Enormous crowds of worshippers thronged Mecca, Islam's holiest city, on Friday for the biggest hajj pilgrimage in years, with more than two million expected to brave the scorching Saudi Arabian heat.

A group of Palestinian children helped sweep up rubble Thursday as their village in the occupied West Bank reeled from a near two-hour rampage carried out by Jewish settlers in revenge for a deadly shooting by two villagers.

Israel is inching toward apartheid and drifting further away from the hopes of creating a Palestinian state alongside it, former United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told The Associated Press on a visit to the region.

Ban said that throughout his three-day visit, which coincided with a spike in deadly violence in the West Bank, he encountered a bleaker reality than the one he faced while head of the world body from 2007 to 2016. He said he had seen signs, through expanding West Bank Jewish settlements and tighter restrictions against Palestinians, that an apartheid system was taking root.

A Tunisian journalist arrested after criticizing a law that criminalizes insulting the head of state was released on Thursday, he said after leaving court.

Zied El Heni, 59, was kept in custody after being questioned on Tuesday evening over alleged "crimes through telecommunications" channels, his lawyer said at the time.

The president of the United Arab Emirates met with Iran's visiting foreign minister on Thursday in the latest sign of improving relations between Arab Gulf countries and the Islamic Republic.

The UAE, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries have long harbored suspicions about Iran because of its nuclear program and support for militant groups across the region, and have cultivated close defense ties with the U.S. But in recent months they have charted a more independent path, reaching out to U.S. adversaries as Washington increasingly focuses on Russia and China.

Kazakhstan said Wednesday it will stop hosting talks aimed at resolving Syria's 12-year-old conflict. The abrupt announcement surprised Russia and other participants as they wrapped up the 20th round of talks in the capital of Astana.

Since 2017, the former Soviet republic has provided a venue for talks to representatives of Russia, Turkey, Syria and Iran on ways to resolve the Syrian war.

The Advisory Commission (AdCom) on the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) convened in Beirut on Wednesday and Thursday, amid immense concern over the alarming financial situation of the Agency.

In the two-day session, chaired by Dr. Bassel El Hassan, Chairman of the Lebanese Palestinian Dialogue Committee (LPDC), AdCom members actively engaged the UNRWA senior management on key issues related to the survival of the Agency and its services to Palestine Refugees.  

Israeli police has fired tear gas, sponge-tipped bullets and a water cannon during mass demonstrations by Druze Arabs in the Golan Heights — a rare burst of violence in the normally quiet area. At least 20 people were reported injured.

Thousands of Druze residents of the Golan took part in the demonstrations against the construction of massive wind turbines. The windswept area is an ideal spot for the turbines, but residents fear damage to their properties and landowners have said they did not understand the agreements they signed with a local power company, according to Israeli media.

Israeli forces demolished the house of an alleged Palestinian attacker in Nablus in the occupied West Bank early on Thursday, witnesses and the army said.

The army said it "demolished overnight in Nablus the home of Kamal Jouri, the terrorist who carried out a gun attack" which "caused the death of soldier Ido Baruch".

Hundreds of Israeli settlers on Wednesday stormed into a Palestinian town in the occupied West Bank, setting fire to dozens of cars and homes to avenge the deaths of four Israelis killed by Palestinian gunmen the previous day, residents said.

The settler attack came as the Israeli military deployed additional forces across the occupied West Bank, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced plans to build 1,000 new settler homes in response to the deadly shooting.