Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Thursday he would request approval from a planning committee for the building of 2,500 new homes in 30 West Bank settlements.

"The 2,500 new units we'll approve in the planning committee next week are for immediate construction in 2018," Lieberman said in a statement, adding he would also seek the committee's approval for a further 1,400 settlement units for later construction.

An Israeli court on Wednesday suspended an expulsion order for Human Rights Watch's country director until a decision is taken on a HRW legal challenge against it, the rights watchdog said.

The injunction granted by the district court in Jerusalem came only a day ahead of the deadline for Omar Shakir to leave Israel after authorities accused him of previously supporting a boycott of the country.

Egyptian blogger and journalist Wael Abbas, known for taking a stand against police violence, was arrested during the night of Tuesday and Wednesday at his home in Cairo, his lawyer told AFP.

Senior Russian military officials on Wednesday called for the United Nations and other international organizations to help rebuild Syrian territory recaptured by government forces, in order to consolidate the "successes" of the military campaign.

Strongman Khalifa Haftar's self-proclaimed Libyan National Army said Wednesday it was tightening the noose on the last jihadist bastion in the country's east after breaking through the suburbs of Derna.

France's Prime Minister Edouard Philippe has cancelled a planned trip to Israel early next month, citing "domestic agenda reasons", his office said on Wednesday.

The Palestinians have joined two U.N. agencies and the global convention to halt the spread of chemical weapons, a U.N. envoy said Wednesday, despite a threat of U.S. funding cuts.

The newly-opened US embassy in Jerusalem has said ambassador David Friedman was duped into being pictured receiving a photo of east Jerusalem with the revered Al-Aqsa mosque erased.

Saudi authorities have widened a crackdown on women's rights advocates, detaining at least three more activists a month before the kingdom lifts its decades-old ban on women drivers, campaigners said Tuesday.

Israeli warplanes blasted Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip early Wednesday in a fresh round of retaliation after a Palestinian cross-border raid the day before, the army said.