The United Arab Emirates' crown prince received a rare telephone call from Syrian President Bashar Assad in which they discussed strengthening relations and cooperation, Syria's state media reported Wednesday.

The call between Assad and UAE's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed came as some Arab countries are improving relations with Syria, a decade after the country's civil war began.

Several blasts were heard from the al-Tanf base used by the U.S.-led coalition near Syria's borders with Iraq and Jordan, a war monitor reported on Wednesday.

Israel has confirmed a case of a subvariant of the Delta strain of COVID-19 previously reported in some European countries, the health ministry said.

“The variant AY 4.2. that has been discovered in a number of countries in Europe has been identified in Israel,” a ministry statement said late Tuesday.

Six members of a pro-government militia were killed Wednesday in an arms depot blast in the central Syrian province of Hama, a war monitor reported. 

Shelling by the Syrian army killed eight people, five of them civilians, Wednesday in the northwestern region of Idlib controlled by jihadist-led rebels, a war monitor reported.

Police on Wednesday arrested two former German soldiers accused of trying to form a "terrorist" paramilitary group to fight in Yemen's civil war, prosecutors said.

Syrian refugees returning to their war-battered country have faced alleged torture, arbitrary arrests and extrajudicial killings, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Wednesday.

A bomb attack on an army bus in Damascus killed 14 people Wednesday in the bloodiest such attack to strike the Syrian capital in four years, the SANA state news agency reported.

Israel granted approval on Tuesday for 4,000 Palestinians to register as residents of the West Bank, the first such move in the Israeli-occupied territory in 12 years. 

The newly regularized residents had already been living in the West Bank, including 1,200 people considered "undocumented" because they had not been registered with the Palestinian Population Registry and another 2,800 who had previously been identified as residents of the blockaded Gaza Strip. 

Paris-based former Tunisian president Moncef Marzouki has emerged as a vocal critic of incumbent Kais Saied's power grab, but analysts say he may lack the popularity to lead the opposition.

Saied on July 25 sacked the government, suspended the legislature and seized control of the judiciary, later moving to rule by decree in the North African nation.