The Biden administration has approved two massive arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to help them defend against Iran.

The more than $5 billion in missile defense and related sales follow President Joe Biden's visit to the Middle East last month, during which he met with numerous regional leaders in Saudi Arabia. Both Saudi Arabia and the UAE have been hit in recent months with rocket attacks from the Iran-backed Houthi rebel movement in Yemen.

Israel's army closed areas near the Gaza border to civilians Tuesday, citing a risk of reprisals, following the overnight arrest of two senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad members, the military and Palestinian sources said.

A 17-year-old Palestinian was shot dead by Israeli forces during a late Monday raid in the flashpoint West Bank district of Jenin. The army said it had operated alongside police, who arrested "two wanted terror suspects."

Thousands have gathered in Baghdad for a counter-rally called by Iran-backed groups against their rival, an influential cleric whose followers are staging a sit-in inside the Iraqi parliament — only to withdraw hours later.

It wasn't immediately clear if the pullback by supporters of the Coordination Framework, an alliance lead by Shiite parties close to Iran, was a definite de-escalation in their power struggle with cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's loyalists.

A Palestinian was shot dead Monday by the Israeli forces in the north of the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said.

Palestinian news agency Wafa reported he had been killed during clashes with the army and undercover forces in Jenin refugee camp.

Saudi Arabia welcomed the US announcement that Al-Qaeda head Ayman al-Zawahiri had been killed, the foreign ministry said Tuesday.

"The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia welcomed the announcement by U.S. President Joe Biden of the targeting and killing of the terrorist leader of Al-Qaeda Ayman Al-Zawahiri," it said.

Kuwait on Monday announced the formation of a new government to defuse a protracted political feud blocking economic reforms in the oil-rich state.

Kuwait's newly-appointed prime minister, Sheikh Ahmad Nawaf Al Sabah, will lead the 12-member Cabinet until the dissolution of parliament ahead of early elections, the country's state-run news agency, KUNA, reported. The date of the vote has yet to be announced.

At least six people were killed and dozens injured on Monday when a fuel truck exploded in southwestern Libya, medics said.

The precise causes of the blast were not clear.

Iraqi security forces erected concrete barriers on Monday ahead of counter-protests planned by Shiite political rivals against an influential cleric whose followers have staged a parliament sit-in for a third day.

Many feared that dueling protests could escalate tensions.

Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has suggested that his country, Africa's largest natural gas exporter, could join the BRICS economic group that includes Russia and China.

Tebboune's comment comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin -- whose country is hit with Western sanctions over its Ukraine invasion -- in June called on BRICS leaders to move towards "formation of a truly multipolar system of inter-government relations".

A Virginia judge has entered a default judgment against a Libyan military commander after he repeatedly failed to show up for depositions in a federal lawsuit in which he is accused of war crimes.

The exact amount of the judgment against Khalifa Haftar, who spent decades living in the U.S., will be determined at a future date. Because Haftar and his family own extensive property in northern Virginia from his time in the country, according to the plaintiffs, they are optimistic they will be able to collect any judgment that is awarded.