The prosecutor in the case against 26 Saudi nationals charged in the slaying of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi made a surprise request Thursday that their trial in absentia be suspended and the case be transferred to Saudi Arabia.

The panel of judges made no ruling on the prosecutor's request but decided that a letter be sent to Turkey's Justice Ministry seeking its opinion on the possible transfer of the file to the Saudi judicial authorities, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported. Trial was adjourned to a later date.

A Palestinian stabbed and wounded an Israeli passenger on a bus in the southern occupied West Bank on Thursday before being shot dead by a separate passenger, the Israeli army said.

"A Palestinian terrorist stabbed an Israeli civilian on a bus at the Neve Daniel junction," the army said in a statement.

Israeli security forces on Thursday raided a West Bank city after three fatal attacks rocked Israel in over a week, with two Palestinians shot dead and a third killed after launching a stabbing attack on a bus.

The violence comes after a Palestinian armed with an M-16 assault rifle killed five Israeli civilians in the streets of Bnei Brak, an Orthodox Jewish city near Tel Aviv, on Tuesday night.

Israeli forces operating in the West Bank on Wednesday arrested five Palestinians allegedly involved in a deadly shooting attack in central Israel, where a Palestinian gunman used an assault rifle to kill five people.

Police identified the shooter as Diaa Hamarsheh, 27, from the Israeli-occupied West Bank village of Yabad. Police shot and killed him late Tuesday, putting an end to the shooting rampage.

Iraqi lawmakers were Wednesday set to try for a third time to elect a new national president after two previous attempts failed because of boycotts by a Shiite Muslim coalition.

Half a year after October 2021 legislative elections, Iraq still does not have a new president or prime minister, keeping the war-scarred country in a state of political paralysis.

Two of the five men killed by a Palestinian gunman in the central Israeli city of Bnei Brak were Ukrainian nationals, Israeli police said on Wednesday.

A police statement identified those slain in Tuesday's attack, noting that "a foreigner from Ukraine, aged 23" and "a foreigner from Ukraine, aged 32" were among them.

A Saudi-led coalition battling rebels who hold Yemen's capital began a unilateral cease-fire Wednesday in the yearslong war, even as the insurgents said they rejected the proposal.

The Saudi-proposed pause in fighting began at 6 a.m. ahead of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. Several similar efforts have failed, and there was no immediate independent confirmation on whether hostilities paused between Saudi-led forces and Yemen's Houthi rebels.

A gunman on a motorcycle opened fire in a city in central Israel late Tuesday, methodically gunning down victims as he killed at least five people in the third such street attack in a week. The shooter was killed by police.

Israeli media said the attacker was a Palestinian from the West Bank, the third Arab assailant to launch an attack ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The previous two attacks, carried out by Arab citizens of Israel inspired by the Islamic State extremist group, have raised concerns of further violence.

Iran offered its support on Tuesday for a ceasefire plan put forward by rebels it backs in Yemen's war, saying it could be an "appropriate platform" for ending the conflict.

The Huthi rebels on Saturday announced the proposal and offered peace talks on condition Saudi Arabia stops its air strikes and blockade of Yemen and removes "foreign forces".

Clashes between U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish fighters and members of the Islamic State group killed at least three people inside a restive camp in northeastern Syria that houses IS families, local Kurdish authorities and an opposition war monitor said Tuesday.

The clashes broke out late Monday night at al-Hol in Syria's province of Hassakeh, when Kurdish fighters exchanged fire with an IS sleeper cell, according to Shixmus Ehmed, head of the Kurdish-led administration's department for refugees and displaced. He spoke to The Associated Press via voice messages Tuesday.