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.

France plans to begin talks at the United Nations on a new Security Council resolution to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace prospects, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Friday.

Fabius told reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York that discussions on a text would start "in the coming days."

Tajikistan is seeking to evacuate some 100 medical workers and their families from Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition has launched air strikes against rebels, the foreign ministry said on Friday.

"All possible measures are being taken for the emergency evacuation of Tajik citizens from war-torn Yemen," Abulfaiz Atoev, a foreign ministry spokesperson, told AFP.

Saudi-led airstrikes alone are unlikely to crush Iranian-backed Yemeni rebels but a ground incursion would risk a bloody "quagmire" and escalating tensions with Tehran, experts say.

Saudi Arabia pledged to do "whatever it takes" to defend its ally President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi after launching aerial raids against the Huthi Shiite fighters and their allies.

Islamist rebels made fresh advances Friday on the edges of Idlib city in northwest Syria, after fierce clashes that have left dozens of dead, a monitoring group said.

"The fighters have advanced on the northwestern and southeastern sides of the city," said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Hamas on Friday denounced a European Union decision to keep the Palestinian Islamist group and de facto Gaza Strip ruler on its terrorism blacklist, despite a court ordering its removal.

"This decision completely contradicts the court's ruling," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum told Agence France-Presse.