Ukraine and Russia did not find agreement on the central issues of how to end the four-year at U.S.-mediated talks in Geneva, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Wednesday.

"We can see that some groundwork has been done, but for now the positions differ, because the negotiations were not easy," Zelensky said in a message to journalists, including from AFP, after the talks had finished.

The Israeli military announced that one of its soldiers had been killed in combat in southern Gaza on Wednesday, but a security source said the death appeared to have been caused by "friendly fire".

"Staff Sergeant Ofri Yafe, aged 21, from HaYogev, a soldier in the Paratroopers Reconnaissance Unit, fell during combat in the southern Gaza Strip," the military said in a statement.

School bus driver Ali al-Dorr averts his gaze every time he passes the rubble of his son's home -- destroyed by an Israeli strike in south Lebanon despite a year-old ceasefire.

Though his son managed to evacuate in time, the attack left notebooks, papers and furniture strewn among the debris of the apartment building in Qannarit, overlooking the coastal city of Sidon, the scene of several strikes in recent weeks that Israel says targeted Hezbollah.

A senior imam of the Al‑Aqsa Mosque in east Jerusalem said Tuesday that Israeli authorities have barred him from entering the compound, just days before the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tuesday the latest talks with the United States saw them agree on "a set of guiding principles" that would pave the way for a deal.

Veteran U.S. civil rights activist Reverend Jesse Jackson, one of the nation's most influential Black voices, died peacefully Tuesday morning at the age of 84, his family said.

Israeli NGOs have raised the alarm over a settlement plan signed by the government which they say would mark the first expansion of Jerusalem's borders into the occupied West Bank since 1967.

President Donald Trump praised the late Jesse Jackson on Tuesday as one of a kind and took credit for helping the iconic civil rights leader as he fought to empower Black Americans.

A Russian military police building collapsed on the grounds of an army base outside Saint Petersburg, the local governor said Tuesday, adding that authorities were probing the causes of the incident.

Syria began evacuating remaining residents of Al-Hol camp, which long housed relatives of suspected Islamic State group fighters, as it empties the formerly Kurdish-controlled facility, two officials told AFP.