaf Salam as prime minister-designate.

UK patients are "coming to harm" with hospitals so overwhelmed people are dying in corridors awaiting treatment amid a "collapse in care standards", a report said Thursday.

In the latest indictment of Britain's beleaguered state-funded National Health Service, nine in 10 NHS nurses surveyed by the country's nurses union said "patient safety is being compromised".

A bad bout of asthma nearly derailed the comeback of former world number two Ons Jabeur at the Australian Open on Thursday, with the Tunisian saying she found it hard to breathe and nearly gave up in her second-round victory.

Senior Hamas leader Sami Abu Zuhri said on Thursday there was "no basis" to Israeli allegations the Palestinian militant group was backtracking on elements of the Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal announced the day before.

"There is no basis to (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu's claims about the movement backtracking from terms in the ceasefire agreement," Abu Zuhri told AFP.

Air raid sirens and loud blasts rang out over Kyiv on Thursday during a visit to the Ukrainian capital by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, AFP journalists reported.

Officials in Kyiv said that air defense systems in the center of the city were engaging enemy targets, after the air force warned of an enemy drone attack. AFP reporters in central Kyiv saw a drone flying overhead.

Gaza's civil defense agency said Thursday that Israel has pounded several areas of the Palestinian territory since the announcement of a ceasefire deal, killing at least 73 people and wounding hundreds.

"Since the ceasefire agreement was announced, Israeli occupation forces have killed 73 people, including 20 children and 25 women," agency spokesman Mahmoud Bassal told AFP, adding that another 230 people were wounded in the "bombardments that are continuing", a day after the truce announcement.

The Israel-Hamas deal was made possible by 18-hour days and a "remarkable" partnership between Joe Biden and Donald Trump's Mideast envoys -- but even then it seemed it might come apart at the last minute.

In the final four days of talks, Biden's pointman Brett McGurk was joined in the region by Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, to get the deal over the line, U.S. officials said.