Bahrain's foreign minister arrived in Israel Wednesday on the first official visit from the Gulf kingdom, which normalised relations with the Jewish state in September.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was due to arrive in Jerusalem Wednesday for a farewell visit as the chief diplomat of the strongly pro-Israeli Trump administration. 

Israeli warplanes struck Syria Wednesday, hitting Iranian targets and killing 10 Syrian and foreign fighters in what the Israeli army called a retaliatory attack after explosive devices were found near one of its bases on the occupied Golan Heights.

The air strikes came hours before U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was to land in Israel for talks including on Iran, in what was likely to be his last visit to the staunch American ally before President Donald Trump leaves office.

Saudi Arabia hosts the G20 summit Saturday in a first for an Arab nation, but the scaled-down virtual format could limit debate on a resurgent coronavirus pandemic and crippling economic crisis.

Australian police on Wednesday arrested a man in connection with US$78 million in bribes used to secure lucrative Iraqi oil contracts linked to an alleged international corruption ring.

Several rockets targeted the U.S. embassy in Iraq's capital late Tuesday, security sources told AFP, the first such attack since pro-Iran factions agreed to stop targeting the compound last month.

AFP reporters heard several large blasts, followed by rapid-fire sounds and red flares lighting up the sky, indicating that the embassy's C-RAM rocket defense system was deployed.

The Palestinian Authority of President Mahmoud Abbas will restore security coordination with Israel, after it was severed in May, a PA minister said Tuesday evening.

Dozens of Israelis have returned to a former West Bank settlement, evacuated in 2005 under orders from then prime minister Ariel Sharon, to claim the land as Israeli, multiple sources said Tuesday.

A man suspected of firing a gun at the Saudi Arabian embassy in The Hague last week acted with "terrorist intent", Dutch prosecutors said.

Bahrain's Foreign Minister Abdellatif al-Zayani is to make a visit to Israel on Wednesday, the first by a senior Bahraini official since the two countries signed a normalization deal, official media said.