Israel's Naftali Bennett heads to the United Arab Emirates on Sunday, his office said, in the first official visit by a premier of Israel since they established diplomatic ties last year.

A prominent LGBTQ activist in Tunisia has reported that two men, one dressed in police uniform, threw him to the ground, beat and kicked him during an assault they said was punishment for his "insulting" attempts to file complaints against officers for previous mistreatment.

"This was not the first time that I had been attacked by a policeman, but I was really surprised. The attack was horrifying," Badr Baabou, president of the Tunisian Association for Justice and Equality, or Damj, said. "They aimed for my head... at a moment they stood on my neck. This was very symbolic for me, as if they wanted to reduce me to silence."

Loujain al-Hathloul, a prominent Saudi political activist who pushed to end a ban on women driving in her country, is suing three former U.S. intelligence and military officials she says helped hack her cellphone so a foreign government could spy on her before she was imprisoned and tortured.

The nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation announced Thursday that it had filed a lawsuit in U.S. federal court on al-Hathloul's behalf against former U.S. officials Marc Baier, Ryan Adams and Daniel Gericke, as well as a cybersecurity company called DarkMatter that has contracted with the United Arab Emirates.

A year after being released from an Israeli prison following a 103-day hunger strike, Maher al-Akhras is barely able to walk. Frequent bouts of dizziness and sensitivity to noise mean he can neither enjoy social occasions nor return to work on his ancestral farm in the occupied West Bank.

Back home, he is seen as a hero of the Palestinian cause, one of a small group of hunger strikers who have secured release from Israeli detention. But the mental and physical damage from the prolonged hunger strike has left him and others like him unable to resume normal lives, and reliant on long-term medical care.

The top U.S. commander for the Middle East has said that the United States will keep the current 2,500 troops in Iraq for the foreseeable future, and he warned that he expects increasing attacks on U.S. and Iraqi personnel by Iranian-backed militias determined to get American forces out.

Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie said in an interview with The Associated Press at the Pentagon that despite the shift by U.S. forces to a non-combat role in Iraq, they will still provide air support and other military aid for Iraq's fight against the Islamic State.

Former President Donald Trump lashed out with profanity at Benjamin Netanyahu for congratulating President Joe Biden on his victory in last year's election, an Israeli newspaper reported Friday.

Trump accused the former Israeli leader of disloyalty, saying he had helped Netanyahu in his own elections by reversing decades of U.S. policy and supporting Israel's claims to territory seized in war. Trump is still falsely claiming the U.S. election was stolen from him.

Israel's foreign minister arrived in Cairo on Thursday on a diplomatic visit aimed at strengthening ties and shoring up a tenuous cease-fire between Israel and Gaza's militant Hamas rulers.

Foreign Minister Yair Lapid met with Egypt's president, Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, and the country's foreign minister, Sameh Shokry, for talks that reflected budding ties between Egypt and Israel's new government. Egypt's intelligence chief also participated in the meetings.

Saudi Arabia's crown prince was visiting the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday, the second stop of his high-profile tour of Gulf Arab states aimed at fortifying the kingdom's traditional alliances as rival Iran resumes nuclear negotiations with world powers.

Mohammed bin Salman's tour kicked off just after the kingdom hosted its first ever Formula One race and as its first international film festival was underway — events showcasing Saudi aspirations to be a cultural stomping ground and sweeping social reforms following decades under ultraconservative norms.

Israel's Justice Ministry said Thursday it was closing an investigation into two police officers who shot dead a Palestinian assailant as he lay on the ground, accepting the officers' assertion that they acted in self-defense.

A Palestinian attacker on Saturday stabbed and wounded an ultra-Orthodox Jew outside Jerusalem's Old City. He then tried to stab the officers before being shot and falling to the ground. Video footage showed a paramilitary Border Police officer shooting the attacker when he was already lying on the ground.

Iraq and the U.S.-led coalition concluded a final round of technical talks to formally transition from a combat mission tasked to root out the Islamic State to an advisory mission to assist Iraqi forces, Iraqi security officials announced on Thursday.

Iraq's National Security Advisor Qassim al-Araji tweeted that the talks — which centered on the transition — had concluded, formally ending the coalition's combat mission. He said the coalition would continue providing assistance, advice and training for Iraqi forces.