Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas spoke with Israel's prime minister after a rare meeting with the Jewish state's defense minister, Israeli officials said Friday, days ahead of US President Joe Biden's regional visit.

The phone call between Abbas and Prime Minister Yair Lapid took place early on Friday, according to a statement by the premier's office, and was the first conversation between the two leaders since Lapid took over from Naftali Bennett last week.

The U.N. Security Council has called a meeting for Friday after having to put off a vote on extending humanitarian aid deliveries to rebel-held northwest Syria from Turkey when no compromise could be reach on how long it would run.

Russia, one of the council's five members with veto power, insisted that the extension be for only six months, while many other council members, the U.N. secretary-general and more than 30 non-governmental groups pushed for another year-long mandate.

Once-unthinkable coordination between Israeli and Arab militaries is in the spotlight as Joe Biden makes his first Middle East trip as president, heightening debates over whether the U.S.-backed initiative between former enemies strengthens defenses against Iran or makes a regional war more likely.

Israeli-Arab security overtures have multiplied since the 2020 Abraham Accords negotiated under the Trump administration normalized relations between Israel and four Arab League nations. They have have grown further since the Pentagon switched coordination with Israel from U.S. European Command to Central Command, or CENTCOM, last year. The move grouped Israel's military with former Arab opponents, including Saudi Arabia and other nations that have yet to recognize Israel.

Hundreds of thousands of Muslim pilgrims from around the world raised their hands to heaven and offered prayers of repentance on the sacred hill of Mount Arafat in Saudi Arabia on Friday, an intense day of worship considered to be the climax of the annual hajj.

Multitudes stood shoulder to shoulder, feet to feet, for the emotional day of supplication in the desert valley where Muslims believe the Prophet Muhammad delivered his final sermon, calling for equality and unity among Muslims.

Two leading human rights groups on Thursday accused Egyptian authorities of failing to conduct an impartial and transparent investigation into the suspicious death of an economic researcher in custody.

In a joint statement, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International accused Egyptian prosecutors of having turned a blind eye to "mounting evidence" that 48-year-old Ayman Hadhoud disappeared, was tortured, and was denied access to timely healthcare.

Eight people were killed and 44 injured in a car crash on Thursday near Egypt's southern province of Aswan, the state-run news agency reported.

The crash took place in the early morning when a passenger bus collided with a truck, on a highway linking Awsan to Abu Simbel, the seat of the ancient temples of Ramses II, MENA said.

A British Royal Navy vessel seized a sophisticated shipment of Iranian missiles in the Gulf of Oman earlier this year, officials said Thursday, pointing to the interdiction as proof of Tehran's support for Yemen's Houthi rebels in the embattled country.

The British government statement was striking in that it provided some of the strongest findings to date that Tehran is arming the Houthis against the Saudi-led military coalition with advanced weapons smuggled through the Persian Gulf.

Russia has agreed to continue humanitarian aid deliveries from Turkey to rebel-held northwest Syria for six months — not a year, as many U.N. Security Council members, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and more than 30 nongovernmental groups want.

Russia proposed amendments to a draft resolution by Ireland and Norway reducing their year-long time frame for deliveries. Council diplomats said consultations were continuing late Wednesday to see if a compromise could be reached.

Hundreds of thousands of hajj pilgrims began streaming out of Mecca Thursday ahead of the highlight of the annual rites, which have attracted huge crowds despite the continuing pandemic and unforgiving heat.

Many of the robed worshippers are making the journey on foot to Mina, seven kilometers (four miles) from Mecca's Grand Mosque, Islam's holiest site, where they circled the imposing black Kaaba at the start of the rituals on Wednesday.

After years of a regional blockade and the pandemic, this hajj will be "completely different" for Masoud al-Ali as he and other Qataris are finally able to rejoin the hallowed Muslim pilgrimage.