Nine Syrian sailors are missing following a drone strike that sank a commercial ship off the coast of Bulgaria, a Syrian official told AFP on Thursday, after rescuers called off search operations.

Bulgarian authorities said no survivors had been found from the ship, after drones hit two commercial vessels early Tuesday in the Black Sea, the latest fallout from the Ukraine-Russia war in recent months.

Turkey's foreign minister on Thursday ruled out sending troops to confront Yemen's Houthi forces, despite a defense pact with Saudi Arabia.

"This is a defense agreement," said Hakan Fidan. "This is not an offensive agreement. That is, Turkey will not send its troops to another country's territory to launch an attack."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s former military secretary has accused the Israeli leader of altering official transcripts of phone calls from the morning of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks.

The accusations by Maj. Gen. Avi Gil came in a wide-ranging interview with the right-wing Israel Hayom newspaper.

Several explosions were heard in Saudi Arabia's capital of Riyadh on Thursday, including a large blast at the city's international airport, a witness told The Associated Press, a day after the kingdom said an attack there killed one person and wounded others.

The cause of the blasts was not immediately known. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Iran-backed Houthi rebels in neighboring Yemen have repeatedly claimed attacks against airports, military and oil facilities in Saudi Arabia in recent days.

Israel said the British consulate in Jerusalem ended its functions on Thursday but that seven diplomats would be allowed to remain in a limited capacity, with the UK saying it would continue to offer "vital services".

The move comes after Israel ordered the closure of the consulate in September as retaliation after London led Western sanctions over violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

A Palestinian man was killed and nine people were injured during an Israeli settler attack followed by army intervention in an occupied West Bank village on Wednesday, according to the mayor and the Palestinian health ministry.

Israel carried out new strikes in Gaza on Wednesday as it marked the third anniversary of the October 7 attacks by Hamas, with Palestinian officials reporting three people dead.

Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen claimed new attacks on airports and military facilities in neighboring Saudi Arabia on Wednesday as the kingdom is pulled deeper into the latest front in the Iran war, which also threatens a crucial shipping alternative to the Strait of Hormuz.

As the Saudi capital is targeted again, new cage-like fences have been erected this week around fuel tanks and other equipment of the Saudi state-run Aramco oil company near the Riyadh airport. The kingdom, the world's top oil exporter, has seen oil and military assets targeted in recent days.

The Hamas attack of October 7, 2023 has accelerated Israel's decline, the chief of staff for Iran's armed forces said Wednesday, as Israelis marked the third anniversary of the deadliest day in their country's history.

"The Resistance Front turned its defensive strategy into an offensive strategy for the legitimate defence of the Palestinian people and their land, and accelerated the decline of the Zionist regime," Ali Abdollahi said in a statement.

It's perhaps the most dramatic wound inflicted on the Gaza Strip by Israel's military campaign over the past three years: The city of Rafah, once home to a quarter million people, has been erased.

Satellite imagery shows the Israeli military has systematically razed the southern city and other towns and districts to the ground and in some places plowed away the rubble. Demolition, using bulldozers and explosives, has continued unabated since the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal reached a year ago, as the military solidifies its hold over the around 60% of the territory that it still controls.