Israel will begin rolling out a major coronavirus vaccination campaign next week after the prime minister reached out personally to the head of a major drug company. Millions of Palestinians living under Israeli control will have to wait much longer.

Worldwide, rich nations are snatching up scarce supplies of new vaccines as poor countries largely rely on a World Health Organization program that has yet to get off the ground. There are few places where the competition is playing out in closer proximity than in Israel and the territories it has occupied for more than half a century.

An adviser to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has condemned Morocco's normalisation of ties with the Islamic republic's arch foe Israel, calling it a "betrayal of Islam".

A leading rival of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the right-wing Likud party announced his resignation from parliament Wednesday as he launches a new party to challenge the premier.  

Israel-based broadcaster i24NEWS and Abu Dhabi Media, a public conglomerate in the United Arab Emirates, announced Monday a content sharing arrangement after the Jewish state and UAE normalised ties.

i24NEWS, which broadcasts in French, Arabic and English, and Abu Dhabi Media have signed a memorandum of understanding that allows for shared reporting and archival content.

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi has held a rare meeting with his Israeli counterpart to press for the restart of stalled negotiations between the Palestinians and the Jewish state.

The United Arab Emirates launched tourist visas for Israeli citizens on Thursday, official media said, in the latest move following the normalisation of ties between the two countries.

Abu Dhabi's foreign ministry "announced the activation of tourist entry visas through airlines and travel and tourism offices for Israeli passport holders", the WAM news agency reported.

Israel's precarious coalition government was set to move closer towards collapse on Wednesday with lawmakers expected to approve a preliminary measure to dissolve parliament, raising prospects of elections next year.

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani Saturday accused arch-foe Israel of acting as a "mercenary" for the US, blaming the Jewish state for assassinating one of Tehran's prominent nuclear scientists the day before.

A flight operated by budget airline flydubai landed in Tel Aviv on Thursday, the first scheduled commercial service between the two cities following the normalisation of ties between the UAE and Israel.

Israeli air strikes in Syria overnight killed at least eight fighters operating in pro-Iran militias, a war monitoring group said Wednesday.