Israeli politicians Sunday inched closer to forming a coalition that would end the era of right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the country's longest serving leader.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi arrived in Cairo Sunday to discuss with his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry the establishment of a "permanent ceasefire" between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers.

Egypt's intelligence chief Abbas Kamel was expected in the occupied Palestinian territories Sunday, a Palestinian minister said, after an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire ended a flare-up of fighting between Israel and Gaza's rulers Hamas.

Key Syrian government ally Iran has congratulated President Bashar al-Assad on his landslide election victory, describing it as a "big step" towards restoring peace after a decade of civil war.

Syria's President Bashar al-Assad has won a fourth term in office with 95 percent of the vote in a ballot dismissed abroad as a "farce".

Thousands of Hamas fighters held a military parade Friday in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, a week after a ceasefire with Israel took effect in the devastated coastal enclave.

Russia on Friday welcomed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's "decisive" victory after he claimed re-election with a landslide win in a vote criticized by the opposition and Western nations.

The U.N. Human Rights Council decided Thursday to create an open-ended international investigation into violations surrounding the latest Gaza violence, and into "systematic" abuses in the Palestinian territories and inside Israel.

Many of the Syrian fighters deployed, sometimes forcibly, in foreign conflict theatres such as Libya and Nagorno-Karabakh are robbed of their wages, said a report released Thursday.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken headed home from Jordan Thursday after a whistlestop Middle East tour on which he called for regional cooperation to consolidate a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza militants.