Israel's foreign minister on Thursday slammed a demand by the UK government to halt a major settlement project in the occupied West Bank, after Israeli authorities opened bidding for more than 1,200 homes in the area.

Israelis began moving into the occupied West Bank settlement of Kadim on Thursday, the local settler council said, the last of four communities from which Israel withdrew more than two decades ago to be repopulated.

Turkey on Thursday denied having any military presence at an air base in north Syria struck by Israel earlier this week, and vowed to continue "resolutely" supporting Syrian sovereignty.

A Syrian police investigator who slapped a man during interrogation despite having been warned that he had hemophilia will face prosecution, officials said Thursday.

Syria's interior ministry earlier this week launched an investigation into the death of Mohammad Ghamira and on Thursday announced initial results of the probe.

Israel's defense minister on Thursday accused President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of dragging Turkey into "dangerous adventures in Syria", after Israel tacitly acknowledged a strike on a north Syria air base earlier in the week.

Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf arrived in neighboring Iraq Wednesday for a three-day visit where he will meet with Iraqi officials and leaders of an Iran-backed political coalition.

Iran-backed Iraqi militias have launched and claim drone attacks targeting U.S. bases and diplomatic presence both within the country and abroad, piling the pressure on Baghdad which for years has delicately tried to maintain strong ties between both Washington and Tehran. President Donald Trump last month welcomed his Iraqi counterpart Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi at the White House, showering him with praise.

A Turkish delegation had visited an air base in northern Syria the day before it was hit by Israeli airstrikes, Syrian officials said.

The Israeli strikes hit the Abu Duhur base early Tuesday, hours after the delegation had left, causing damage but no casualties. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement that Israel had attacked the base because Syria was "on the verge of breaching" an agreed-upon "status quo in security matters" by allowing Turkish troops to deploy there.

The United Arab Emirates suspended all trade with Iran on Wednesday after it said it had come under renewed fire from the country — a move that will further isolate the Islamic Republic, which is suffering under U.S. sanctions and a blockade.

Incoming ballistic missile fire triggered nationwide warnings Tuesday night for UAE residents to seek shelter, the first time in weeks such an alarm had sounded.

Israel's military said Wednesday it would launch criminal investigations into two high-profile attacks on Palestinians during the war in Gaza, including the killings of 5-year-old Hind Rajab and her family and of 15 Palestinian paramedics.

The military said it would not launch criminal investigations into three other attacks that killed aid workers from World Central Kitchen and Doctors Without Borders.

France's foreign minister on Wednesday condemned "inhumane" remarks by Israel's far-right national security minister that Israel should kill 30 to 40 people every night in Gaza.

The remarks on a podcast by Itamar Ben Gvir "are intolerable and inhumane," said Jean-Noel Barrot.