A counter-attack by fighters loyal to Libya's U.N.-backed unity government aimed at retaking key eastern oil ports was repelled on Sunday by forces from a rival administration.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday defended a new $38 billion U.S. defense aid package against criticism Israel could have negotiated a larger sum had he not angered the White House.

Israeli police have arrested more than 20 officials and activists from a leading Arab political party as part of an investigation into its financing, authorities said on Sunday.

Jordanians vote in parliamentary elections Tuesday that could see opposition Islamists re-emerge as a major parliamentary force in the kingdom, a key Western ally in the fight against jihadists.

Unidentified gunmen killed two Saudi policemen in the mainly Shiite eastern city of Dammam late on Saturday, the interior ministry said, describing it as a "terrorist attack."

In a destroyed building in Syria's Aleppo, neighbors Abu Ahmed and Mohammed Ibrahim desperately rummaged through rubble and debris in search of scraps of plastic to turn into fuel.

Moscow on Saturday accused what it termed Syrian "moderate rebels" of causing a ceasefire to fail, saying opposition fighters had launched some 55 attacks in the past 24 hours.

An assailant believed to be Palestinian stabbed and wounded an Israeli officer in a West Bank settlement early Sunday before being shot by forces at the scene, the Israeli army said.

The Iraqi police and army had decked out the checkpoints with plastic flowers to welcome the first returning Fallujah residents following the city's recapture from jihadists in June.

An Egyptian court froze assets of five prominent human rights defenders and three non-governmental organizations on Saturday, provoking fears of an intensified crackdown on civil society.