An array of presidents and prime ministers continued to descend on the United Arab Emirates Sunday from around the world to pay their respects to the federation's late ruler. They also came to praise his successor, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan — a vivid sign of Abu Dhabi's influence in Western and Arab capitals.

The first Western leader to jet to the oil-rich emirate was French President Emmanuel Macron. He met Sunday with Sheikh Mohammed to pay tribute to Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the long-ailing ruler who died Friday at the age of 73 after years presiding over the country's rapid transformation into a global business hub and regional power center.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with the family of slain Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh after criticizing Israel's use of force at her funeral, an official said Sunday.

Blinken, during his flight Saturday to Berlin for a meeting of NATO foreign ministers, offered "deep condolences" in a phone call with family members of Shireen Abu Akleh, a State Department official said.

Israeli police has decided to investigate the conduct of their officers who attacked the funeral of a slain Al Jazeera journalist, causing mourners to briefly drop the casket during the ceremony in Jerusalem.

Police forces beat pallbearers with batons at the start of the funeral procession on Friday of Shireen Abu Akleh, who witnesses say was killed by Israeli troops Wednesday during a raid in the occupied West Bank. The Israeli military says Palestinian gunmen were in the area and it's not clear who fired the fatal bullet.

Israel reopened on Sunday its only crossing with the Gaza Strip to Palestinian workers nearly two weeks after closing it over unrest, the defense ministry said.

"Following an assessment of the security situation, it has been decided... to open Erez Crossing for passage of workers and permit holders from the Gaza Strip into Israel, beginning Sunday," said COGAT, a unit of the Israeli defense ministry responsible for Palestinian civil affairs.

The UAE's long-time de facto ruler Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan was elected as president on Saturday, official media said, a day after the death of former leader Sheikh Khalifa.

Sheikh Mohamed was elected by the Federal Supreme Council, WAM news agency said, becoming the ruler of the oil-rich country founded by his father in 1971.

An Israeli soldier died from wounds suffered on Friday during a raid near the flashpoint city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said.

"Today we lost a real hero, Noam Raz -- a brave (army) fighter ... (during a) complex and sensitive operation against terrorists", Bennett said in a statement.

Syrian rebels killed 10 soldiers in northern Syria Friday, in the deadliest such attack since a truce deal reached over two years ago, a war monitor and state media said.

Nine soldiers were also wounded in the attack, Syria's official news agency SANA reported, quoting a military source.

One of Libya's rival governments has said that a report by an international human rights group accusing it of abuses contains false accusations. Earlier this month, the London-based watchdog Amnesty International issued the report, which documents abuses against migrants by a state-funded security agency in western Libya.

The Tripoli-based government of Prime Minister Abdel Hamid Dbeibah said late Thursday that Amnesty's report "lacked professionalism and credibility."

Thousands of people packed Jerusalem's tense Old City on Friday for the burial of veteran Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh, after Israeli police stormed the start of the funeral procession.

The United Arab Emirates' President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al-Nahyan died aged 73 on Friday, state media said, after battling illness for several years.