Israel and Gaza militants traded more heavy fire yesterday, the third day of the worst escalation of violence in months that has killed 26 people in the blockaded Palestinian enclave.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad received an invitation to next week’s Arab summit in Saudi Arabia, the presidency said yesterday, the first such invitation since the country’s war began. The pan-Arab body had suspended Damascus in November 2011

Iran executed seven men in two prisons outside Tehran on drugs and rape charges yesterday, a rights group said, accelerating what activists describe as a hanging spree over the past two weeks.

Israel and Gaza militants traded cross-border fire yesterday, renewing deadly violence a day after Israeli strikes killed 15 people in the Palestinian territory.

Israel launched pre-dawn air strikes on Tuesday against the Palestinian group Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip, its military announced, with the health ministry of the Hamas-controlled territory saying 12 people were killed.

Israel yesterday transferred a Jordanian member of parliament to Amman’s authorities, weeks after arresting him for attempting to smuggle pistols, rifles and gold into the occupied West Bank, officials said.

Iran yesterday hanged Swedish-Iranian dissident Habib Chaab for “terrorism”, drawing condemnation from Sweden, in the Islamic republic’s latest use of the death penalty against dual nationals.

Israeli troops killed two Palestinians in the occupied West Bank yesterday, the Palestinian health ministry said, as the army claimed to have targeted the perpetrators of a “shooting attack”.

Khader Adnan, who was affiliated with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, died in an Israeli prison today after an 87-day hunger strike, Israeli prison authorities said.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has introduced e-visa, eliminating visa stickers for work, visits, and transit

Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi yesterday slammed the United States’ presence in the Middle East, as he hosted his counterpart from neighbouring Iraq for wide-ranging talks.a

Three civilians were wounded yesterday in Israeli air strikes near the Syrian city of Homs, state media reported, with a war monitor saying a Hezbollah munitions depot was hit.

Saudi Arabia and Iran will reopen embassies in each other’s capitals “within days,” Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said on Friday in a sign of warming relations after the two countries closed their missions seven years ago.

Warplanes on bombing raids drew heavy anti-aircraft fire over Khartoum yesterday as fierce fighting between Sudan’s army and paramilitaries entered a third week, violating a renewed truce.

A statue of Buddha has been discovered in Egypt’s ancient seaport of Berenice on the Red Sea, shedding light on trade ties with India under the Roman empire.

A US-bound oil tanker seized by Iran off the coast of Oman was carrying 24 Indian crew, the vessel’s operator said yesterday, adding it was working to secure their release.

The United States added new sanctions on Russia's FSB intelligence agency and Iran's Revolutionary Guard yesterday for taking "hostage" Americans like a Wall Street Journal reporter arrested in Russia last month

Iran has charged two prominent actresses for publishing pictures of themselves flouting the country’s dress code for women.

A Palestinian man drove his car into a crowd on a Jerusalem street on Monday, injuring five people before being shot dead by a passerby, Israeli police said

Israeli forces killed a Palestinian man yesterday in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said, during what the army described as a “counterterrorism” operation.