The leaders of Egypt and Saudi Arabia have met in the kingdom, officials said Monday. It's the first visit by top officials in months as Egypt battles a domestic economic crisis.

President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto leader of Saudi Arabia, held talks late Sunday that focused on ties between the two heavyweights, according to Egyptian presidential spokesman Ahmed Fahmy.

In the years since Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman catapulted to power, it has been hard to find a controversy in the Middle East that doesn't somehow involve the 37-year-old heir to the throne. Now he's pivoting to his next audacious plan: Giving peace a chance.

The moves toward reaching a détente with Iran, reestablishing ties to Syria and ending the kingdom's yearslong war in Yemen could extricate Prince Mohammed from some of the thorniest regional issues he faces.

Two Palestinian men were killed by Israeli troops in an army raid in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus on Monday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said, the latest in a year-long spike of violence that shows no sign of abating.

The Israeli military said that troops arrested two people suspected of assisting a gunman who shot two soldiers in the occupied West Bank town of Hawara last month. The army said its soldiers came under fire during the raid and shot back, confirming "hits."

Saudi Arabia and other major oil producers on Sunday announced surprise cuts totaling up to 1.15 million barrels per day from May until the end of the year, a move that could raise prices worldwide.

Higher oil prices would help fill Russian President Vladimir Putin's coffers as his country wages war on Ukraine and force Americans and others to pay even more at the pump amid worldwide inflation.

A car bombing rocked the Syrian capital Damascus on Sunday evening, state media said, with no deaths reported and no side claiming responsibility for the attack.

"An explosive device detonated in a civilian car, setting it alight without causing casualties," said state news agency SANA, quoting a police source.

A suspected assailant was killed by Israeli soldiers after a West Bank car ramming, the army said, in an escalation that threatens to end a relative lull during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan so far.

The Palestinian's death came less than 24 hours after an Arab Israeli allegedly snatched a gun from a police officer at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound and fired it before being shot dead.

Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry has met with his Syrian counterpart Faisal Mekdad in Cairo, a first since Syria's civil war broke out over a decade ago, Shoukry's office said.

The meeting comes amid amplified Arab engagement with the Damascus government which has been politically isolated in the region since the start of the Syria war and was expelled from the Cairo-based Arab League in 2011 over its bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations.

Five Syrian soldiers were wounded in an Israeli air strike near the western city of Homs early Sunday, Syria's state news agency SANA said.

The strike was Israel's third in recent days after Damascus was targeted on the nights of March 30 and 31, according to the agency.

Israeli police said Saturday they shot dead an Arab Israeli who grabbed a gun from an officer and fired it in a scuffle in the Old City of Jerusalem.

Police said the attack took place around midnight near the Chain Gate, an access point to the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday pledged enduring ties with Israel but warned against inflaming tensions with the Palestinians, following a rare public spat between the allies.

President Joe Biden, speaking to reporters Tuesday, called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to step back from a bid to weaken the judiciary that has set off massive protests.