Gaza City, Palestinian T

Israel hit Gaza with air strikes on Saturday and a Palestinian militant group retaliated with a barrage of rocket fire, in the territory's worst escalation of violence since a war last year.

The Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad group said it fired more than 100 rockets at Israel on Friday, as an "initial response" to deadly Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip. 

A senior militant from Islamic Jihad was among more than 15 people killed in Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip Friday, prompting the militant group to warn Israel has made a "declaration of war."

Iran on Friday called on Saudi Arabia to release one of its nationals arrested during the hajj pilgrimage, as the two regional rivals engage in talks to mend severed relations.

The Islamic republic revealed the arrest in a foreign ministry statement about a phone call between Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and his Iraqi counterpart Fuad Hussein.

Ways to halt the war in Ukraine and the possible launch of a new conflict in Syria are expected to dominate talks on Friday between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The Turkish leader was riding high from the diplomatic success of helping orchestrate the resumption of Ukrainian grain shipments across the Black Sea when he took most of his top ministers to Sochi for his second talks with Putin in 17 days.

Tens of thousands converged on Baghdad's Green Zone Friday for mass prayers in a new power play by Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr after his adversaries conditionally backed his call for early elections.

Sadr, a longtime political and religious force in the war-scarred country, has for months been in a political standoff with a rival alliance backed by Iran.

The Israeli military has said it is sending additional forces to the area around the Gaza Strip as it braces for possible attacks after the arrest of a senior militant in the West Bank this week.

Authorities closed roads and other areas around Gaza after a raid Monday night, in which troops arrested a senior member of the Islamic Jihad militant group in the occupied West Bank town of Jenin. A Palestinian teenager, who Islamic Jihad claimed as a member, was killed during clashes with the Israeli forces.

Mourners have poured out onto the streets of Tehran to pay their respects to several Iranian officers killed in Syria, a testament to the human cost of Iran's involvement in the civil war and a public display of nationalist fervor as nuclear talks resume in Vienna.

The remains of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard members were recently recovered in Khan Tuman, a village 9 miles (about 15 kilometers) south of Aleppo, Syria's largest city that was for years the war's most important front line.

Morocco's Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch, a billionaire petrol baron, is facing a growing online campaign demanding he step down as fuel prices -- and energy firms' profits -- surge.