Israel launched airstrikes against Gaza on Monday, the army and a source inside the enclave said, after incendiary balloons launched from the strip started fires in the country's south.

The latest escalation of tension follows weekend border clashes in which dozens were injured.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett heads to Washington Tuesday for talks with U.S. President Joe Biden, seeking to "reset" relations with Israel's closest ally and reach common ground on arch-foe Iran.

In his first state visit since taking office in June, Bennett will meet Biden on Thursday and attempt to mend ties with America's top Democrat, which were strained under former premier Benjamin Netanyahu, accused of openly favoring the Republican party.

A 15-year-old Palestinian was killed by Israeli fire in the occupied West Bank Tuesday when clashes erupted after Israeli forces stormed a refugee camp near Nablus in search of a suspect. 

The Palestinian health ministry said Imad Khaled Saleh Hashash died after sustaining a gunshot wound to the head in the Balata refugee camp. 

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian was due in the UAE Monday to see for himself the massive airlift underway from Afghanistan using the Gulf nation as a staging post.

France is seeking to evacuate more than 1,000 Afghans who are fleeing the country following the Taliban's lightning takeover a week ago, one of a number of nations scrambling to evacuate vulnerable individuals.

After decades of conflict, Iraq will pitch itself as a regional mediator as it hosts a leaders' summit this week -- despite foreign influence on its territory and a grinding financial crisis.

The meeting in Baghdad on Saturday seeks to give Iraq a "unifying role" to tackle the crises shaking the region, according to sources close to Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi.

Millions of people in Syria and Iraq are at risk of losing access to water, electricity and food amid rising temperatures, record low water levels due to lack of rainfall and drought, international aid groups warned Monday.

The two neighboring countries, both battered by years of conflict and mismanagement, are in need of rapid action to combat severe water shortages, the groups said. The drought is also disrupting electricity supplies as low water levels impact dams, which in turn impact essential infrastructure, including health facilities.

Qatar opened candidate registration for its first legislative elections Sunday, AFP correspondents saw, announcing the much-delayed polls would be held on October 2 in a test of the autocratic nation's democratic credentials.

Elections to the 45-seat shura council, as proposed under a 2004 constitution, have been postponed repeatedly and its members have instead been directly named by the emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani.

Egypt has told Gaza authorities it will close the Rafah border crossing from Monday, a spokesman for the Palestinian enclave's Hamas government said. 

"We were informed by the Egyptian authorities that the Rafah crossing will be closed tomorrow, Monday, in both directions," Iyad al-Bozom, a spokesman for the Gaza interior ministry, said in a statement Sunday evening.

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On auction site liveauctioneers.com, bidding for the Sumerian clay tablet starts at 550 pounds ($750).

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has denied that an air raid in northwest Iraq earlier this week, in which eight people died, had targeted a clinic, insisting the facility housed members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, which Ankara considers a terrorist organization.