The Palestinian Authority arrested a prominent activist and held him overnight after he criticized its policies in a series of online posts and accused it of arresting another individual for political reasons.

The PA, which has limited autonomy in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, has come under intense criticism in recent weeks after canceling the first elections in 15 years and being largely sidelined during last month's 11-day Gaza war.

With the second-biggest bloc in Iraq's parliament, powerful friends in Iran and vast financial assets, the Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary alliance has become the predominant force in Iraqi politics, experts say.

Prosecutors have charged four executives at two French companies accused of aiding Libya's former strongman Moamer Kadhafi and Egyptian authorities to spy on opposition figures who were later detained and tortured, a rights group said Tuesday.

Palestinians and Jewish settlers hurled stones, chairs and fireworks at each other overnight in a tense Jerusalem neighborhood where settler groups are trying to evict several Palestinian families, officials said Tuesday.

The threatened evictions fueled protests and clashes in the runup to last month's 11-day Gaza war and pose a test for Israel's new governing coalition, which includes three pro-settler parties but is hoping to sideline the Palestinian issue to avoid internal divisions.

Palestinian Islamist group Hamas said talks Monday with U.N. diplomats supporting a fragile month-old ceasefire had gone badly, accusing Israel of a lack of will to end the humanitarian crisis.

Israel's Foreign Minister Yair Lapid will visit the United Arab Emirates, in the first official ministerial visit since the two nations agreed to normalise ties, his office said Monday.

Israel's new premier Naftali Bennett Sunday described the victory of ultraconservative Ebrahim Raisi in Iran's presidential election as a "wake up" call for parties to a nuclear deal with Tehran.

Renewed battles between government forces and Huthi rebels over the strategic city of Marib in northern Yemen have left 47 dead, including 16 pro-government forces, military sources said. 

The Pentagon said Friday it was cutting the number of troops and air defense units deployed to the Middle East, confirming a Wall Street Journal report that eight Patriot batteries were being moved out from the region.

Israel will provide around one million doses of Covid-19 vaccine to the Palestinian Authority ahead of their expiry, the Israeli prime minister's office said Friday.

"Israel has signed an agreement with the Palestinian Authority, and will supply approximately one million doses of Pfizer vaccine that is about to expire, and will receive in return the doses that Pfizer is to send to the Palestinian Authority," Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's office said in a joint statement with the defence and health ministries.