Kuwaiti authorities have arrested more than a dozen people, including a leading rights activist, in a crackdown on protesters demanding greater rights for stateless Arabs, Amnesty International said Wednesday.

They face a number of charges including participation in unlicensed demonstrations, spreading false news and state security offences, the London-based rights group said.

As Benjamin Netanyahu becomes Israel's longest-serving prime minister, he is solidifying his place as the country's greatest political survivor and the most dominant force in Israeli politics in his generation.

He has persevered through scandals, crises and conflicts, winning election after election even as the country grows more bitterly polarized. His supporters credit him with keeping Israel safe and prosperous, maintaining its Jewish character and boosting its standing internationally.

Key powers including backers of a rebel leader called Tuesday for a halt to fighting in Libya, warning that bloodshed was aggravating a crisis on multiple fronts.

Palestinian officials urged diplomats Tuesday to take action to prevent Israel from carrying out a demolition order against Palestinian homes in the Jerusalem area as a deadline related to it approached.

A small oil tanker from the United Arab Emirates traveling through the Strait of Hormuz entered Iranian waters and turned off its tracker two days ago, leading the U.S. to suspect Iran seized the vessel amid heightened tensions in the region, an American defense official said Tuesday.

Iran offered no immediate comment on what happened to the Panamanian-flagged oil tanker Riah late Saturday night, though an Emirati official acknowledged the vessel sent out no distress call. Oil tankers previously have been targeted in the wider region amid tensions between the U.S. and Iran over its unraveling nuclear deal with world powers.

An Israeli NGO said Tuesday it was petitioning Gibraltar's top court to sell an impounded Iranian oil tanker to compensate parents of a child allegedly killed by Iran-funded Hamas.

Regime airstrikes on Tuesday killed nine civilians in rebel-held northwest Syria, the target of months of regime and Russian bombardment, a war monitor said.

The Syrian government is abusing a 2012 counter-terrorism law to punish the families of suspects by freezing their assets, Human Rights Watch said Tuesday, charging it amounted to "collective punishment".

"By penalising people solely on the basis of their family relationship with an accused person, and not on the basis of their individual criminal responsibility, the finance ministry’s implementation of Decree 63 constitutes collective punishment," HRW said in a report.

Months after the territorial defeat of the Islamic State group, Syria's Kurds are pushing for an international tribunal to try alleged jihadists detained in their region.

Kuwait's deportation of eight Egyptian dissidents linked to the Muslim Brotherhood is unlawful and put them at "grave risk" of torture and prosecution, Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday.

The Gulf state announced on Friday that secret police arrested the men on charges of being members of a "terrorist" cell who had been sentenced to prison in Egypt.