Chinese Premier Li Qiang met with visiting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday in a drive by Beijing to elevate relations and increase its overall presence in the Middle East.

Li, who took office just this spring with little foreign policy experience, called Abbas "an old friend of the Chinese people" who has made "important contributions to the promotion of China-Palestinian relations."

Israeli forces killed a Palestinian man Thursday in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian health officials said, the latest death in a spike of violence that has rocked the region.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said 20-year-old Khalil Yahya Anis was shot in the head in the city of Nablus, a frequent flashpoint for confrontations between the Israeli military and Palestinians.

Israeli opposition leaders Yair Lapid and Benny Gantz on Wednesday suspended their participation in talks with the government over its controversial judicial program.

The hard-right government's proposals would curtail the authority of the Supreme Court and give politicians greater powers over the selection of judges.

Israeli defense exports hit an all-time high of $12.5 billion last year, with Arab countries that recently established ties accounting for nearly a quarter of purchase contracts, officials said Wednesday.

The defense ministry, which oversees and approves the exports of Israel's defense industries, said one quarter of deals were for drone systems, with "missiles, rockets and air defense systems" making up another 19 percent.

Chinese President Xi Jinping said Wednesday that his country was establishing "strategic" relations with Palestinians ahead of talks with leader Mahmud Abbas in Beijing.

Abbas will be in the Chinese capital until Friday, Beijing has said, on his fifth official visit to the world's second-largest economy.

Six months after she got the call informing her that her U.N. assistance would be cut, Najwa al-Jassem is struggling to feed her four children and pay rent for their tent in a Syrian refugee camp in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley.

She once received food rations and cash that covered most of their modest monthly expenses. The family now only gets the equivalent of $20 a month, which just covers the rent for their cramped tent.

Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has left for a state visit to France where he will meet President Emmanuel Macron, a statement said on Wednesday.

The 37-year-old prince, who is overseeing sweeping social and economic reforms in the oil-rich monarchy, will also take part in the Summit for a New Global Financial Pact in Paris next week, the Royal Court statement said.

Airstrikes attributed to Israel over Syria's capital early Wednesday critically wounded one soldier, Syrian state media reported.

Syria's state news agency, SANA, citing military officials, said the strikes over southwest Damascus also caused "material damage" without giving further details.

Iraq has urged countries to repatriate their citizens from a sprawling camp in Syria housing tens of thousands linked to the extremist Islamic State group, saying it has become a "source for terrorism."

The statements were made during a conference in Baghdad discussing al-Hol camp in northeast Syria. Iraqi officials, the U.N. representative in Iraq, some members of the international coalition fighting IS and ambassadors of several countries were present.

The World Bank and Jordan are using a "flawed" algorithm to calculate aid for the kingdom, excluding some people who are impoverished, hungry or otherwise struggling, a leading rights group said Tuesday.

Human Rights Watch reported that the automated program ranks the income and socio-economic status of Jordanian families, a practice known as "poverty targeting." The report said that approach leaves out some needy people — such as the owners of modest businesses — in a nation of 11 million, increasing poverty and with more than 1 million Syrian refugees.