The United States, the world's biggest donor, has frozen virtually all foreign aid, making exceptions only for emergency food, and military funding for Israel and Egypt.

When Dania Hanatsheh was released from an Israeli jail this week and dropped off by bus into a sea of jubilant Palestinians in Ramallah, it was an uncomfortable déjà vu.

After nearly five months of detention, it was the second time the 22-year-old woman had been freed as part of a deal between Israel and Hamas to pause the war in Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should be flying high.

Israel's enemies across the region have been badly weakened during 15 months of war. Israeli hostages have begun to come home from captivity in Gaza, and Netanyahu's good friend, Donald Trump, is back in the White House.

Experts from the U.S. Air Force are looking at ways to upgrade Cyprus' premier air base for use as a humanitarian staging post in future operations in the Middle East, a Cypriot official told The Associated Press Thursday.

Cyprus, which is only 184 kilometers (114 miles) from the Lebanese capital, Beirut, has acted as a transit point for the r epatriation of foreign nationals fleeing conflict in the Middle East and beyond on numerous occasions in the past. It has also served as a transit point for humanitarian aid to Gaza.

A senior Hamas official told AFP that his group will provide on Friday the names of four women hostages to be freed the following day as part of a second release under the ceasefire with Israel.

"Today, Hamas will provide the names of four hostages as part of the second prisoner exchange," said Bassem Naim, a member of Hamas' political bureau, adding that the captives will be swapped for a group of Palestinian prisoners on Saturday.

Saudi Arabia's top diplomat landed in Syria on Friday, an AFP correspondent reported, in his first visit to Damascus since Islamist-led rebels ousted president Bashar al-Assad last month.

Syrian authorities said Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan is set to meet with new ruler Ahmed al-Sharaa, who is eyeing investments from wealthy Gulf states to rebuild the war-torn country.

The United Nations voiced serious concerns Friday over the Israeli military's use of force in its raid this week in the West Bank, including methods "developed for war fighting".

"We are deeply concerned by the use of unlawful lethal force in Jenin, in the occupied West Bank. The deadly Israeli operations in recent days raise serious concerns about unnecessary or disproportionate use of force, including methods and means developed for war fighting, in violation of international human rights law, norms and standards applicable to law enforcement operations," UN human rights office spokesman Thameen Al-Kheetan told a media briefing in Geneva.

Inside a lavish clubhouse on Doha's waterfront, tensions strained by months of fruitless back-and-forth weighed on negotiators as the hour neared 3 a.m.

On the first floor, a Hamas delegation whose leader had once evaded an Israeli airstrike that killed seven family members combed through the details of yet another proposal to halt the war in Gaza. On the second floor, advisers to Israel's intelligence chief, who had vowed to hunt down those responsible for the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that ignited the war, did the same.

The Al Jazeera news network says the Palestinian Authority arrested one of its reporters after preventing him from covering an Israeli operation in the occupied West Bank.

The Qatar-based news network reported Thursday that its reporter, Mohammed al-Atrash, was arrested from his home.

Commercial flights between Turkey and Syria resumed Thursday after 13 years with a Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul to Damascus.

Turkish media showed Syrian families draped in their national flag singing pro-opposition songs and cheering as they prepared to board flight TK0846 to Damascus. Passengers continued their celebrations inside the plane, singing the uprising anthem "Hold your head up high, you are a free Syrian." One man sobbed while waiting for takeoff.