In the walled Old City of Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, Nora and Mustafa Sub Laban are counting down the last days before a court decision that has hovered over them since 1978 is carried out.

After decades of legal wrangling, they are set to be evicted from their home in the Muslim Quarter to make way for Jewish settlers.

"These days, I'm like a prisoner waiting to be put to death. I don't sleep like other people," Nora Sub Laban told AFP.

The east Jerusalem residents have been embroiled in a 45-year legal battle with authorities and Israeli settlers.

A 24-hour ceasefire took effect Saturday between Sudan's warring generals but, with fears running high it will collapse like its predecessors, US and Saudi mediators warned they may break off mediation efforts.

Three hours into the truce, residents in various areas of Khartoum said the shelling and air strikes that have rocked the capital daily since mid-April had halted, at least temporarily.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas will make a state visit to China next week, Beijing said Friday, after China expressed readiness to help facilitate Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

Beijing has positioned itself as a mediator in the Middle East, brokering the restoration of ties in March between Iran and Saudi Arabia -- rivals in a region where the United States has for decades been the main powerbroker.

One month into a much-touted programme to heal the country's deep political rifts, Egyptian authorities have arrested dozens of dissidents, opposition supporters and football fans in a wave of repression.

Cairo inaugurated its long-delayed "national dialogue" on May 3, promising to give a platform to opposition voices that have been largely silenced since President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi took office in 2014.

Critics have denounced it as a public relations stunt designed to burnish a dismal human rights record.

Huddled inside a tent in rebel-held northwestern Syria, Umm Khaled says she fears her baby will die unless she gets specialist treatment in neighbouring Turkey for a congenital heart defect.

Seriously ill Syrians in the country's last rebel bastion of Idlib used to be able to access life-saving care across the border.

But the main crossing there for medical visits slammed shut after a deadly earthquake ravaged southern Turkey on February 6, prompting Ankara to prioritise its domestic needs.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to undermine prospects for a Palestinian state, after talks in Saudi Arabia which linked normalization to peace efforts.

Blinken, after wrapping up a visit to the Gulf Arab monarchy criticized by rights groups, spoke by telephone with Netanyahu to discuss "deepening Israel's integration into the Middle East through normalization with countries in the region," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.

An estimated 150,000 people marched Thursday in Israel's coastal metropolis Tel Aviv for the Middle East's largest Pride parade, amid protests against the presence of anti-LGBTQ ministers in the government.

Revellers in colourful outfits danced on and around floats playing music on the seafront promenade of Israel's cultural and financial hub, seen as a rare oasis of LGBTQ tolerance in the region, AFP journalists said.

"It's a huge celebration and I want to be here today to support the LGBTQ+ community, I really want to be with you," 26-year-old Elise Zhdanova told AFP.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Saudi Arabia was not being forced to choose between Washington and Beijing, striking a conciliatory tone in Riyadh following tensions with the long-time ally.

Blinken, appearing alongside his Saudi counterpart Prince Faisal bin Farhan at the end of a three-day visit, denied that Saudi Arabia's warming ties with China were a problem for the United States.

Israeli troops on Thursday demolished the West Bank home of a Palestinian accused of carrying out twin bombings in Jerusalem last November that killed two Israelis, including a teenager.

The army used explosives to make the first floor apartment in Ramallah where Aslam Faroukh lived uninhabitable, an AFP journalist reported.

Faroukh was arrested in December and accused of carrying out the November 23 bombings at Jerusalem bus stops that killed a 15-year-old Israeli-Canadian and an Israeli in his 50s. They were the first bombings to have targeted Israeli civilians since 2016.

Riyadh and Washington urged Western governments Thursday to repatriate citizens who joined the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, where thousands still languish in prisons or camps.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said it was "disheartening and absolutely unacceptable" that some wealthy countries had not brought their nationals home.

"To those countries, you must step up, you must take your responsibility," he told a meeting of the international anti-IS coalition that was attended by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.