When all nine men in his dormitory caught coronavirus, 27-year-old Nurudhin was bused to a remote quarantine camp -- becoming one of many migrant workers Gulf states are struggling to accomodate adequately.

The oil-rich Gulf is reliant on the cheap labour of millions of foreigners -- mostly from India, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka -- many of whom live in squalid camps far from the region's showy skyscrapers and malls.

Each time Maria, an Indian care worker living in Israel, goes shopping she is consumed by fears of bringing the coronavirus into the home of the 91-year-old woman she looks after.

Israel's Shin Bet said Wednesday it had arrested three Palestinians accused of being part of a "Hamas terrorist infrastructure" plotting bomb attacks on Israeli targets in the occupied West Bank.

A Palestinian man was shot dead Wednesday after he hit an Israeli police officer with a van at a West Bank checkpoint and then stabbed him with a pair of scissors, police said.

Egypt on Tuesday flew a plane of medical supplies to the United States to assist in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, a role reversal for a top US aid recipient.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's former rival Benny Gantz announced Tuesday he was set to become defense minister, a day after the two signed a hard-won unity government deal.

Israeli air strikes late Monday in the area of the central Syrian city of Palmyra killed nine fighters loyal to the Iran-backed Damascus regime, a war monitor said Tuesday.

Those who died in several missile strikes included three Syrians and six foreigners of unknown nationalities, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Israel's coalition deal between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Benny Gantz breaks a year-long deadlock but has pitfalls -- from power sharing mechanisms to West Bank policy and the premier's corruption charges.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reached a historic deal Monday with one-time rival parliament speaker Benny Gantz to form an emergency unity government, ending the country's worst political crisis.

Two Syrian ex-intelligence officers accused of crimes against humanity will appear before a German court this week, in the first such trial over state-sponsored torture in Syria.