Arab football fans have flooded social media with satire, celebrating unexpected victories and poking fun at their own misfortunes as Qatar hosts the Middle East's first World Cup.

Argentina star Lionel Messi was the butt of region-wide jokes after his team's shock 2-1 defeat by Saudi Arabia last week.

Israeli forces shot dead two Palestinians on Thursday, including at least one militant leader, during a West Bank arrest raid that sparked gun battles, said Palestinian officials and Israel's army.

Muhammad Ayman Al-Saadi, 26, and Naim Jamal Zubaidi, 27, were "killed by the Israeli occupation bullets at dawn today during its aggression on Jenin camp," a Palestinian health ministry statement said.

The leader of the Islamic State group, Abu al-Hassan al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, was killed in battle recently, the group's spokesman said in audio released Wednesday. He gave no further details.

Al-Qurayshi is the second IS leader to be killed this year at a time when the extremist group has been trying to rise again with its sleeper cells carrying out deadly attacks in Iraq and Syria. Its affiliate in Afghanistan also claimed attacks that killed dozens in recent months.

Israeli troops on Wednesday shot and killed a Palestinian man during an arrest raid in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian officials announced, as a recent spike in deadly violence showed no signs of slowing.

The Israeli army said it entered the village of Yabad in the northern West Bank to arrest a wanted militant. It said armed men opened fire and lobbed explosives at troops, who returned fire.

An Israeli minister on Wednesday condemned Netflix over a decision to stream a Jordanian film depicting alleged atrocities against Palestinians during the 1948 conflict that coincided with Israel's creation.

Avigdor Lieberman, the secular right-winger serving as finance minister in Israel's outgoing government, has also suggested withdrawing state funding from a theatre in Jaffa that plans to show the film.

Syria has received two million doses of cholera vaccines, the first to reach the country during a months-long outbreak, the country's health ministry said Wednesday.

The war-torn country has been suffering from a cholera outbreak since September and has struggled to contain it due to its devastated water and health infrastructure. Syria's Health Ministry has documented 1,556 cases and 49 deaths since then.

The debate over who owns ancient artifacts has been an increasing challenge to museums across Europe and America, and the spotlight has fallen on the most visited piece in the British Museum: The Rosetta stone.

The inscriptions on the dark grey granite slab became the seminal breakthrough in deciphering ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics after it was taken from Egypt by forces of the British empire in 1801.

The U.S. team's victory over Iran at the World Cup on Tuesday was closely watched across the Middle East, where the two nations have been engaged in a cold war for over four decades and where many blame one or both for the region's woes.

Critics of Iran say it has fomented war and unrest across the Arab world by supporting powerful armed groups in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and the Palestinian territories. Supporters view it as the leader of an "axis of resistance" against what they see as U.S. imperialism, corrupt Arab rulers and Israel's oppression of the Palestinians.

Tehran and Baghdad Tuesday identified fighting "terrorism", maintaining mutual security and extending economic cooperation as key priorities during the new Iraqi prime minister's first official visit to Iran.

Mohammed Shia al-Sudani was received by President Ebrahim Raisi, who expressed hopes of bolstering ties that have lately been hit by tensions over Iran carrying out cross-border strikes against exiled opposition groups.

Qatar on Tuesday announced its first major deal to send liquefied natural gas to Germany as Europe scrambles to find alternatives to Russian energy sources.

Qatar's Energy Minister Saad Sherida al-Kaabi said up to two million tons of gas a year would be sent for at least 15 years from 2026, and that state-run QatarEnergy was discussing other possible deals for Europe's biggest economy.