An exchange of nearly 900 prisoners from Yemen's civil war will start on Friday, one day later than previously announced, a government official said on Wednesday.

No reason was given for the delay to the three-day exchange, in which prisoners will be flown between cities in Yemen and its oil-rich neighbour, Saudi Arabia.

The biggest prisoner swap since 2020 is taking place after a delegation from Saudi Arabia, which launched a military intervention in 2015, held talks with Yemen's Iran-backed Huthi rebels this week in an attempt to end hostilities.

The Greek Orthodox Church on Wednesday slammed Israel's "heavy-handed restrictions" on its upcoming Easter celebrations in Jerusalem, urging Christians to attend in spite of police curbs.

In an escalating row over attendance numbers at the Holy Fire ceremony on Saturday in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre -- where Christians believe Jesus's tomb lies -- the church said negotiations with police had failed.

Saudi Arabia hosted landmark delegations from Iran and Syria on Wednesday as Gulf countries prepare for re-establishing diplomatic ties after years of bitter divisions.

Only hours after Iranian state media said a delegation had touched down in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia announced the arrival of Syria's foreign minister in Jeddah -- the first such trip since the country's civil war broke out in 2011.

A leading US senator called Tuesday on European allies to stand firm on democracy in Tunisia before approving an IMF bailout, accusing President Kais Saied of long-term damage through his power grabs.

Chris Murphy, who leads the Senate subcommittee on relations with the Middle East, also faulted President Joe Biden, a fellow Democrat, for maintaining US assistance to Tunisia's military.

Israeli forces shot dead two Palestinian militants Tuesday in the West Bank, on a day mourners laid to rest a British-Israeli woman who died in an attack that also killed her two daughters.

Israeli-Palestinian violence has surged over the last week, with the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, Jewish Passover and Christian Easter coinciding.

"I commend the actions of the soldiers who eliminated two terrorists who opened fire on them near Elon Moreh", a Jewish settlement close to the West Bank city of Nablus, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said on Twitter.

Thousands of mourners gathered Tuesday at an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank for the funeral of a British-Israeli woman killed in a shooting attack days earlier.

Israelis holding national flags lined the roads in the rain leading to the funeral for Lucy Dee in Kfar Etzion, in the southern West Bank.

The 48-year-old, also known by her Hebrew name Leah, died Monday from wounds sustained three days earlier when her car came under fire in the Jordan Valley.

Two of her children, sisters aged 16 and 20, were shot dead in the attack and buried on Sunday.

A prisoner exchange involving hundreds of detainees from Yemen's brutal civil war will start on Thursday, a Yemeni government official said, against a backdrop of rising hopes for peace.

Nearly 900 prisoners, most of whom were fighting with Huthi rebels, will be flown between Yemen and Saudi Arabia, which leads the military coalition fighting on behalf of the ousted government, the official said on Tuesday.

The apparent leak of a trove of highly classified US documents -- including many related to the Ukraine conflict -- has triggered a criminal investigation as well as a multi-agency effort to assess the potential fallout.

The source of the leaked documents is unknown and as of Monday the Department of Defense was still working to assess their authenticity, though it has acknowledged they appear to contain sensitive, classified material.

An Iranian-born American woman has been sentenced to four years in prison for providing financial support to a plot to kidnap dissident Iranian-American activist Masih Alinejad, the Justice Department said Monday.

Niloufar Bahadorifar, 48, of Irvine, California, pleaded guilty in December to multiple charges, including conspiring to violate US sanctions by giving material support to Iran.

The Justice Department said Bahadorifar was sentenced by US District Judge Ronnie Abrams on Friday to four years in prison followed by three years of supervised release.

A Kuwaiti media outlet has unveiled a virtual news presenter generated using artificial intelligence, with plans for it to read online bulletins.

"Fedha" appeared on the Twitter account of the Kuwait News website on Saturday as an image of a woman, her light-coloured hair uncovered, wearing a black jacket and white T-shirt.

"I'm Fedha, the first presenter in Kuwait who works with artificial intelligence at Kuwait News. What kind of news do you prefer? Let's hear your opinions," she said in classical Arabic.