When he raises his index finger and frowns, Iraq holds its breath. The mercurial Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr has yet again showed his political prowess, able to mobilize and demobilize loyalists within minutes.

On Monday, in a short message, he announced his "definitive retirement" from politics and the closure of all institutions linked to his movement.

Doctors in the occupied West Bank are struggling to save Palestinians from permanent disability after being shot in an upsurge of violence linked to Israeli raids targeting Palestinian militants.

At Rafidia Surgical Hospital in Nablus, in the northern West Bank, a teenager with bandaged legs was carried up the stairs by another boy.

Saudi Arabia said Wednesday it opened an investigation after videos purportedly showed security forces beating women at an orphanage in the kingdom's southwest.

The governor of Saudi Arabia's Asir region formed a committee to probe the beatings captured in the online video and "refer the case to the competent authorities," the state-run Saudi Press Agency reported. It was not immediately clear what led to the incident or when it took place.

A months-long political crisis in Iraq showed little sign of abating Wednesday despite a fresh push for negotiations after nearly 24 hours of deadly violence between rival Shiite factions ended.

The highly-secured Green Zone in Baghdad returned to normality after 30 people were killed and 570 wounded in the clashes pitting supporters of powerful Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr against factions linked to Iran.

The defense ministers of Japan and Israel shared concerns on Tuesday about growing global tensions from Asia to the Middle East and signed an agreement to step up cooperation in military equipment and technology.

Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada said he welcomes stronger military ties with Israel as a way to achieve a "free and open Indo-Pacific" vision advocated by Japan and the United States to counter China's growing assertiveness in the region.

An influential Iraqi cleric called on his supporters to withdraw Tuesday from the capital's government quarter, where they have traded heavy fire with a rival pro-Iran coalition in a serious escalation of a monthslong political crisis gripping the nation.

In a televised speech, Muqtada al-Sadr gave his supporters an hour to leave — and minutes later some could be seen abandoning their positions on live television. Iraq's military immediately announced an end to curfews across the country, further raising hopes that there might be an end to the street violence.

Outgoing U.N. rights chief Michelle Bachelet blasted Israel on Tuesday for failing to issue or renew visas for her staff to monitor the human rights situation in the Palestinian territories.

The United Nations high commissioner for human rights said it raised questions as to what Israel was "trying to hide" and vowed that her office would continue to report on the situation in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank.

An Israeli court on Tuesday sentenced the former Gaza head of a major US-based aid agency to 12 years in prison for funneling millions of dollars to Islamist group Hamas.

The Beersheba district court in southern Israel issued a sentence of "12 years prison time, less the detention" already served for World Vision's Mohammed al-Halabi, who has been jailed throughout the past six years of court proceedings.

Palestinians opened fire at Israeli Jews who snuck into an occupied West Bank city to visit a shrine, wounding two of them, the Israeli army and medical sources said Tuesday.

The incident in Nablus was followed by an unrelated Israeli military raid nearby in which four Palestinians were shot.

Fighting between rival Iraqi forces raged for a second day Tuesday with rocket fire echoing from Baghdad's Green Zone where 23 supporters of powerful Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr have been shot dead, medics said.

Tensions have soared in Iraq amid a political crisis that has left the country without a new government, prime minister or president for months, and escalated sharply after Sadr's supporters on Monday afternoon stormed the government palace following their leader's announcement that he was quitting politics.