Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas backed calls for worshipers to return to Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque on Thursday after Israeli authorities removed controversial new security measures.

Lawmakers from Hamas and those affiliated with a former Gaza strongman have met for the first time in a decade in Gaza's parliament building.

Thursday's meeting was the latest sign that an emerging Gaza power-sharing deal between the territory's Hamas rulers and Mohammed Dahlan, a former leader in the rival Fatah party, is moving forward.

U.S.-backed Syrian fighters have captured almost half of Raqqa from the Islamic State group, but the push into the northern city has slowed due to large amounts of explosives planted by the extremists and their counteroffensives, a spokeswoman for the fighters and a monitoring group said Thursday.

The assault on Raqqa by the Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish-led fighting coalition, began June 6, backed by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes and U.S. troops advising the local forces. Since then, the SDF has made steady advances from the eastern and western sides of the city reaching the walled old quarter.

An attack on a boat carrying refugees off the coast of war-torn Yemen in March was almost certainly carried out by the Saudi-led coalition, according to a confidential UN report seen by AFP on Wednesday.

France will set up a processing centre this summer in Libya for asylum seekers trying to reach Europe across the Mediterranean, President Emmanuel Macron announced Thursday.

Russia says the United States and its Western allies rushed to judgment and blamed the Syrian government for using sarin nerve gas in an attack on an opposition-held town in Syria without ever visiting the site and ignoring two witnesses presented by Damascus.

It also criticized the report by the fact-finding mission from the chemical weapons watchdog that investigated the incident in Khan Sheikhoun on April 4 which killed more than 90 people, calling it "very biased."

Tunisia's parliament on Wednesday passed a bill designed to "end all violence against women", strengthening protection and help for victims in a move welcomed by rights groups. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said late Wednesday he wants to expel Qatari broadcaster Al-Jazeera from Israel amid tensions over a sensitive Jerusalem holy site.

A fallout between Turkey and Israel deepened on Wednesday as the Jewish state hit back at Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's criticism of its constraints on Muslims visiting a sensitive holy site in annexed east Jerusalem.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday welcomed Israel's removal of metal detectors from a highly sensitive Jerusalem holy site but said it was "not enough".