Thousands of Christian pilgrims have taken part in Palm Sunday celebrations in Jerusalem at the start of the Holy Week.

The holiday this year comes as tourists are returning to the Holy Land following two years of disruption during the pandemic. It also is taking place as tensions between Israelis and Palestinians are rising amid a spate of recent Palestinian attacks in Israel that have prompted military raids in the occupied West Bank in response.

Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian man near the city of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said early Monday, the latest in a growing wave of violence that has erupted during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

The Israeli military said it opened fire at a man throwing a firebomb at an Israeli vehicle driving on a West Bank highway late Sunday. The shooting raised to four the number of Palestinians killed in the past 24 hours, among them an unarmed woman who was shot and killed at a military checkpoint near Bethlehem.

Israeli troops on Saturday raided the West Bank hometown of a Palestinian who carried out a deadly shooting in Tel Aviv, sparking a gunbattle that left at least one Palestinian militant dead, according to Palestinian officials.

The Israeli military said its troops were carrying out what it said was a counterterrorism operation in the city of Jenin and the adjacent Jenin refugee camp. That's the area in the northern West Bank where the gunman in Thursday's attack had lived. It said the troops came under fire and returned fire at the assailants. There were no Israeli casualties and the forces seized an automatic rifle used by one of the militants, the military said.

The new head of Yemen's internationally recognized government has said that the council he was chosen to lead will work to end the country's grinding, eight-year civil war.

In his first televised address, Rashad al-Alimi thanked his government's backers —Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — which have been helping Yemeni government forces fight the Iran-backed Houthi rebels for years.

Pink Floyd is releasing its first new music in almost three decades to raise money for the people of Ukraine, the band has announced.

"Hey Hey Rise Up" features Pink Floyd members David Gilmour and Nick Mason, with vocals from Ukrainian singer Andriy Khlyvnyuk of the band BoomBox. Roger Waters, who left the band in the 1980s, is not involved.

Japan announced Friday it is expelling eight Russian diplomats and trade officials and will phase out imports of Russian coal and oil, with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida saying Moscow must be held accountable for "war crimes" in Ukraine.

Kishida said Japan will also ban imports of Russian lumber, vodka and other goods, and will prohibit new Japanese investment in Russia.

U.S. markets were poised to open higher Friday as investors cap a week of ups and downs while the Russian bombardment of Ukraine rolls on against a backdrop of global inflation and an ongoing virus pandemic.

On Wall Street, futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4% while futures for the S&P 500 gained 0.3%.

The German government on Friday unveiled a package of loans and other financial assistance to help companies hit hard by the war in Ukraine and sanctions on Russia.

The package includes loans of as much as 100 billion ($109 billion) to cover the credit risks taken by Germany's energy industry as the country scrambles to replace imports of Russian oil, gas and coal.

Sri Lankan business leaders on Friday called for an end to political instability amid public demands for the president to resign over alleged economic mismanagement, warning that failure to do so would lead to economic catastrophe.

Leaders from 23 business associations representing export, import and logistics companies told reporters in the capital, Colombo, that they want lawmakers to "act responsibly and resolutely to implement remedial solutions to halt and then reverse the rapidly deteriorating situation."

At least three people including two Polish tourists were killed when a bus crashed on a highway near the Red Sea, Egypt's state-owned MENA news agency reported.

The bus was carrying 21 people, including 19 Polish tourists when it rolled over on the highway linking the two ports of Safaga and al-Qoseir on Thursday, MENA said. The Egyptian driver was also killed in the crash.