Jordan will not allow the return of Israel's ambassador until the shooting of two Jordanians by an embassy security guard has been properly investigated, a government official said on Friday.

Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian teenager and wounded seven others Friday during clashes near the border fence in Gaza, said the health ministry of the Hamas movement that rules the enclave.

A Palestinian attempted to stab Israeli soldiers at a junction near Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank on Friday and was shot dead by security forces, the Israeli army said.

Heavy fighting broke out Thursday as U.S.-backed Syrian fighters captured almost half of the Islamic State group's de facto capital of Raqqa. But the push into the city in northern Syria slowed due to stiff resistance and large amounts of explosives planted by the extremists, a spokeswoman for the fighters and monitors said.

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.

Libya's UN-backed unity government chief has denied that an agreement has been struck with Rome to deploy Italian vessels in Libyan waters to combat human trafficking.

Syrian government troops entered the last Islamic State group stronghold in the country's Homs province on Friday after jihadists began withdrawing, a monitor said.

Qatar refuses to bow to Saudi-led demands to "outsource" its foreign policy to resolve the Gulf crisis, its government spokesman told AFP in an interview.

Israel barred men under 50 from Friday prayers at a sensitive Jerusalem holy site after two weeks of tensions and deadly unrest, leading thousands of Palestinians to hold mass prayers outside.

A ballistic missile fired by Yemeni rebels was shot down late Thursday close to Mecca in Saudi Arabia, a month before the annual Hajj pilgrimage to Islam's holiest site, the Arab military coalition fighting in Yemen said.

Authorities in eastern Libya backed by military strongman Khalifa Haftar on Thursday ordered the closure of a Sudanese consulate and the expulsion of 12 diplomats, a pro-Haftar news agency announced.