Israeli citizens will be allowed to travel to Qatar to watch football's 2022 World Cup, despite the absence of diplomatic relations between the two countries, the government said. 

World football's governing body "FIFA has confirmed that Israeli citizens will be able to enter Qatar during the World Cup and watch games, just like all fans around the world," a joint statement by Israel's defence, foreign and sports ministries said late Thursday.

Turkey's president said Thursday he hoped Ankara's allies would "understand and respect" its announced operation against Kurdish militants in northern Syria, after Washington denounced the planned offensive. 

Ankara has for weeks threatened to target the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) in northern Syria, deemed a "terrorist group" by Turkey. 

A Palestinian died in the occupied West Bank Thursday after being shot in the stomach by Israeli forces, the Palestinian health ministry said, in the latest bloodshed in the territory.

The ministry said 27-year-old Mahmud Fayez Abu Ayhour was killed in Halhul, north of the flashpoint city of Hebron. The Israeli army told AFP it was checking the circumstances of the incident. 

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett made a surprise visit to the United Arab Emirates on Thursday, with the snap trip coming as efforts to salvage a deal over Iran's nuclear program are stalled in a deepening standoff with Tehran.

The visit was Bennett's second public trip to Abu Dhabi since Israel and the UAE agreed to normalize ties in 2020 after years of quiet cooperation, mainly over their shared concerns over Iran's nuclear capabilities.

Three people were wounded Wednesday evening after an armed drone struck a road in the suburbs of Iraqi Kurdistan's Erbil, security services said.

"Several vehicles were damaged" in the attack, the Kurdistan Autonomous Counter-Terrorism Agency said in a statement, which took place on the road that connects Erbil to Pirmam to its northeast.

Eight months after national elections, Iraq still doesn't have a government and there seems to be no clear way out of the dangerous deadlock.

Political elites are embroiled in cutthroat competition for power, even as the country faces growing challenges, including an impending food crisis resulting from severe drought and the war in Ukraine.

The United Nations special envoy arrived in Yemen on Wednesday for talks on reopening routes to a rebel-blockaded city that has proved the thorniest problem in implementing a fragile truce.

Swedish diplomat Hans Grundberg flew into the capital Sanaa, held by the Iran-backed Huthi insurgents since 2014, less than a week after the truce was renewed for a second period of two months.

An American woman who prosecutors say led an all-female battalion of Islamic State militants in Syria pleaded guilty on Tuesday in a case that a prosecutor called a first of its kind in the United States.

Allison Fluke-Ekren broke down sobbing after admitting in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia to conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, a charge that carries a maximum 20-year prison sentence.

The FBI has seized the electronic data of a retired four-star general who authorities say made false statements and withheld "incriminating" documents about his role in an illegal foreign lobbying campaign on behalf of the wealthy Persian Gulf nation of Qatar.

New federal court filings obtained Tuesday outlined a potential criminal case against former Marine Gen. John R. Allen, who led U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan before being tapped in 2017 to lead the influential Brookings Institution think tank.

The Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, has concluded a two-day visit to Ankara, Türkiye.

During the visit he met with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Türkiye, Mr. Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, and senior representatives from Turkish aid institutions and Turkish parliamentarians to raise awareness of the current challenges facing Palestine refugees and discuss expanding UNRWA-Türkiye relations.