Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday that Israel had prevented a "major attack" after soldiers killed two armed Palestinian assailants in a firefight that left five wounded near the West Bank city of Hebron.

"I commend our heroic fighters, who acted resolutely and prevented a major terrorist attack, and wish our wounded a speedy recovery," Netanyahu said in a statement.

The Israeli military said two soldiers were killed in Friday's attack by Palestinian gunmen in the occupied West Bank, which also left three other soldiers lightly injured.

The military said Staff Sergeant Ron Yonatan Roytman, 23, and Sergeant Yuval Shai Svilem, 20, both "fell in combat in the Judea Junction", a checkpoint near the city of Hebron in the southern West Bank.

Saudi Arabia on Thursday said it downed drones in the areas of Riyadh and the holy city of Medina, as Yemen's Houthis carry out daily attacks on the kingdom.

"Interception and destruction of four drones in the regions of Riyadh and Medina," said Turki Al-Malki in a post on X, the spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Iran-backed group.

Egypt's Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty on Thursday said all options must be explored to find a political solution between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis.

At a press conference where he reiterated solidarity with Saudi Arabia, he stressed "the necessity of exploring all avenues for reaching political solutions".

Top European diplomats will hold talks in Istanbul Friday with their counterparts from Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Egypt, a meeting initiated by Ankara, a Turkish foreign ministry source said.

Foreign ministers from the so-called E3 group -- Britain, France and Germany -- will meet counterparts from the newly created R4 group to discuss the Palestinian issue, developments in Yemen and the Hormuz Strait, and ways to end the Russia-Ukraine war, the source said.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards on Thursday threatened to strike American bases across the Middle East if the U.S. military continues to escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz.

"The U.S. military must know that if this trend continues, the conflict will extend to its bases in the region," the Guards, the ideological arm of Iran's military, said in a statement on their Sepah News website.

An attack targeting the King Fahd International Airport in eastern Saudi Arabia's Dammam killed a Saudi citizen and an Indian national and injured eight others Wednesday evening, the kingdom's civil aviation authority said.

The authority said in a statement that injuries from the attack ranged from "minor to serious" and that material damage to the airport was also being assessed.

Russia shot down 808 Ukrainian drones overnight, the Russian defense ministry said Thursday, in the wake of a meeting between President Vladimir Putin and U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff.

The drones, launched after Putin met Wednesday in Saint Petersburg with U.S. President Donald Trump's envoy, were destroyed by air defense systems over various regions of Russia and annexed Crimea, the ministry said in a statement.

The leader of France's hardline CGT union on Wednesday called for strikes after talks with Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu over fresh protests collapsed, as the country reeled from last weekend's riots.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Wednesday that any interference in the Yemen war by Egypt or any other country would make the situation "more difficult".