Jordan's King Abdullah II on Tuesday hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Amman in a rare meeting after years of strained relations between the two leaders.

The royal palace said they discussed the situation in Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound and "the importance of respecting the historical and legal status quo".

Netanyahu, who previously served as prime minister from 2009 to 2021, returned to power last month at the head of a coalition that includes extreme-right and ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties.

Lebanon's judge Tarek Bitar, who is investigating the deadly 2020 Beirut port blast, has charged Lebanon's top prosecutor and seven others with probable intent to murder, arson and other crimes, an official said Tuesday.

Bitar had sparked surprise in Lebanon a day before when he charged eight top security and judicial officials, reviving a probe that was suspended for over a year amid vehement political and legal pushback.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees appealed Tuesday for $1.6 billion for its work in 2023, and called for Arab countries especially to show more solidarity.

UNRWA -- which provides services to nearly six million Palestinians registered in the Palestinian territories, including Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, as well as in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria -- warned that "compounding challenges" had placed it under "immense strain".

Hundreds of Israeli high-tech workers protested Tuesday against a proposed judicial overhaul, claiming the government's controversial plans will hurt the flourishing sector by undermining the rule of law.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government says judges have too much power over elected officials, arguing the proposed reforms -- such as allowing parliament to overrule Supreme Court decisions through a majority vote -- are essential to correct the imbalance.

The Lebanese judge probing the devastating Beirut port blast has charged Prosecutor General Ghassan Oueidat and three judges, a first in the country's history, a judicial official told AFP on Tuesday.

Judge Tarek Bitar decided Monday to resume his probe into the deadly August 2020 mega-explosion despite strong political pressure that had led to a suspension of his work for more than a year.

France has repatriated 15 women and 32 children held in a prison camp for suspected jihadists in Syria, the foreign ministry said Tuesday, in the third major return of French citizens from the country.

Rights groups have been pressing for years for France to take back the wives and children of alleged Islamic State group fighters held in the camps, since the jihadist movement was ousted from its self-declared "caliphate" in 2019.

The United Arab Emirates plans to teach school students about the Holocaust, signalling warming ties with Israel, a country that is widely condemned in the Arab world over the Palestinian conflict.

The wealthy Gulf state's move comes after it agreed to normalise ties with Israel under the US-brokered 2020 Abraham Accords along with Bahrain and Morocco, years after Egypt and Jordan had forged relations.

Moroccan lawmakers on Monday voted unanimously to review ties with the European Parliament, accusing it of meddling after a resolution that urged the kingdom to respect press freedom.

Members of both houses of Morocco's parliament met in the capital Rabat for a joint session in response to the non-binding European text adopted on Thursday.

In a statement after their session, the Moroccan legislators called the European resolution "an unacceptable attack against the sovereignty, dignity and independence of judicial institutions in the kingdom."

Kuwait's government resigned on Monday three months after it was sworn in, state media reported, following disputes with lawmakers that have plunged the oil-rich Gulf state into political paralysis.

Kuwait's National Assembly is the only fully elected parliament in the Gulf but it has been fraught with repeated crises between the executive and legislature.

The outgoing cabinet is the third to be formed by Prime Minister Sheikh Ahmed Nawaf al-Ahmed Al-Sabah -- son of the country's 85-year-old ruler -- since he took the helm of the government in August.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni agreed Monday to strengthen energy cooperation with Africa's top gas exporter Algeria, the latest European country seeking supply deals to help reduce reliance on Russia.

"Facing the great energy crisis that Europe in particular is experiencing, Algeria could become a leader in production, certainly African but probably global", Meloni said in a joint press conference with Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune in the capital Algiers.