An Israeli airstrike near Damascus airport killed five Syria soldiers on Saturday, Syrian state media said.

Three bodies were pulled from the rubble of a building in Jordan's capital on Friday three days after it collapsed, authorities said, bringing the overall toll to 13 dead.

Pope Francis is studying a possible visit to Bahrain in November and said he is looking to reschedule his trip to South Sudan and Congo for February.

Francis told reporters en route home from Kazakhstan that his strained knee ligaments still hadn't healed and that travelling was "difficult." But the 85-year-old pontiff said he would undertake a next trip — a reference to a three-day visit to Bahrain in early November that is currently under study by the Vatican, spokesman Matteo Bruni said.

A bloc of Arab parties has split ahead of Israel's fifth elections in less than four years, a move that could dilute the minority's political influence and aid former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's return to power.

Israeli media reported late Thursday that the nationalist Balad party will run separately from the other two parties in the Joint List. If it does not meet the minimum threshold, Balad would not enter the next parliament and its votes would essentially be wasted.

Props are a familiar part of Benjamin Netanyahu's repertoire when delivering public speeches — from cartoon bombs at the United Nations to a wall of CDs and binders supposedly seized from Iran by Mossad agents.

Now, the former prime minister — famed for his flair for the dramatic — is hitting the campaign trail with a new shtick. Behold: the Bibibus.

Israeli forces killed a 17-year-old Palestinian in the occupied West Bank Thursday, Palestinian officials said, as troops operated in the area a day after an attack killed a military officer.

The Israeli military said it opened fire on suspects who threw explosives at troops. The Palestinian Health Ministry said Odai Salah, 17, was shot in the head, although it did not specify the exact circumstances behind his death.

Jordanian rescue teams pulled another body from the rubble of a collapsed building in the capital on Thursday, bringing the death toll from the incident to 10.

It remained unclear what caused the collapse of the four-story residential building in Amman on Tuesday. Ten people were wounded. Rescue teams have been searching for survivors and on Wednesday saved an infant. The number of people still missing is unclear.

When a Syrian prison guard tossed him into a dimly-lit room, the inmate Abdo was surprised to find himself standing ankle-deep in what appeared to be salt.

Qatar and Egypt signed several memoranda of understanding Wednesday, official media said, as President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi makes his first visit to the Gulf country since the nations healed a diplomatic rift.

Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani and Sisi "witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Qatar Investment Authority and the Sovereign Fund of Egypt for investment and development", the emir's office said on its official website.

Jordanian rescue teams kept searching Wednesday for 10 people still missing under the rubble of a collapsed four-storey building in Amman, where five bodies were recovered the day before.

Anxious relatives waited at the disaster site in downtown Amman where emergency services were racing against the clock to dig any survivors from the debris of the residential building.