The U.S. military has rescued two Saudi pilots who ejected from their jet off Yemen's coast, as the kingdom launched air strikes on rebel camps in its violence-wracked neighbor, officials said Friday.

The Saudi F-15 fighter jet appeared to be participating in the operations in Yemen, though a U.S. defense official declined to confirm why the men ejected from the plane or why it went down in international waters late Thursday.

Prime Minister David Cameron on Friday offered Britain's "firm political support" to Saudi Arabia over its air strikes on rebel camps in Yemen.

Cameron and Saudi Arabia's King Salman spoke for the first time since the monarch came to the throne in January, with the prime minister giving his clear backing to the action.

Former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who is close to the country's Shiite Huthi rebels, called Friday for a ceasefire and the resumption of U.N.-brokered dialogue between warring parties.

In a statement, Saleh urged a simultaneous halt in military operations in Yemen by a Saudi-led Arab coalition and by the rebels, and for dialogue to take place in the United Arab Emirates.

Yemen's President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi arrived in Egypt Friday for a weekend Arab League summit at which his country takes center stage amid Saudi-led coalition attacks on Huthi rebels.

State television broadcast footage of Hadi's arrival at the summit venue, the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh, where he was greeted by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

United Arab Emirates warplanes "intensively" participated in air strikes against Shiite rebels and their allies in Yemen Friday, the Saudi-led coalition said.

All members of the Arab coalition contributed to the operation but "Emirati air forces participated intensively," spokesman General Ahmed Assiri told reporters in Riyadh.

The U.N. Human Rights Council decided Friday to send a mission to war-torn Libya to investigate a range of abuses by different sides and help bring perpetrators to justice.

The 47-member rights body adopted by consensus a resolution asking the U.N. rights chief to "urgently" dispatch a team of investigators to Libya.

Yemeni President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, a former Socialist apparatchik and would-be consensus figure despite a lack of political guile, has overseen a slide into all-out conflict during his three-year rule.

After falling out with Yemen's ascendant Huthi Shiites and having to flee the capital, his weakened presidency has been rescued by an 11th-hour military intervention led by mighty neighbor Saudi Arabia.

The U.N. Security Council is expected to adopt on Friday a resolution to step up the fight against Islamic extremists in Libya but without lifting the arms embargo.

Libya, backed by Egypt, had asked for an end to the arms embargo to allow the embattled government to build up its army and take on groups such as Islamic State (IS).

At least 21 Yemeni Shiite rebels were killed Friday when residents in a tribal southern region opened fire at their vehicles, a local official and witnesses told AFP.

The Huthi rebels, who are also facing Saudi-led air strikes, were traveling in three vehicles from Lahj province towards Aden, the southern stronghold of embattled President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, when they were ambushed.

Israel will release to the Palestinian Authority tax funds it collects on its behalf and withheld as punishment for its move to join the International Criminal Court, the premier's office said Friday.

"Tax revenues that have been accumulated through February will be transferred, after payments for services to the Palestinian population have been deducted, including electricity, water and hospital bills," a statement said.