Israeli official confirms overnight airstrikes in Syria, AP Says

Israeli premier Bennett said Egypt could help restart the peace process with the Palestinians, while Egyptian President Al-Sisi said he wants to "strengthen regional security."

The Syrian province of Idlib, one of the last remaining rebel strongholds in the country's north, is experiencing a new wave of Covid-19 infections, driven by the more contagious Delta variant. This comes as the regime intensifies bombings in the region, putting local hospitals under even greater pressure. We take a closer look.

The upsurge in violence in Syria combined with its plummeting economy are making life increasingly bleak for civilians, United Nations investigators say.

Russian President Vladimir Putin condemns the presence of foreign troops in Syria at talks in Moscow with the war-torn country's President Bashar al-Assad. Russia has been a key ally of the Assad regime throughout the Syrian conflict, which erupted in 2011 with the repression of anti-government protests. Russia's military intervention in 2015 helped turn the tide of the war in Assad's favour.

A new Syrian-Jordanian deal on energy for Lebanon is being seen by some as another step towards the international rehabilitation of the brutal Assad regime.

In its first report on the Syrian war death toll since 2014, the UN said at least 350,209 people have died in the decade-long conflict. But admitted the real toll is likely to be much higher.

Five Palestinian gunmen were killed in an arrest operation targeting a Hamas cell in West Bank, Israel's military said. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said the Hamas operatives were planning an imminent attack on Israel.

Rifaat al-Assad, dubbed the butcher of Hama, was exiled by the Syrian president's late father. He was facing four years behind bars in France for laundering embezzled funds.

The 29-year-old Berlin resident was harassed by the attackers who sprayed irritant gas in his face and threw him to the ground. Police are investigating what they suspect to be a politically motivated crime.

Israeli archaeologists uncover a Byzantine-era, industrial-scale wine complex which produced some two million litres of the drink annually. The facility in Yavne, south of Tel Aviv that was a Jewish settlement during biblical times and a key city after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD.

At least 10 civilians were killed and another 35 injured on Wednesday by an Assad regime attack in Idlib, northwestern Syria, according to medical sources. Artillery of regime forces and Iranian-backed foreign terrorist groups targeted a marketplace in the center of the town of Ariha in rural southern Idlib, an area under opposition control.

An Israeli diver has discovered a 900-year-old, one-meter-long sword that experts say dates back to the Crusader-era in a natural cove off the coast of northern Israel.