Sudan's government on Tuesday denied having information about the visit of an Israeli delegation to Khartoum announced the day before by an official from Tel Aviv.

Speculation is mounting that Israel and Saudi Arabia may be about to normalise ties after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly held secret talks in the kingdom.

If a deal is done, Saudi Arabia would become the sixth Arab nation to recognise Israel after historic accords since September with the UAE, Bahrain and Sudan.

Israeli media reports and a government source said Monday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had held landmark talks in Saudi Arabia with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, but Riyadh denied any such meeting took place.

The U.S. will label the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign, which seeks to isolate Israel over its treatment of the Palestinians, as anti-Semitic, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday, calling the movement "a cancer".

Sudanese asylum seekers living in Israel fear being kicked out once ties are normalised between the two countries, though some hope their presence will be seen as an advantage.

Football leagues from the United Arab Emirates and Israel signed a cooperation agreement, the first such deal between an Arab country and the Jewish state, the clubs announced Tuesday.

Israel is set to approve construction of Jewish settler homes in a flashpoint area of the West Bank city of Hebron for the first time since 2002, the anti-occupation group Peace Now said Tuesday.

Israel and the United Arab Emirates agreed Monday to visa-free travel, an unprecedented arrangement between Israel and an Arab state, signed after the first ever official UAE delegation landed in Tel Aviv.   

Direct flights between Israel and the UAE, slated to begin in October after a landmark normalisation deal, are to be postponed until January because of coronavirus, an Israeli official said Tuesday.

Israel has now recorded more than 2,000 deaths from the coronavirus as the country remains under lockdown for a fourth week to quell the outbreak.

The Health Ministry reported Monday night that the country had surpassed 2,000 deaths. It reported five more fatalities on Tuesday, raising the toll to 2,021.