Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared headed toward victory Wednesday, with 80% of the ballots from the parliamentary elections counted and showing that voters gave him and his far-right allies what looks like a stable majority in the country's parliament.

Votes were still being counted and results were not final. But if preliminary indications were correct, Israel was potentially headed to its most right-wing government, bolstered by a strong showing from the ultranationalist Religious Zionism party, whose members use inflammatory anti-Arab and anti-LGBTQ rhetoric.

Egypt's most prominent imprisoned activist went on "full hunger strike"' on Tuesday and plans to stop drinking water on the first day of the global climate summit next week, his family said.

Alaa Abdel-Fattah, an outspoken dissident and a U.K. citizen, rose to prominence with the 2011 pro-democracy uprisings that swept the Middle East and in Egypt toppled long-time President Hosni Mubarak. The 40-year old activist spent most of the past decade behind bars and his detention has become a symbol of Egypt's return to autocratic rule.

In a few weeks, the tiny emirate jutting out into the Persian Gulf will welcome the world when it hosts the biggest sporting event to ever be staged in the Arab region. Soccer's World Cup is coming, and with it so much scrutiny but also plenty of intrigue.

Qatar is using the World Cup to showcase its culture, history and identity for the estimated 1.2 million visitors traveling in for the Nov. 20-Dec. 18 tournament, and for the many more watching on TV, too.

Pope Francis is making the first-ever papal trip to Bahrain this week, sparking calls from the country's majority Shiite opposition and human rights activists for the pontiff to raise human rights concerns in the small island nation.

The island off the coast of Saudi Arabia is ruled by a Sunni monarchy that violently quashed 2011 Arab Spring protests there with the aid of allies Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Algeria is hosting the 31st summit of the largest annual Arab conference on Tuesday and Wednesday as the region battles to find common ground over a series of divisive issues.

The 22-member Arab League last held its summit in 2019, before the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. In the years since, new challenges have drastically reshaped the region's agenda, with the establishment of diplomatic ties between Israel and four more Arab League countries, as well as the fallout of the war in Ukraine.

Israel's election on Tuesday, the country's fifth since 2019, largely pits familiar faces against one another in a tight race. Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, now the opposition leader, is hoping to return to power and replace his main rival, interim Prime Minister Yair Lapid. The election is once again seen as a referendum on Netanyahu's fitness to rule while he faces corruption charges. One new player has burst onto the scene. Far-right politician Itamar Ben-Gvir has been surging in opinion polls and could be key to lifting Netanyahu to victory.

Here's a look at the main players:

Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu was within reach of a governing majority and of making a political comeback, initial projections showed after Tuesday's election, but the tally could shift as official results come in. 

Ahead of Israel's November 1 general election, the fifth in four years, AFP spoke to voters about their views on the polls, the main issues and the country's perpetual political crisis.

- Bar owner: 'Future stability' -

A rights group accused Syrian government forces Monday of burning bodies inside pits in an effort to make the corpses unidentifiable -- the latest in a slew of accusations of crimes by Damascus.

"This may reflect a broader practice of the Syrian government to destroy evidence of their crimes and deny the families of their victims their right to know the fates of their loved ones or receive their remains," the Washington-based Syrian Center for Justice and Accountability said in a report.

Arab leaders are to meet in the Algerian capital on Tuesday for their first summit since a string of normalization deals with Israel that have divided the region.

The 22-member Arab League held its last summit in 2019, prior to both the coronavirus pandemic and the UAE's historic U.S.-backed deal establishing diplomatic ties with the Jewish state.