For months, Naftali Bennett vexed Israel's political establishment by refusing to say whether he and his Yamina party would get behind Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Now the 49-year-old tech millionaire and former Netanyahu protege is poised to become his successor.

His rise to Israel's top job is a historic turn for the 73-year-old nation after four inconclusive elections and a brutal 11-day war with Hamas' militant rulers in the Gaza Strip. As a fragile truce held into its second week, Bennett finally announced his party would join with allies of centrist Yair Lapid to form a government.

Israel's centrist opposition leader Yair Lapid was edging closer Monday to rallying a diverse political bloc around a common aim: to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Syria's President Bashar al-Assad has won a fourth term in office with 95 percent of the vote in a ballot dismissed abroad as a "farce".

The latest escalation in the Middle East conflict served to unite the geographically fragmented Palestinian community in a way not seen in years, analysts say.

Israel's battle with Gaza militants and unprecedented inter-communal violence at home have further complicated efforts to form a government, raising the specter of yet another general election, experts say. 

After a ceasefire with Israel, Hamas has claimed "victory" but the Palestinian Islamist group's success lies more in marginalizing its political rival Fatah than in battle, analysts say.

The return of calm to the Hamas-run enclave of Gaza, after 11 days of Israeli air strikes on the coastal strip -- and rocket fire sent in the other direction -- was celebrated Friday by large crowds waving Palestinian flags.

A presidential election in Iran next month could provide the final straw to split an already long-divided conservative political camp, after years of growing divisions.

When an Israeli air strike targeted a security office near her home in Gaza this month, 10-year-old Zeina Dabous frantically scribbled a note and slipped it under her mother's pillow.

The war between Israel and Palestinian group Hamas has killed hundreds, displaced thousands from their homes and ravaged key infrastructure.

The diplomatic flurry was over and Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu was on the phone telling U.S. President Joe Biden that it appeared the furious fighting between Israel and Hamas was about to end.

But Biden remained wary even after the afternoon phone call with the prime minister. Things still could go crosswise with hours to go before the cease-fire took effect, Biden's team reasoned.