Israel deployed additional forces in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank ahead of weekly Muslim prayers Friday, a day after a deadly uptick in violence.

Turkey has sent nearly 150 vehicles with commandos and ammunition to reinforce its observation posts in Idlib, Syria's last rebel-held region, Turkish state news agency Anadolu reported Friday.

A plane is due to evacuate 24 critically ill Yemenis from the rebel-held capital on Friday, a World Heath Organization source said, as the UN seeks to consolidate a medical air bridge.

The Russian army on Friday accused Israel of using a civilian plane carrying 172 passengers as a shield against Syrian anti-aircraft fire while carrying out air strikes near Damascus.

It might have seemed to be one of the more innocuous elements in President Donald Trump's deeply divisive Middle East peace initiative: the suggestion that a densely populated Arab region of Israel be added to a future Palestinian state, if both sides agree.

Instead, the proposal has infuriated many of Israel's Arab citizens, who view it as a form of forced transfer. They want no part in the Palestinian state envisioned by the Trump administration, with many comparing it to the areas set aside for black South Africans as part of the apartheid government's policy of racial segregation.

President Donald Trump confirmed Thursday that the US had killed the leader of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula -- days after the jihadist group claimed responsibility for a mass shooting at a US naval base.

They once stood side by side against tear gas and bullets, protesting together against Iraq's government. But after cleric Moqtada Sadr's followers switched sides, young activists feel vulnerable and betrayed.

The world's chemical watchdog on Thursday slammed two former inspectors who leaked confidential papers questioning the body's findings into a 2018 chlorine attack in the Syrian town of Douma, saying they "are not whistleblowers".

Syrian government troops entered a key town in the country's last rebel stronghold Thursday after intense clashes with opposition fighters, even as Turkey sent reinforcements to curtail the offensive, Syrian state media reported.

Saraqeb in Idlib province has been at the center of intense clashes for days. Opposition fighters pushed out government forces who entered it Wednesday, while Turkey sent in new reinforcements Thursday and threatened to use force to compel the Syrian forces to retreat by the end of the month.

Israeli forces arrested a man accused of ramming his car into a group of soldiers on Thursday, wounding 14 people, the army said.