Flash floods triggered by torrential rains have killed at least 172 people across Yemen over the past month, damaging homes and UNESCO-listed world heritage sites, officials said.

The Israeli military said Wednesday it carried out overnight strikes on Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip after incendiary balloons were launched across the border from the Palestinian enclave.

The only crossing between Gaza and Egypt opened on Tuesday for 72 hours, allowing people to leave the Palestinian enclave for the first time since the novel coronavirus outbreak began.

Egyptians went to vote Tuesday for a new Senate in an upper house election seen unlikely to revive vibrant political life under President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's rule.

Israel will close its goods crossing with the Gaza Strip, authorities said Monday, after militants in the Hamas-run territory fired rockets into the Mediterranean and launched incendiary balloons towards the Jewish state.

Egypt's civil aviation ministry said that after Lebanon's massive explosion last week it was moving "dangerous materials" held at airports nationwide to more secure locations.

The Gaza Strip's rulers Hamas fired rockets into the sea on Monday after repeated exchanges of fire with Israel in recent days, Palestinian security sources and eyewitnesses said.

Israeli police were deployed to protect protesters demonstrating against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Saturday after the convicted killer of a 1983 peace marcher called present-day demonstrators "germs" and hinted they could meet violent opposition.

A former senior Saudi intelligence official who has accused Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of trying to have him assassinated in 2018 has been placed under heightened security after a new threat on his life, a Canadian newspaper reported.

With skilled fingers, disabled Gazan couple Nihad and Zeinab Jarboa have supported themselves by sewing finely detailed dolls and costumes, but coronavirus has hurt their already meager income.