A Palestinian detainee held by Israel without charge or trial has said that he is ending his nearly six-month hunger strike after reaching an agreement that will see him released in October.

Lawyers and physicians had warned that the Khalil Awawdeh, a 40-year-old father of four from the occupied West Bank, was at risk of dying and already suffering neurological damage from the prolonged hunger strike. In recent pictures, he appears extremely gaunt and ill, his skin tightly stretched over a bony frame.

Israel on Wednesday imposed sanctions on 20 companies and individuals operating across the Middle East that it says are involved in financing the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

The sanctions are directed against what the Defense Ministry described as an international network operating "under the guise of legitimate companies" in Sudan, Turkey, Algeria and the United Arab Emirates.

When he raises his index finger and frowns, Iraq holds its breath. The mercurial Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr has yet again showed his political prowess, able to mobilize and demobilize loyalists within minutes.

On Monday, in a short message, he announced his "definitive retirement" from politics and the closure of all institutions linked to his movement.

Doctors in the occupied West Bank are struggling to save Palestinians from permanent disability after being shot in an upsurge of violence linked to Israeli raids targeting Palestinian militants.

At Rafidia Surgical Hospital in Nablus, in the northern West Bank, a teenager with bandaged legs was carried up the stairs by another boy.

Saudi Arabia said Wednesday it opened an investigation after videos purportedly showed security forces beating women at an orphanage in the kingdom's southwest.

The governor of Saudi Arabia's Asir region formed a committee to probe the beatings captured in the online video and "refer the case to the competent authorities," the state-run Saudi Press Agency reported. It was not immediately clear what led to the incident or when it took place.

A months-long political crisis in Iraq showed little sign of abating Wednesday despite a fresh push for negotiations after nearly 24 hours of deadly violence between rival Shiite factions ended.

The highly-secured Green Zone in Baghdad returned to normality after 30 people were killed and 570 wounded in the clashes pitting supporters of powerful Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr against factions linked to Iran.

The defense ministers of Japan and Israel shared concerns on Tuesday about growing global tensions from Asia to the Middle East and signed an agreement to step up cooperation in military equipment and technology.

Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada said he welcomes stronger military ties with Israel as a way to achieve a "free and open Indo-Pacific" vision advocated by Japan and the United States to counter China's growing assertiveness in the region.

An influential Iraqi cleric called on his supporters to withdraw Tuesday from the capital's government quarter, where they have traded heavy fire with a rival pro-Iran coalition in a serious escalation of a monthslong political crisis gripping the nation.

In a televised speech, Muqtada al-Sadr gave his supporters an hour to leave — and minutes later some could be seen abandoning their positions on live television. Iraq's military immediately announced an end to curfews across the country, further raising hopes that there might be an end to the street violence.

Outgoing U.N. rights chief Michelle Bachelet blasted Israel on Tuesday for failing to issue or renew visas for her staff to monitor the human rights situation in the Palestinian territories.

The United Nations high commissioner for human rights said it raised questions as to what Israel was "trying to hide" and vowed that her office would continue to report on the situation in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank.

An Israeli court on Tuesday sentenced the former Gaza head of a major US-based aid agency to 12 years in prison for funneling millions of dollars to Islamist group Hamas.

The Beersheba district court in southern Israel issued a sentence of "12 years prison time, less the detention" already served for World Vision's Mohammed al-Halabi, who has been jailed throughout the past six years of court proceedings.