Israeli police have allowed Palestinians to gather in a flashpoint plaza outside Jerusalem's walled Old City, in a move apparently aimed at easing tensions after days of clashes.

Slumped in a hospital bed, his face obscured by an oxygen mask in an intensive care unit for coronavirus patients in the Gaza Strip, Hussein al-Hajj said he wanted to talk. 

Sitting by his wife's graveside, Musheer Farhan recalls how she was turned away from three hospitals over fears she had coronavirus, although she was heavily pregnant and suffering from breathing problems.

Israel said Monday it is closing the fishing zone off the already blockaded Gaza Strip, preventing trawlers from going out to sea, after repeated rocket attacks on the Jewish state.

Fresh clashes broke out late Saturday between Palestinians and Israeli police after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for "calm on all sides" after several nights of unrest in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem.

Morocco has summoned the Spanish ambassador in "exasperation" after the leader of the Western Saharan independence movement was allowed into Spain for medical care, an official source told AFP. 

The death of over 80 people in a Baghdad Covid-19 hospital fire was seen by Iraqis Sunday as more proof of the deadly consequences of mismanagement and corruption.

Yemen's Huthi rebels have made important gains in the battle for the government's last northern stronghold, advancing close to the center of Marib city despite heavy casualties, military sources said Sunday.

At least three people died when an Iranian tanker was attacked off Syria's coast, in the first assault of its kind since the war started a decade ago, a war monitor said.

More than 80 people died Sunday in a fire that ripped through an Iraqi Covid-19 hospital, sparking anger and prompting the suspension of top officials in a country with a long-dilapidated health infrastructure.