Two more senior Palestinian officials have tested positive for the novel coronavirus as veteran chief negotiator Saeb Erekat fights for his life in an Israeli hospital, one of them told AFP.

Washington imposed sanctions on Thursday against Tehran's ambassador to Baghdad, accusing him of efforts to destabilize Iraq via his role as a general in Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps.

A prominent Syrian Muslim cleric in charge of the Damascus region was killed Thursday when a bomb planted in his car exploded outside the capital, state news agency SANA said.

Adnan al-Afiyuni, the Sunni Muslim mufti for Damascus province, was considered to be close to President Bashar al-Assad.

Palestinian officials on Thursday denounced a decision by Israel to brand the student branch of the hardline Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine as a "terrorist" organization.

Palestinian lawyers on Thursday filed a complaint to sue the British government for the 1917 declaration setting out London's support for a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine.

A Palestinian man on hunger strike for more than 85 days since his arrest by Israel is entering a medically "critical phase", the International Committee of the Red Cross said Thursday.

The man who decapitated a teacher in France for showing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in class had been in contact with a Russian-speaking jihadist in Syria, a source close to the case said on Thursday.

Seven people have been charged with complicity after 18-year-old Chechen Abdullakh Anzorov killed Samuel Paty on Friday, including two teenagers who helped him identify the teacher.

Forty-five American lawmakers have urged the US government to boycott next month's G20 summit in Riyadh unless Saudi authorities address key human rights concerns, according to correspondence released Wednesday.

From pickled vine leaves to coffee and cheese, Saudi supermarkets are taking Turkish products off the shelves after calls for a boycott, as rivalry between Riyadh and Ankara heats up.

The case of alleged kickbacks in Israel's purchase of German submarines resurfaced Wednesday with the cancellation of a vote in parliament demanding the creation of a commission of inquiry.