Qatar's foreign minister said on Friday that there had been some progress to resolve the Gulf crisis which has pitted a regional group of nations against his country.

Saudi led its allies -- the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt -- to cut ties with Qatar in 2017, accusing it of backing radical Islamist movements and Iran, charges Doha denies.

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi has held a rare meeting with his Israeli counterpart to press for the restart of stalled negotiations between the Palestinians and the Jewish state.

The Israeli government on Thursday urged its citizens to avoid travel to the Gulf states of the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, citing threats of Iranian attacks.

The travel advisory comes as Iran is threatening to attack Israeli targets following the assassination of its top nuclear scientist last Friday.

The United Arab Emirates launched tourist visas for Israeli citizens on Thursday, official media said, in the latest move following the normalisation of ties between the two countries.

Abu Dhabi's foreign ministry "announced the activation of tourist entry visas through airlines and travel and tourism offices for Israeli passport holders", the WAM news agency reported.

A Turkish soldier was killed in Turkish-controlled northern Syria on Thursday during clashes with Kurdish militia forces deemed "terrorists" by Ankara, the defence ministry tweeted. 

Israel received the first of its new missile boats on Wednesday, with a top naval officer telling AFP the fleet upgrade "dramatically" improves the Israeli ability to counter regional rivals, including Iran.

Israeli lawmakers on Wednesday gave preliminary approval to the dissolution of parliament, a first step towards the collapse of the coalition government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Benny Gantz.

US President Donald Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner is expected to tackle the Gulf crisis and push for progress toward ending the spat during a visit to Qatar Wednesday. 

More than 900 pro-Turkish Syrian fighters have returned to Syria after the end of fighting in the disputed area of Nagorno-Karabakh, a Britain-based Syrian war monitor said Wednesday.

A November 9 truce ended more than a month of fighting between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the ethnic Armenian enclave that broke away from Baku's control in a war in the 1990s.

Israel has released more than $1 billion in funds withheld from the Palestinian Authority, a Palestinian minister said Wednesday, weeks after coordination was renewed between the two sides.