Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered a brief freeze in construction on a wind turbine project in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights that set off a rare clash between Druze residents and police.

Netanyahu said late Saturday he agreed to a pause on the project during this week's Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday, which is meant to allow time for talks to defuse the crisis. The project is expected to resume next week. A statement from Netanyahu's office said he made the decision based on advice from security officials.

Morocco said it has postponed a meeting of Arab allies of Israel it had been due to host this summer in response to mounting bloodshed in the occupied West Bank.

Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita said he hoped the meeting could still go ahead at a later date when circumstances are more "favourable".

It is Islam's holiest pilgrimage, but the hajj to Mecca in Saudi Arabia has in recent decades been plagued by deadly disasters, from stampedes to militant attacks.

Yet the last time the pilgrimage was cancelled outright was in 1798, when Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Egypt.

Enormous crowds of worshippers thronged Mecca, Islam's holiest city, on Friday for the biggest hajj pilgrimage in years, with more than two million expected to brave the scorching Saudi Arabian heat.

A group of Palestinian children helped sweep up rubble Thursday as their village in the occupied West Bank reeled from a near two-hour rampage carried out by Jewish settlers in revenge for a deadly shooting by two villagers.

Israel is inching toward apartheid and drifting further away from the hopes of creating a Palestinian state alongside it, former United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told The Associated Press on a visit to the region.

Ban said that throughout his three-day visit, which coincided with a spike in deadly violence in the West Bank, he encountered a bleaker reality than the one he faced while head of the world body from 2007 to 2016. He said he had seen signs, through expanding West Bank Jewish settlements and tighter restrictions against Palestinians, that an apartheid system was taking root.

A Tunisian journalist arrested after criticizing a law that criminalizes insulting the head of state was released on Thursday, he said after leaving court.

Zied El Heni, 59, was kept in custody after being questioned on Tuesday evening over alleged "crimes through telecommunications" channels, his lawyer said at the time.

The president of the United Arab Emirates met with Iran's visiting foreign minister on Thursday in the latest sign of improving relations between Arab Gulf countries and the Islamic Republic.

The UAE, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries have long harbored suspicions about Iran because of its nuclear program and support for militant groups across the region, and have cultivated close defense ties with the U.S. But in recent months they have charted a more independent path, reaching out to U.S. adversaries as Washington increasingly focuses on Russia and China.

Kazakhstan said Wednesday it will stop hosting talks aimed at resolving Syria's 12-year-old conflict. The abrupt announcement surprised Russia and other participants as they wrapped up the 20th round of talks in the capital of Astana.

Since 2017, the former Soviet republic has provided a venue for talks to representatives of Russia, Turkey, Syria and Iran on ways to resolve the Syrian war.

The Advisory Commission (AdCom) on the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) convened in Beirut on Wednesday and Thursday, amid immense concern over the alarming financial situation of the Agency.

In the two-day session, chaired by Dr. Bassel El Hassan, Chairman of the Lebanese Palestinian Dialogue Committee (LPDC), AdCom members actively engaged the UNRWA senior management on key issues related to the survival of the Agency and its services to Palestine Refugees.