Yemen's Huthi rebels will not hand over the key port of Hodeida to the rival government, a rebel representative said Friday, as the two parties met for U.N.-brokered talks in Sweden.

Police were questioning Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's wife Sara on Friday on new suspicions of fraudulently misusing public funds, Israeli media reported.

A government offensive on Yemen's Hodeida is still an option if rebels refuse to withdraw from the port city, a minister said Thursday, as the warring sides met for UN-brokered talks.

Employees of the Hamas administration in the Gaza Strip began collecting their salaries for a second month Friday, after Qatar pumped more cash into the territory with Israel's blessings.

Yemen's Huthi rebels sit at the negotiating table in Sweden with delegates of the internationally recognised government, undefeated on the battlefield and still firmly in control of the capital Sanaa.

Human Rights Watch on Friday urged Saudi Arabia to allow independent observers access to detained women's rights activists, saying Riyadh's assurances of their well-being could not be trusted following the murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday hailed majority backing in the UN General Assembly for condemning militant group Hamas even though a draft resolution failed to win enough votes to pass.

Syria's president on Thursday announced a budget for 2019 of almost $9 billion, of which around a third has been allocated to investment projects including in areas ravaged by the war.

Libya's electoral commission could organize a referendum on a new constitution for the strife-torn country in February if it gets security guarantees and funds, its head said on Thursday.

"It is possible to organize a referendum on the constitution... towards the end of February," commission chief Imed al-Sayeh told a news conference.

The U.N. General Assembly will vote Thursday on a U.S.-drafted resolution condemning the Palestinian Hamas movement, in what could mark U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley's parting gesture at the United Nations.

Haley, who will step down as UN ambassador at the end of the year, has repeatedly accused the United Nations of having an anti-Israel bias and strongly supports Israel in its latest confrontation with Hamas in Gaza.