A relentless wave of violent crime within Israel's Palestinian minority is turning cities and towns into bloody battlefields, exasperating a community feeling increasingly forsaken by Israeli authorities.

Anger over the mounting insecurity is directed at Israel's government and its ultranationalist minister in charge of police, Itamar Ben-Gvir. Critics say that with his history of anti-Arab rhetoric, he cannot be trusted to combat the rising scourge.

Israel's government has granted a pro-settlement firebrand authority over planning in the occupied West Bank and lifted red tape on the settlement housing approval process.

The changes make it easier for Israel to expand its settlements on land the Palestinians seek as the heartland of their future state, at a time when hopes for peace are more distant than ever.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that he opposes any interim agreement reportedly being negotiated between the U.S. and Iran over its nuclear program.

Netanyahu spoke after reports in Israeli media said understandings are being reached between Washington and Tehran that would seek to hold back Iran's nuclear program somewhat, in exchange for some sanctions relief. The reports could not be independently confirmed and the U.S. has publicly denied any such deal.

A Greek news website has published excerpts from the depositions of two survivors of Wednesday's deadly shipwreck off southwestern Greece, in which more than 500 people are feared drowned after an overcrowded boat carrying as many as 750 migrants went down in international waters.

Passengers on the ill-fated trawler had to subsist on meager supplies of food and water which ran out several hours before the disaster, two survivors have reportedly testified.

Israeli helicopter gunships struck targets Monday in the occupied West Bank as a gunbattle raged in the city of Jenin between Israeli troops and militants, killing four Palestinians, including a 15-year-old boy, officials said.

The violence marked a rare use of Israeli airpower in the territory. During the clashes, Palestinian militants detonated a roadside bomb next to an Israeli military vehicle. At least 45 Palestinians were wounded, five seriously. The Israeli military said seven members of the paramilitary border police and the army suffered light and moderate wounds.

Iran and Saudi Arabia have taken a further step to seal their reconciliation as Riyadh's top diplomat made a landmark visit to the Islamic republic following a seven-year rupture.

Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan held talks with his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian focusing on regional security.

In war-torn Syria, parents of teenagers missing in a shipwreck off the Greek coast are clinging onto hope their children might be alive, days after the tragedy.

Turkey has escalated drone attacks on Kurdish-held regions of north and northeast Syria this week, killing 16 people including one civilian in a single day, a war monitor said.

The strikes mostly targeted Kurdish-held Tal Rifaat and Manbij in the country's north near the Turkish border, areas Ankara has repeatedly threatened to attack.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met Friday with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris as part of an official visit, during which he will also participate in a global financing summit aimed at fighting poverty and climate change.

Macron and the prince sat down for a one-to-one working lunch at the Elysee presidential palace.

When fighting in Sudan erupted in mid-April, Abdel-Rahman Sayyed and his family tried to hold out hiding in their home in the capital, Khartoum, as the sounds of explosions, gunfights and the roar of warplanes echoed across the city of 6 million people.

They lived right by one of the fiercest front lines, near the military's headquarters in central Khartoum, where the army and a rival paramilitary, the Rapid Support Forces, battled for control. Three days into the conflict, a shell hit their two-story home, reducing much of it to rubble.