Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his erstwhile rival Benny Gantz on Sunday announced "significant progress" in talks towards forming an emergency unity government amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.

As countries across the Middle East tighten restrictions on movement to curb the spread of the coronavirus, a spokesman for the U.S. Agency for International Development said Thursday that it would suspend humanitarian aid to parts of Yemen over restrictions by the Houthi rebels that predate the pandemic.

A spokesman for USAID, one of the largest donors to U.N. operations in Yemen, told The Associated Press that it will "partially suspend" its operations the following day in Houthi rebel-held areas, where 70% of Yemenis live.

On a deserted street in the old city of Damascus, the new coronavirus has forced salesmen like Ahmad to close up shop indefinitely for the first time in Syria's war.

Israel's ex-military chief Benny Gantz, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's main rival, was elected speaker of parliament Thursday, in a surprise development that could lead to an emergency alliance between the two. 

Leaders of the G20 major economies will hold an online summit Thursday in a bid to fend off a coronavirus-triggered recession, after criticism the group has been slow to address the crisis.

Two rockets slammed into the Iraqi capital's high-security Green Zone early Thursday, hours before US-led forces were set to pull out of a second base in the country.

Five years after Saudi Arabia intervened in Yemen's civil war, leading a military coalition to prop up the government which had been driven out of its capital, the Huthi rebels are only stronger, more resilient and gaining ground.

Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulcher, believed by Christians to house Christ's tomb, was shut Wednesday, as Israel tightened movement restrictions and the Palestinians announced their first novel coronavirus death.

A right-wing ally of Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stepped down as speaker of parliament on Wednesday in a blow to the embattled premier, the latest development in a months-long political crisis.

Yuli Edelstein's resignation paved the way for Netanyahu's rival Benny Gantz, who is trying to form a government, to place an ally in the powerful post. 

Deprived of cross-border aid and already low on medical supplies, northeast Syria is grappling with the threat of a virus outbreak that aid groups and officials fear could ravage the region.