Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said Sunday he would appoint a senior military officer as transport minister after a recent train crash at Cairo's central station killed 22 people.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in full campaign mode ahead of April 9 polls, on Sunday said Israel "was not a state of all its citizens" in a reference to the country's Arab population.

The prime minister, in comments on Instagram, went on to say all citizens, including Arabs, had equal rights, but referred to a deeply controversial law passed last year declaring Israel the nation-state of the Jewish people.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas appointed longtime ally Mohammad Shtayyeh as prime minister on Sunday, a senior official said, in a move seen as part of efforts to further isolate Hamas.

An Israeli officer shot dead a masked Palestinian on Sunday as he accelerated his car toward an officer at a checkpoint set up to apprehend thieves in the occupied West Bank, police said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Hamas Sunday that Israel would not hesitate to launch a "large-scale operation" in Gaza, as daily exchanges with the Palestinian territory threatened a wider escalation.

An Algerian government plane that transported the country's ailing president Abdelaziz Bouteflika to Switzerland for treatment two weeks ago returned to Geneva Sunday, according to an AFP photographer who saw the plane land.

A lawyer acting on behalf of an unnamed Algerian citizen has filed a petition with a Swiss court requesting that Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, in Switzerland for medical treatment, be placed under a trusteeship for his own protection.

The petition came as tens of thousands of people protested in Algeria against the 82-year-old ailing leader's bid to secure a fifth term in the country's April 18 elections.

When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has run into political trouble in the past, he has lashed out at the media, the political opposition and Israel's Arab minority with incendiary and divisive language to galvanize his nationalist base.

Ahead of April 9 elections, Netanyahu has zoned in on prominent Arab lawmaker Ahmad Tibi.

The British government drew fresh criticism Saturday over its decision to revoke citizenship from a London teenager who joined the Islamic State group in Syria, after her baby died in a refugee camp.

Israeli forces said Saturday they had launched several strikes against Hamas sites in Gaza in response to a projectile launched from the besieged coastal territory the night before.