Retail shops and supermarkets reopened Friday in Tunisia after the government announced zero coronavirus cases for the fifth consecutive day.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Israel Wednesday for talks with leaders on plans to annex swathes of the occupied West Bank, which has been rocked by two days of deadly violence.

Saudi Arabia will enforce a round-the-clock nationwide curfew during the five-day Eid al-Fitr holiday later this month to fight the coronavirus, the interior ministry said Tuesday, as infections spike.

Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian teenager during clashes in the occupied West Bank Wednesday, the Palestinian health ministry said, as US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo landed in Israel.

An Israeli soldier was killed by a rock hurled by a Palestinian in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, an army spokeswoman told AFP.

Comments last week from an unnamed Israeli defence official that Iran was reducing its presence in Syria sparked fierce debate about Tehran's next moves and how the Jewish state should respond.

The swearing-in of Israel's new unity government has been postponed by one day to Thursday due to the upcoming visit of U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, officials said. 

Israel's army on Monday demolished the West Bank home of a Palestinian charged with involvement in a bomb attack that killed an Israeli teenager, AFP journalists said.

Syria's top tycoon publicly airing his grievances has revealed a power struggle within the ruling family as it tries to cement its power after nine years of war, analysts say.

Long-stalled negotiations on a prisoner exchange between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas could be given fresh impetus by the coronavirus pandemic and the formation of a new Israeli government, analysts say.