Israeli lawmakers on Tuesday called for a parliamentary inquiry into the police's alleged use of sophisticated spyware on Israeli citizens, including protesters opposed to former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, following a newspaper report on the surveillance.
Hebrew-language business newspaper Calcalist reported that in 2020, police used the NSO spyware Pegasus to surveil leaders of protests against Netanyahu, who was then prime minister. It said police also hacked the phones of two sitting mayors suspected of corruption and numerous other Israeli citizens, all without a court order or a judge's oversight.

Palestinian mourners carried Tuesday the body of Suleiman Hathaleen, during his funeral in the West Bank Bedouin village of Um el-Kheir, south of Hebron.
Suleiman was wounded early this month when an Israeli army vehicle hit him, and succumbed to his wounds Monday at a West Bank hospital.

Eleven people were killed in air strikes on Yemen's rebel-held capital, a witness and medical sources told AFP on Tuesday, as the Saudi-led coalition hit back after a deadly attack on Abu Dhabi that sent Gulf tensions soaring.
Residents were combing the rubble for survivors after the strikes levelled two houses in Sanaa, hours after the Huthi rebels claimed a drone and missile attack that killed three people in the Emirati capital.

Satellite photos obtained by The Associated Press on Tuesday appear to show the aftermath of a fatal attack on an oil facility in the capital of the United Arab Emirates claimed by Yemen's Houthi rebels.
The images by Planet Labs PBC analyzed by the AP show smoke rising over an Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. fuel depot in the Mussafah neighborhood of Abu Dhabi on Monday. Another image taken shortly after appears to show scorch marks and white fire-suppressing foam deployed on the grounds of the depot.

South Korea's leader arrived in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, where he was greeted in Riyadh by the kingdom's crown prince and an honor guard marching band.
It was the second stop on a Mideast tour by South Korean President Moon Jae-in and his wife, who were greeted on the tarmac by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. All were masked and President Moon did not shake hands with the prince, in line with coronavirus social distancing practices.

Three Iranian diplomats have arrived in Saudi Arabia to represent Tehran in the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, state TV reported Monday.
The report said the diplomats arrived several days ago, marking the first time that Saudi Arabia is receiving diplomats from Iran since 2016. That's when Saudi Arabia severed relations with the Islamic Republic after Iranian hardliners attacked Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran.

Mansour Abbas broke a longstanding taboo when he led his Arab party into Israel's governing coalition last year. The bold move appears to be paying dividends.
Abbas, a once obscure politician, is the linchpin of the shaky union, securing hefty budgets and favorable policies for his constituents and even winning an audience with the king of Jordan.

A senior U.N. official said she is pushing for Libya to hold elections by June after the county missed a December deadline to elect its first president since the 2011 ouster and killing of longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi.
Stephanie Williams, the U.N.'s special adviser on Libya, told The Associated Press late Sunday that it is still "very reasonable and possible" for the country's 2.8 million voters to cast their ballots by June in line with the U.N.-brokered 2020 roadmap.

Three people were killed in a suspected drone attack that set off a blast and a fire in Abu Dhabi on Monday, officials said, as Yemen's rebels announced military operations in the United Arab Emirates.
Two Indians and a Pakistani died as three petrol tanks exploded near the storage facility of oil giant ADNOC, while a fire ignited in a construction area at Abu Dhabi airport.
Israeli police were in a standoff Monday with a Palestinian man who carried a gas cannister on the roof of his home in a Jerusalem flashpoint as his family faced eviction.
Israeli media reported that Mohammed Salhiya had threatened to set himself on fire if the eviction order from Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem was carried out.
