Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu is eyeing a return to power when the country holds its fifth election in four years Tuesday, his chances potentially boosted by the rise of the extreme-right.

The longest-serving leader in Israeli history, the 73-year-old right-winger and security hawk is for the first time in years campaigning from the opposition.

He is up against the centrist caretaker Prime Minister Yair Lapid, who last year manoeuvred a motley alliance of eight parties into a coalition that managed to oust Netanyahu from power.

Iraqi lawmakers approved a new government on Thursday, a key step forward after bitter infighting between Shiite Muslim factions and deadly violence following contested elections.

Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani's 21-member cabinet is expected to face myriad challenges.

The oil-rich but war-ravaged country is plagued by endemic corruption, rampant unemployment and decaying infrastructure.

The head of an Israeli bank appeared at a Saudi investor forum Thursday and hailed "amazing" opportunities in the kingdom, a sign of the business world's interest in seeing diplomatic ties between the former enemies.

Samer Haj-Yehia, the Arab-Israeli chairman of Bank Leumi since 2019, was addressing the Future Investment Initiative, a three-day conference held in the Saudi capital and often referred to as "Davos in the Desert".

"The opportunities are amazing and the fintech industry in particular is on the rise," he said during a panel discussion.

With customers unable to reach his shop for the past two weeks because of an Israeli-enforced lockdown, Abdelaziz al-Qadi's small convenience store in the West Bank city of Nablus has been left dark.

Wasting money on electricity is pointless, he explained, when Israeli forces are ensuring no traffic can pass his door.

On a normal day "there is not a single place to park" outside his shop, Qadi told AFP.

Israel's sweeping closure of Nablus has restricted travel in and out of the northern West Bank city for some 200,000 Palestinians.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Thursday rejected Turkish claims on the sovereignty of Greek islands, part of a barrage of verbal attacks from Ankara which the Greek PM termed "poison" and "lies".

A NATO partner "should not" question the sovereignty of another member," Scholz said in joint comments with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

"All such issues should be resolved on the basis of international law," said the German leader, who is on his first visit to Greece as chancellor.

Country climate pledges leave the world on track to heat by as much as 2.6 degrees Celsius this century, the United Nations said on Wednesday, warning that emissions must fall 45 percent this decade to limit disastrous global warming.

The United Nations Environment Programme, in its annual Emissions Gap report, found that updated national promises since last year's COP26 summit in Glasgow would only shave less than one percent off global greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.

Iran's leaders vowed Thursday to "punish" those behind a shooting that killed 15 worshippers at a Shiite Muslim shrine, as security forces pushed on with their deadly crackdown against women-led protests.

In the latest violence, a rights group said, security forces killed a Kurdish man when protesters massed around government buildings in western Iran, a flashpoint area in almost six weeks of unrest sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody.

British energy giant Shell on Thursday announced net profit totalling $6.7 billion in the third quarter, as oil and gas prices remain strong despite recent slides on easing supply fears.

The result compared with a loss after tax of $447 million in the July-September period last year, Shell said.

Flush with cash from revenue surging to almost $100 billion, Shell said it would buy back shares at a cost of $4 billion.

"We are delivering robust results at a time of ongoing volatility in global energy markets," said Shell's outgoing chief executive Ben van Beurden.

Israel and Lebanon struck a US-brokered maritime border agreement Thursday that opens up lucrative offshore gas fields for the neighbours that remain technically at war.

US President Joe Biden hailed the "historic" deal, that comes as Western powers clamour to open up new energy production and reduce vulnerability to supply cuts from Russia.

The agreement was signed separately by Lebanon's President Michel Aoun in Beirut and by Israel's Prime Minister Yair Lapid in Jerusalem, and went into effect after the papers were delivered to mediators.

Israel's far-right leader Itamar Ben-Gvir may have faced dozens of charges of hate speech against Arabs, but many young voters adore him as the voice of truth.

"The youth follow true messages," argued the Jewish Power party leader ahead of November 1 elections, at a time of flaring violence in the occupied West Bank.

"I don't say one thing and think something else," added the 46-year-old. "I offer my truth and my truth is that we must save the country."