Commercial flights between Turkey and Syria resumed Thursday after 13 years with a Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul to Damascus.

Turkish media showed Syrian families draped in their national flag singing pro-opposition songs and cheering as they prepared to board flight TK0846 to Damascus. Passengers continued their celebrations inside the plane, singing the uprising anthem "Hold your head up high, you are a free Syrian." One man sobbed while waiting for takeoff.

Israeli forces have killed two Palestinian militants who carried out a deadly attack on a bus in the West Bank earlier this month.

The Israeli military said Thursday that the two men barricaded themselves in a structure in the West Bank village of Burqin and exchanged fire with Israeli troops before they were killed overnight. The army said a soldier was moderately wounded.

Hundreds of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank's Jenin refugee camp have started leaving their homes Thursday after Israeli forces issued an "evacuation order" during a large-scale raid, a Palestinian official said.

"Hundreds of camp residents have begun leaving after the Israeli army, using loudspeakers on drones and military vehicles, ordered them to evacuate the camp," where Israel's military launched an intense military operation this week, Jenin governor Kamal Abu al-Rub told AFP.

The United States' new top diplomat Marco Rubio reaffirmed the country's "unwavering support" for Israel, days into a fragile ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and a large-scale raid in the occupied West Bank.

As Israel pursued its deadly operation in Jenin, Rubio assured Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Washington's continued backing.

In the days since a fragile ceasefire took hold in the Gaza Strip, Israel has launched a major military operation in the occupied West Bank and suspected Jewish settlers have rampaged through two Palestinian towns.

The violence comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces domestic pressure from his far-right allies after agreeing to the truce and hostage-prisoner exchange with the Hamas militant group. U.S. President Donald Trump has, meanwhile, rescinded the Biden administration's sanctions against Israelis accused of violence in the territory.

Saudi Arabia's crown prince said Thursday the kingdom wants to invest $600 billion in the United States over the next four years, comments that came after President Donald Trump earlier put a price tag on returning to the kingdom as his first foreign trip.

Trump's 2017 trip to Saudi Arabia upended a tradition of U.S. presidents first heading to the United Kingdom as their first trip abroad. It also underscored his administration's close ties to the rulers of the oil-rich Gulf states as his eponymous real estate company has pursued deals across the region as well.

Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels said on Wednesday they had released the detained crew of the ship Galaxy Leader, held since November 2023, after the Israel-Hamas ceasefire came into effect.

The Houthi supreme council "has announced the freeing of the crew of the Galaxy Leader, who were arrested on November 19, 2023 during the campaign in solidarity with Gaza", the rebel Saba news agency said, adding that the release came "in support of the ceasefire" in Gaza which began on Sunday.

Israel says it will maintain control of the Rafah crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip during the first phase of the ceasefire with Hamas.

A statement issued by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office on Wednesday denied reports that the Palestinian Authority would control the crossing.

Shortly after suspected Jewish settlers stormed Palestinian villages in the occupied West Bank late Monday, setting cars and property ablaze, U.S. President Donald Trump canceled sanctions against Israelis accused of violence in the territory.

The reversal of the Biden administration's sanctions, which were meant to punish radical settlers, could set the tone for a presidency that is expected to be more tolerant of Israel's expansion of settlements and of violence toward Palestinians. In Trump's previous term he lavished support on Israel, and he has once again surrounded himself with aides who back the settlers.

Iraq's parliament passed three divisive laws Tuesday, including amendments to the country's personal status law that opponents say would in effect legalize child marriage.

The amendments give Islamic courts increased authority over family matters, including marriage, divorce and inheritance. Activists argue that this undermines Iraq's 1959 Personal Status Law, which unified family law and established safeguards for women.