Tunisia and Libya announced Thursday they had agreed to share responsibility for providing shelter for hundreds of migrants stranded at their border, many of them for over a month.

The migrants, primarily from sub-Saharan African countries, had been driven to the desert area of Ras Jedir by Tunisian authorities and left there to fend for themselves, according to witnesses, rights groups and U.N. agencies.

An Israeli settler suspected of involvement in the killing of a 19-year-old Palestinian man in the West Bank last week was released from detention and transferred to house arrest, a Jerusalem court said.

The Israeli judge said there was insufficient evidence to extend the detention of the radical Jewish settler, Elisha Yared. The court also ordered a second Israeli settler accused of shooting and killing the 19-year-old Qusai Matan to remain in custody while being hospitalized for wounds sustained during the attack last Friday on the Palestinian herding village of Burqa.

Syrian President Bashar Assad has slammed Turkey, blaming Ankara for the uptick in violence in his war-torn country and insisting on the withdrawal of Turkish forces from Syria.

Assad spoke in an interview with Sky News Arabia, his first interview with a foreign media outlet in months. The interview will be fully aired later Wednesday, but Sky News Arabia released some excerpts before the broadcast.

Israeli forces on Thursday shot dead a Palestinian militant in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian officials and a relative of the deceased said, as the army reported "counterterrorism activity" in the area.

Amir Ahmed Mohammed Khalifa, 27, was killed during a raid on Zawata, a town west of the city of Nablus, the Palestinian health ministry said in a statement.

A Syrian television journalist and two soldiers were killed on Wednesday when a roadside bomb exploded in the southern province of Daraa, state media reported.

"Correspondent Firas al-Ahmad from (privately owned) Sama TV and two members of our armed forces were killed by an explosive device" as they returned from a counternarcotics operation in the province, state television said.

Bahrain prison inmates are taking part in a hunger strike over conditions there, activists and authorities said Wednesday, the latest sign of simmering unrest in the island kingdom a decade after the Arab Spring.

The strike targets the Jaw Rehabilitation and Reform Center, a facility holding many of the prisoners identified by human rights activists as dissidents who oppose the rule of the Al Khalifa family. The country's Sunni rulers long have faced complaints from the island's Shiite majority of discrimination.

The United States and its allies vowed Tuesday to keep Syria's failure to account for its chemical weapons program in the spotlight at the U.N. Security Council every month despite opposition from Russia and China.

U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the council Syrian President Bashar Assad's government "has repeatedly lied to the international community" and to investigators from the international chemical weapons watchdog, which has confirmed that it used these banned weapons on at least nine occasions.

A spate of high-profile visits by U.S. officials to Saudi Arabia underscores how ties have warmed amid talks over a potential deal that would see the Gulf kingdom recognise Israel, analysts say.

Less than a year after U.S. President Joe Biden warned of unspecified "consequences" for Riyadh during a dispute over oil supply, he is dispatching top aides to meet Saudi royals at a rapid clip.

The United Nations announced late Tuesday that an agreement had been reached with Syria to reopen the main border crossing from Turkey to its rebel-held northwest for six months.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomed the "understanding" reached following talks between U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths and Syrian officials, U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said.

The Syrian government decided to increase prices of drugs by 50%, the head of the pharmacies syndicate in Damascus said Tuesday, as the Syrian pound hit new a low in recent days.

Hassan Derwan did not give a reason for the price hike in his interview with the pro-government daily Al-Watan. Earlier this year, prices were raised by between 50% and 80%.