The Latest on Mideast developments amid rising tensions in the Persian Gulf region (all times local):

11:45 p.m.

China on Friday called for dialogue after the United States accused Iran of being behind attacks on two tankers in the Gulf of Oman.

Iran's English-language Press TV aired footage of rescued crew members of one of the two tankers attacked in the Sea of Oman Thursday, saying they are all in "full health."

Regime and Russian air strikes and shelling have killed at least 28 people including seven civilians in embattled northwest Syria, a war monitor said Friday, despite a ceasefire announced by Moscow.

The United Arab Emirates said Friday that twin attacks on tankers in the Sea of Oman just weeks after four ships were damaged off the UAE coast marked a dangerous escalation".

"The attack against the tankers in the Gulf of Oman is a worrying development and a dangerous escalation," the UAE minister of state for foreign affairs, Anwar Gargash, tweeted after Thursday's blasts.

Five Sri Lankans wanted in connection with the deadly Easter bombings who were arrested in Dubai were repatriated Friday, police said.

The crew of a Japanese-owned tanker hit in an apparent attack in the Gulf of Oman saw a "flying object" before a second blast on board, the operator's head said Friday.

Israeli aircraft struck Hamas bases in Gaza early Friday, the military said, after a rocket fired by Palestinian militants hit a Jewish theological seminary in southern Israel.

Saudi forces on Friday intercepted five drones launched by Iran-aligned Yemeni rebels, a Riyadh-led military coalition said, in a second assault on an airport in the kingdom's southwest in two days.

Algeria's former prime minister Abdelmalek Sellal was remanded in custody Thursday after appearing before a judge as part of an anti-corruption investigation, state media reported.