Syria's Kurds could soon face a tripartite ultimatum to cede territory, analysts predict, as Syrian, Turkish and Russian defense ministers met this week in Moscow -- the first such talks since Syria's war began in 2011.

Israel's military said its prosecutor has filed indictments against two soldiers who allegedly hurled an explosive device at a Palestinian home in the occupied West Bank, a rare instance of Israeli troops facing serious charges over an offense against Palestinians.

Prosecutors charged the two soldiers with making an explosive device, aggravated intentional assault, intentional harm to property and impeaching the investigation, the army announced late Thursday. The court ordered the soldiers to remain in detention until a hearing next month. They were arrested on Nov. 28.

An attack in eastern Syria killed 10 oil field workers, state news agency SANA reported on Friday, a day after Syrian Kurdish-led forces announced an offensive against jihadists.

Former minister Amir Ohana was elected as Israel's first openly gay speaker of parliament on Thursday, ahead of the swearing in the of new government.

Former Israeli intelligence minister Eli Cohen, an architect of the normalization agreements between Israel and several Arab countries, was Thursday nominated as foreign minister by prime minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu.

After five elections that have paralyzed Israeli politics for nearly four years, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has finally returned to power with the government he has long coveted: a parliamentary majority of religious and far-right lawmakers who share his hard-line views toward the Palestinians and hostility toward Israel's legal system.

Yet Netanyahu's joy may be short-lived. Putting together his coalition proved to be surprisingly complicated, requiring nearly two months of painstaking negotiations and a series of legal maneuvers just to allow his partners to take office. Among them: newly created Cabinet positions with widespread authority over security and a law allowing a politician on parole for a criminal conviction to be a government minister.

Syrian Kurdish-led forces said Thursday they had launched an offensive against Islamic State group fighters, days after jihadist gunmen launched a deadly prison attack.

Benjamin Netanyahu was sworn into office Thursday, taking the helm of the most right-wing and religiously conservative government in Israel's history and vowing to implement policies that could cause domestic and regional turmoil and alienate the country's closest allies.

Netanyahu took the oath of office moments after parliament passed a vote of confidence in his new government. His return marks his sixth term in office, continuing his more than decade-long dominance over Israeli politics.

Tunisian prosecutors asked the top judicial body to strip 13 judges of immunity so they can be tried on terror charges, their lawyer said Wednesday, describing the case as "purely political".

The Turkish, Syrian and Russian defense ministers have held previously unannounced talks in Moscow, the Turkish and Russian defense ministries said on Wednesday. It was the first ministerial level meeting between rivals Turkey and Syria since the start of the Syrian conflict 11 years ago.

A Turkish defense ministry statement said the Turkish, Syrian and Russian intelligence chiefs also attended the talks in Moscow which, it said, took place in a "positive atmosphere."