Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu left Sunday for the United States where he will become the first foreign leader to meet Donald Trump since the US president returned to office.

His visit comes as a fragile truce holds between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, and between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Both militant groups are backed by Iran.

Before boarding his flight, Netanyahu said the pair would discuss "victory over Hamas, achieving the release of all our hostages and dealing with the Iranian terror axis".

Syria's interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa said Saudi Arabia had a "genuine desire" to support his war-torn country, after meeting on Sunday with the oil-rich Gulf state's crown prince.

Accompanied by his foreign minister, Asaad al-Shaibani, Sharaa was greeted by Saudi officials on arrival in Riyadh, images from state television outlet Al-Ekhbariya showed.

Sharaa was later received by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the official Saudi news agency reported.

The Israeli military said Sunday that it had killed at least 50 militants during more than two weeks of operations in the occupied West Bank, earlier levelling buildings in Jenin refugee camp in the territory.

"As part of the operation to thwart terrorism... the IDF (military) recently destroyed several buildings in Jenin," the military said in a statement, adding that they "were used as terrorist infrastructure".

The army later said it destroyed 23 buildings in the operation.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu named retired Major General Eyal Zamir as Israel's new armed forces chief Saturday after his predecessor resigned last month taking responsibility for failing to stop Hamas's October 2023 attack.

"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz have agreed this evening on the appointment of Major General (Res.) Eyal Zamir as the next chief of staff of the (Israeli military)," Netanyahu's office said in a statement.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi told his US counterpart Donald Trump on Saturday that the world was relying on him "to reach a permanent and historic peace agreement" to end the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.

Saturday's phone call was the first between the two leaders since Trump repeatedly floated a plan to relocate Palestinians from Gaza into Jordan and Egypt, which Sisi and other Arab leaders have strongly rejected.

Three buses carrying Palestinian prisoners released by Israel as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal arrived to a cheerful crowd in the territory's southern city of Khan Yunis on Saturday.

The prisoners, many wearing grey prison uniforms, were greeted by hundreds of Gazans who gathered around the buses as they approached the city's European Hospital, an AFP journalist reported.

Rabi al-Kharoubi, 40, who came to see their arrival said he felt "indescribable joy" at seeing them freed. "We are proud of them."

Stepping off a bus with two dozen other released Palestinian prisoners on Saturday after 23 years imprisonment in Israel, Ata Abdelghani had more than his freedom to look forward to.

The 55-year-old was also able to hug his twin sons, Zain and Zaid, for the first time.

The encounter was made possible by his release in an ongoing hostage-prisoner exchange as part of a January ceasefire deal for the Gaza Strip agreed by Israel and Hamas.

The twins, now 10 years old, were conceived while Abdelghani was incarcerated after his sperm was smuggled out of his prison.

Artillery shelling and air strikes killed at least 56 people across greater Khartoum on Saturday, according to a medical source and activists, the latest bloodshed in Sudan's devastating war.

Sudan's regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have been locked in a battle for power since April 2023 that has intensified this month with the army fighting to take back control of the capital.

Pictures of Ofer Kalderon, Keith Siegel and Yarden Bibas were everywhere on Saturday at "Hostages Square" in Tel Aviv as the three Israeli captives were released by Gaza militants.

Sighs of relief ran through onlookers gathered to watch a live transmission of the three being handed over to the Red Cross in the Palestinian territory before being brought home to Israel.

"It's a good feeling, it makes us stronger," Miki Pnini, a 67-year-old Israeli from the outlying suburb of Pardesiya west of Tel Aviv, told AFP.

Ranks of Hamas fighters formed up on Gaza's beachfront on Saturday for the handover of an Israeli-American hostage in a show of force against the dramatic backdrop of breaking waves.

In Gaza City a stage had been erected at a harbour for the handover of Keith Siegel.

Green Hamas and Palestinian flags flapped in a strong sea breeze near a fisherman's wharf.

Earlier, Israeli Yarden Bibas and Franco-Israeli Ofer Kalderon were handed over in a swift and organised ceremony in the war-battered city of Khan Yunis to the south.