Four Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces Thursday, including an alleged attacker and Islamist fighter, medics and security officials said, as violence flared across Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank.

Two Palestinians were shot dead by Israeli forces in Jenin -- 14-year-old Mohammed Samer Khalouf and 28-year-old Farouq Salameh -- while four others suffered gunshot wounds, the Palestinian health ministry said.

Stitched into the bellies of "smuggler sheep" or loaded onto drones and ultralight planes, captagon is crossing the Middle East's borders in ever more creative ways.

Smugglers have hidden pills in huge tubs of tomato paste, packed them in hollowed out pomegranates or even painstakingly stuffed them, one by one, into pitted olives. The pills have also been hidden in fake fava beans, artificial oranges and ornate stone frescoes.

A decade of appalling civil war has left Syria fragmented and in ruins but one thing crosses every front line: a drug called captagon.

The stimulant -- once notorious for its association with Islamic State fighters -- has spawned an illegal $10 billion industry that not only props up the pariah regime of President Bashar al-Assad, but many of his enemies.

The apparent comeback of former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the dramatic rise of his far-right and ultra-Orthodox allies in Israel's general election this week have prompted little more than shrugs from many Palestinians.

"It's all the same to me," Said Issawiy, a vendor hawking nectarines in the main al-Manara Square of Ramallah, said of Netanyahu replacing centrist Yair Lapid and poised to head the most right-wing government in Israel's history.

Pope Francis, leader of the world's 1.3 billion Catholics, on Thursday began a trip to Bahrain aimed at fostering dialogue between Christians and Muslims, but marked by criticism of the Gulf state's record on human rights.

Israeli election officials were tallying the final votes from national elections on Thursday, with former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu looking likely to reclaim the premiership with a comfortable majority backed by far-right allies.

A last-minute surprise is still possible, if a small dovish group is able to sneak past the electoral threshold needed to enter parliament and hold back the size of Netanyahu's majority. But the likelihood was small, and members of Netanyahu's expected coalition were already jockeying for portfolios in what will be Israel's most right-wing government.

A graduate student at Boston's Northeastern University, Prince Abdullah bin Faisal al Saud seldom mentioned he was a member of Saudi Arabia's sprawling royal family, friends say. He avoided talking about Saudi politics, focusing on his studies, career plans and love of soccer.

But after a fellow prince — a cousin — was imprisoned back home, Prince Abdullah discussed it with relatives in calls made from the U.S., according to Saudi officials, who somehow were listening. On a trip back to Saudi Arabia, Prince Abdullah was imprisoned because of those calls. An initial 20-year sentence was hiked to 30 years in August.

Saudi Arabia has shared intelligence with American officials that suggests Iran could be preparing for an imminent attack on the kingdom, three U.S. officials said.

The heightened concerns about a potential attack on Saudi Arabia come as the Biden administration is criticizing Tehran for its crackdown on widespread protests and condemning it for sending hundreds of drones — as well as technical support — to Russia for use in its war in Ukraine.

A group of winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature urged world leaders on Wednesday to raise human rights issues as they visit Egypt for the COP27 climate change conference.

In a letter sent to various heads of state, the group of 15 Nobel Laureates asked the visiting diplomats and politicians to "devote part of your agenda to the many thousands of political prisoners held in Egypt's prisons." In particular, they asked for the case of prominent imprisoned activist Alaa Abdel-Fattah to be raised, as he escalates his hunger strike on the conference's first day.

Morocco's King Mohammed VI has invited Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune for "dialogue" in Rabat, the kingdom's foreign minister has told AFP, after months of tension between the North African rivals.