Israeli lawmakers passed an annual budget Wednesday with controversial allocations for ultra-Orthodox Jews, in a concession to religious parties in the governing coalition that drew protests from the opposition.

Thousands of Israelis marched through Jerusalem on Tuesday to demonstrate against the government's plans to hand more cash to ultra-Orthodox communities, accusing the coalition of "looting" state funds.

The world is failing to protect civilians as the number of people caught up in conflicts and their humanitarian aftershocks skyrocketed last year, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Tuesday.

In 2022, the United Nations tallied a 53 percent increase in civilian deaths compared to the year prior, with nearly 17,000 civilian deaths recorded across 12 conflicts.

Thousands of Israelis on Tuesday protested the allocation of funds to ultra-Orthodox Jews in the government's proposed state budget.

Ahead of the budget votes beginning late Tuesday and continuing Wednesday, the drum-beating protesters, bearing Israeli flags, marched through Jerusalem to parliament, accusing the ruling coalition of "looting" the state's money.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, already the country's longest-serving premier, took power again in December in a coalition with extreme right and ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties.

Asian Football Confederation (AFC) president, Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al-Khalifa, said the body wanted to host another World Cup, in 2030 or 2034, and that "Saudi Arabia is coming in force".

Asia has staged the World Cup twice: in South Korea and Japan in 2002 and in 2022 in Qatar.

"I think Saudi Arabia is a country capable of organising a similar tournament," Sheikh Salman, who is from Bahrain, told journalists in Beirut on Monday during a visit to Syria and Lebanon.

North Korea, Eritrea and Mauritania have the highest prevalence of modern slavery in the world, according to the 2023 Global Slavery Index published Wednesday, which noted a "worsening" situation globally since its last survey five years earlier.

The report said an estimated 50 million people were "living in situations of modern slavery" in 2021, an increase of 10 million over 2016, when the problem was last measured.

The figure includes some 28 million people in forced labour and 22 million living in a forced marriage.

Israeli troops on Tuesday demolished the West Bank home of a Palestinian militant who was killed after carrying out a deadly shooting in the heart of Tel Aviv in March.

"Forces of the army and the border police destroyed the home in the village of Nilin of the terrorist Mutaz Khawaja, who carried out a shooting attack on March 9, 2023 in Dizengoff Street, Tel Aviv," an army statement said.

Khawaja, 23, was a member of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist group which rules Gaza.

Qatar's energy minister warned on Tuesday the "worst is yet to come" for Europe's oil and gas shortages, saying a warm winter had prevented greater difficulties in recent months.

Saad al-Kaabi and his Saudi counterpart Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said a lack of investment in oil and gas, as the world tries to transition to cleaner fuels to prevent global warming, risked causing an energy crunch.

"The only thing that saved humanity and Europe this year was a warm winter, and the slowdown in the economy," Qatari Energy Minister Saad Al-Kaabi told the Qatar Economic Forum.

A SpaceX capsule carrying two Saudi astronauts docked with the International Space Station on Monday, as part of a private mission chartered by Axiom Space.

Rayyanah Barnawi, a scientist who became the first Saudi woman to go into space, and Ali Al-Qarni, a trained fighter pilot, are the first two people from their country to fly to the orbital outpost.

"Greetings from outer space, I'm here not only representing myself, but representing the hopes and dreams of everyone back home, everyone in the region," said Barnawi.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has returned to the Arab fold after more than a decade of isolation, eyeing reconstruction and aid from formers foes as the conflict grinds on.

Since the brutal civil war broke out in 2011, it has killed more than 500,000 people, displaced millions and devastated much of the country's infrastructure and industry.

AFP looks at Assad's regional rehabilitation and what it means for Syria's rebels, its refugees, reconstruction and the roaring illegal trade in the stimulant drug captagon.

- How have Arab nations mended ties? -

Dozens of journalists protested Monday in front of a Tunis police station after two of their colleagues had been taken for questioning over comments on Tunisia's security forces, AFP correspondents said.

Columnist Haythem El Mekki and presenter Elyes Gharbi were interrogated for several hours, after which their case has been transferred to the Tunis prosecutor's office, their lawyer Ayoub Ghdamssi told AFP.