Barely four months after a bloody conflict battered Gaza, experts warn that a new war could be in the offing if reconstruction is not accelerated and Palestinian divisions remain.

Since the end of the deadly 50-day war between Israel and Hamas, which killed nearly 2,200 Palestinians and 73 in Israel, little has changed on the ground in Gaza.

Saudi Arabia on Monday beheaded a child rapist, adding to what activists say is one of the world's highest execution tolls.

The Interior Ministry said Suleiman bin Abdullah had been found guilty of kidnapping a male child, tying him up "and performing the obscene" act.

The Islamic State group has claimed the arrest of four jihadists it classified as "extremists" accused of plotting against the organization in areas of Iraq and Syria under its control.

In a video purportedly posted by IS on jihadist websites, a male voice claims to have "captured an extremist religious cell planning to take up arms against the Caliphate," referring to the regions it controls in both countries.

A south Yemen separatist was shot dead Monday when police intervened to disperse protesters observing a day of civil disobedience in the formerly independent region, witnesses and a medic said.

Clashes erupted in Ataq, the main city in Shabwa province, when police opened fire at protesters who tried to block a road, killing one protester and wounding others, witnesses said.

A U.S. Navy helicopter has crashed during a training mission in the Gulf state of Kuwait, slightly injuring three crew members, the Bahrain-based Naval Forces Central Command said on Monday.

The MH-60S helicopter went down on Sunday morning during the overland training flight at Camp Buehring in Kuwait, it said in a statement.

The Syrian army has claimed it shot down an Israeli reconnaissance drone flying near the occupied Golan Heights, state media said Monday.

"A military source announced on Sunday night that an Israeli unmanned Skylark-1 model drone had been shot down in Quneitra province, close to the village of Hader" near the Golan Heights, the official Sana news agency said.

At least 20 Islamic State (IS) group members were killed in the second failed jihadist bid in a month to take over an air base in eastern Syria, a monitoring group said Sunday.

"The IS tried, starting late Saturday, to storm the air base. A total of 20 jihadists were killed in the attack, as well as two regime soldiers," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Five members of Egypt's deadliest militant group, Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, were killed on Sunday in clashes with police, the interior ministry said.

The jihadists, who have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) group, "opened fire" after security forces stormed a farm where the militants were hiding and preparing bombs, the ministry said in a statement.

The Israeli parliament's finance committee on Sunday voted through $3.3 million (2.7 million euros) to build a tourist center at a settlement in the occupied West Bank, a statement said.

Qatar has pledged its "full support" to Egypt, an official statement said, ending more than a year of regional isolation over its support for Cairo's ousted Islamist president.