Libya's UN-recognised unity government retook the town of Tarhuna southeast of Tripoli on Friday, depriving eastern-based strongman Khalifa Haftar of his last redoubt in the west, a spokesman said.

"Our heroic forces have extended their control over the whole of Tarhuna," said Mohamad Gnounou, spokesman for the Government National Accord, already buoyed by the recapture of the whole of greater Tripoli.

At least nine fighters loyal to the Syrian regime, including four Syrians, were killed during Israeli air raids late Thursday in the Hama province a central region controlled by the Syrian army and Iranians, a monitor group said.

On a summer day last year, presidential guards drove out of the charity organization founded by Syria's wealthiest businessman and a close cousin of President Bashar Assad, carting away boxes of documents and computers. At the same time, the charity's director was being questioned at the palace on suspicion of corruption.

Israel's parliament told employees to remain home and cancelled lawmaker meetings on Thursday, after a member of the Arab-led Joint List tested positive for coronavirus.

A tweet claiming to show the start of a coup in Qatar, with shaky footage of an illuminated window and crackling gunfire, spread quickly after being posted early last month.

Russian air strikes have hit Syria's last major rebel bastion for the first time since a March ceasefire came into force, a war monitor said on Wednesday.

Five suspects are on trial in Jordan for allegedly plotting to carry out suicide attacks against Israeli targets in the occupied West Bank, a judicial source told AFP on Tuesday.

The U.N. on Tuesday raised only around half the required $2.41 billion in humanitarian aid for Yemen, ravaged by war and coronavirus, at a donor conference hosted by Saudi Arabia in the sixth year of its military intervention.

Syria's stock market on Tuesday suspended trading for the largest cellular company in the country, owned by a cousin of the president and one of Syria's richest businessmen.

The decision by the Syrian Commission of Financial Markets and Securities marked another development in a deepening financial dispute within the Assad family, which has ruled Syria for five decades. The company, Syriatel, is one of the country's largest employers, with thousands of staff and 11 million subscribers.

Poverty in the occupied West Bank may double as Palestinians are hit by the coronavirus, the World Bank warned Monday, just weeks before Israel aims to kick-start plans to annex parts of the territory.