At least two members of a pro-government militia were killed in an Israeli strike on the Syrian port of Latakia, a war monitor said on Wednesday.

The strike before dawn on Tuesday marked the second time that Israel has hit the key cargo hub since the outbreak of Syria's civil war in 2011.

Israel's defense minister approved a raft of measures aimed at improving relations with the Palestinians on Wednesday following a rare meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Israel.

Defense Minister Benny Gantz met with Abbas at his private residence in a Tel Aviv suburb late Tuesday night. It was the first time Abbas met an Israeli official inside Israel since 2010. The two discussed security coordination between Israel and Abbas' Palestinian Authority, which administers pockets of the occupied West Bank.

The UAE has issued its first civil marriage license for a non-Muslim couple, state media reported, as the Gulf country seeks to keep its edge over regional competitors. 

The United Arab Emirates -- where foreigners make up 90 percent of the approximately 10-million population -- has been amending its laws to present itself as a modernizing force in a largely conservative region. 

Israel's government minister for public security has said he is now under round-the-clock protection after coming under threats from Jewish extremists.

Omer Barlev also accused members of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's pro-settler Yemina party of contributing to the fraught atmosphere.

Syria has said that Israel's plans to double the number of settlers living in Israeli-annexed Golan Heights are "dangerous and unprecedented" and only perpetuate its occupation of the territory.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announced on Sunday a multimillion-dollar plan meant to double the number of settlers living in the region that Israel captured from Syria more than five decades ago.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said Tuesday he is not opposed to a "good" nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, but voiced skepticism that such an outcome would emerge from the current negotiations.

Bennett spoke a day after negotiators from Iran and five world powers resumed talks in Vienna on restoring Tehran's tattered 2015 nuclear deal. He reiterated that Israel was not bound by any accord, leaving it room to maneuver militarily.

Yemen's Huthi rebels said Tuesday they have allowed the temporary resumption of U.N. aid flights into the capital Sanaa, a week after a halt due to Saudi-led coalition air strikes.

"The civil aviation authority announces the resumption of U.N. and other organization flights into Sanaa airport on a temporary basis," the rebel-run Al-Masirah television reported.

An Israeli air strike hit Syria's Latakia port before dawn on Tuesday, sparking a fire that lit up the Mediterranean seafront in the second such attack on the key cargo hub this month, Syrian state media reported.

Since the outbreak of Syria's civil war in 2011, Israel has routinely carried out air strikes on its strife-torn neighbor, mostly targeting Syrian government troops as well as allied Iran-backed forces and Hizbullah fighters.

A French-Syrian man has been detained by French police on suspicion of supplying components for the manufacture of chemical weapons in Syria through his shipping company, sources briefed on the case told AFP.

Saudi Arabia on Monday executed a Yemeni man accused of plotting a suicide attack in the kingdom and of links to the Islamic State jihadist group, the interior ministry said.