Russia's Foreign Ministry on Monday chided efforts by international officials meeting in Saudi Arabia to find a peaceful settlement for the war in Ukraine, saying the talks don't have "the slightest added value" because Moscow — unlike Kyiv — wasn't invited.

Senior officials from around 40 countries gathered Sunday in Jeddah for a two-day meeting that aims to agree on key principles about how to end the conflict that has raged for more than 17 months.

A Palestinian teenager died Monday days after being shot by an Israeli settlement guard in the occupied West Bank, officials said, the latest fatality in a surge of violence.

The Palestinian health ministry said 17-year-old Ramzi Fathi Hamed "died after being shot by the occupation (Israel) a few days ago in Silwad", a Palestinian village northeast of Ramallah.

Four Syrian soldiers and two Iran-backed fighters were killed Monday in pre-dawn Israeli strikes near Damascus, a war monitor said, in the latest deadly Israeli air raid to hit war-torn Syria's capital.

The airstrikes targeted Syrian regime forces, and military positions and weapons depots used by armed groups supported by Tehran, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The Israeli military on Sunday prepped the family home of a Palestinian gunman for demolition, a day after he killed an Israeli security guard in an attack.

On Saturday a Palestinian gunman shot and killed 42-year-old security guard Chen Amir in central Tel Aviv. The attacker, identified by police as 27-year-old Kamel Abu Bakr, was shot at the scene and died later in hospital.

Saudi Arabia is hosting talks on the Ukraine war on Saturday in the latest flexing of its diplomatic muscle, though expectations are mild for what the gathering might achieve.

Syria's main insurgent al-Qaida-linked group denied it was behind the killing of the Islamic State group's leader in the country's northwest saying it would have otherwise claimed responsibility.

The security arm of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, made the announcement Friday night, a day after IS blamed the Syrian insurgent group for the death of its little-known leader, Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurayshi, who headed the extremist organization since November.

The Islamic State group has announced the death in Syria of its little-known leader, Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurayshi, who headed the extremist organization since November, and named his successor.

The group did not say when al-Qurayshi was killed but added that he died in fighting with an al-Qaida-linked group. IS spokesman Abu Huthaifa al-Ansari said that Abu Hafs al-Hashemi al-Qurayshi was named as the group's new leader.

India will participate in a weekend meeting that Saudi Arabia is hosting to find a way to start negotiations to end Russia's war in Ukraine.

Saudi Arabia invited India to the two-day meeting in Jeddah and its "participation is in consonance with our long-standing position that dialogue and diplomacy is the way forward," Arindam Bagchi, the spokesman for India's External Affairs Ministry, told reporters in New Delhi on Thursday.

Israel's Supreme Court heard a petition on Thursday against a law that protects Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from being removed from office over claims of a conflict of interest due to his ongoing corruption trial.

Netanyahu's governing coalition passed a law in March that limits removing a prime minister from office to cases of medical and mental incapacitation. It would protect Netanyahu from being deemed unfit for office because of his ongoing corruption trial and claims of a conflict of interest. Critics say the law is tailor-made for Netanyahu and encourages corruption.

The vast majority of over 55 countries that made submissions to the U.N.'s highest judicial body which will give an advisory opinion on the legal consequences of Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories supported the Palestinians view that Israel is taking over land they seek for an independent state, their U.N. ambassador said.

The Palestinian U.N. envoy, Riyad Mansour, told a group of reporters the number of submissions to the International Court of Justice exceeded Palestinian expectations and came from every continent and included all five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council – the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France.