Three Palestinians were killed and 12 others were wounded on Friday during an Israeli army raid in Jenin, a stronghold of armed Palestinian factions in the occupied West Bank.

The men were killed when Israeli forces opened fire on a vehicle in which they were, the Palestinian news agency Wafa said.

"Fierce clashes" then ensued in the area, with Israeli troops firing at Palestinians, wounding 12, Wafa reported.

An AFP photographer said a white vehicle riddled with bullet holes was in the area where Israeli forces have stepped up operations in recent months.

Mourad al-Marouai was just nine when a landmine killed him on a beach in war-torn Yemen, a tragedy that will haunt his family forever.

After a swim, the little boy "suddenly disappeared" when he and his two brothers were beach-combing for garbage to sell.

"All I saw were hands and legs," elder brother Yahya, 15, told AFP, clasping the rosary that Mourad had found in the sand and given to him.

The chilling incident in January, in the western province of Hodeida, is all too common in Yemen, where mines are a constant threat and hobble economic activity and aid.

Saudi tour guide Nada Alfuraih ushers guests through an 18th-century palace built from mud and straw, the very site where the kingdom's royal family is said to have first plotted its conquest of the Arabian Peninsula.

Pausing in an airy assembly hall, she raves about this aspect of her country's origin story. Her only regret is that today, nearly 300 years later, some young Saudis seem unaware of it.

"I meet visitors who have no clue. They must have skipped this part of their education or something," she told AFP.

Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has long been sidelined on the world stage but as he prepares to mark five years as de facto leader, he is finally coming in from the cold.

Next month's visit by US President Joe Biden will complete the international rehabilitation of the 36-year-old prince, who was widely reviled over the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Biden's trip -- after Russia's invasion of Ukraine sent oil prices soaring, piling on economic pain -- follows visits by the leaders of France, Britain and Turkey.

The makers of Disney-Pixar's new blockbuster about Buzz Lightyear told AFP on Thursday that they were warned of a likely backlash against the same-sex marriage it features, but did not care.

More than a dozen Muslim-majority countries have refused to show "Lightyear" -- a sci-fi spin-off from the Pixar classic "Toy Story", set for global release on Friday -- in opposition to the marriage between two female side characters.

"We had been warned this would be a likely outcome," producer Galyn Susman told AFP in a Zoom interview.

A UN-backed court sentenced two Hezbollah members in their absence to life imprisonment on Thursday for a huge Beirut bombing in 2005 that killed Lebanon's ex-premier Rafic Hariri.

Habib Merhi and Hussein Oneissi were found guilty on appeal in March by the Dutch-based Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) over the attack, which killed 21 other people and injured 226.

Qatar Airways on Thursday posted a record net profit of $1.54 billion for the 2021-2022 financial year, a result it attributed to a "successful strategy" during the coronavirus pandemic.

The state-owned airline said the profit result was "200 percent above its highest annual historical profit" and achieved on the back of $14.4 billion in overall income.

It said that the revenue figure was "a remarkable two percent higher than the full financial year pre-Covid" in 2019-2020.

Israel announced an extra 2,000 entry permits for Palestinians in Gaza Thursday, bringing the total number of permits for workers from the blockaded enclave to 14,000.

"Following a security assessment, the minister of defence has decided to raise the quota of entry permits for work and commerce in Israel by an additional 2,000," COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry body responsible for civil affairs in the Palestinian territories, said.

Qatar Airways on Thursday posted a record net profit of $1.54 billion for the 2021-2022 financial year, a result it attributed to a "successful strategy" during the coronavirus pandemic.

The state-owned airline said the profit result was "200 percent above its highest annual historical profit" and achieved on the back of $14.4 billion in overall income.

It said that the revenue figure was "a remarkable two percent higher than the full financial year pre-Covid" in 2019-2020.

Israeli police said Thursday they had concluded an internal investigation into violence at the funeral of slain Al Jazeera TV journalist Shireen Abu Akleh -- without however releasing any findings.

The police launched the probe following an international outcry after the veteran reporter's coffin was almost dropped when police attacked the pallbearers during her funeral last month.

Thousands had attended the service in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, and images of the unrest were broadcast live on TV. Israeli authorities blamed Palestinian protesters for the ugly scenes.