Israel staged airstrikes on the southern suburbs of the Syrian capital of Damascus early Tuesday, killing two civilians and causing some material damage, Syrian state media reported.

Damascus residents said strong explosions were heard in the capital and its southern suburbs as Syrian state television reported that the country's air defenses were confronting "an Israeli aggression."

A drone strike carried out by the American-led coalition in northwestern Syria has killed a senior member of the Islamic State group who was in charge of planning attacks in Europe, the United States military said Tuesday.

The man killed Monday in the strike was identified by a U.S. military statement as Khalid Aydd Ahmad al-Jabouri. The military statement added that his death "will temporarily disrupt the organization's ability to plot external attacks."

Tunisia's main opposition coalition pressed the government on Monday to explain a days-long public "absence" of President Kais Saied, saying it had information that he was sick.

Saied, 65, has not appeared in public or held any meetings since March 22, according to posts on his Facebook page -- the presidency's only official channel of communication.

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.