In a field close to the Gaza Strip's restive frontier, apiarist Miassar Khoudair checks that her queen bee has survived five days of deadly cross-border fire between Palestinian militants and the Israeli army.

"The bees die from the gases, the rockets and dust as a result of the war," said the 29-year-old, dressed in a protective white bee suit.

Ahead of World Bee Day on Saturday -- which aims to raise the profile of these vital pollinators -- Khoudair has returned to her colony just a few hundred metres (yards) from the border.

The global economic slowdown and domestic political turmoil have not impaired the long-term prospects of Israel's vaunted hi-tech industry, officials and insiders say, despite a recent decline in hiring in the sector.

Nearly 18 percent of Israel's gross domestic product comes from the tech sector, which employs 12 percent of the workforce, generates nearly a third of its income tax and constitutes half of exports, official figures show.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad arrived in Saudi Arabia on Thursday, state media said, to join an Arab League summit for the first time in more than a decade of war.

The visit seals Assad's dramatic return to the Arab fold, a development championed by host Saudi Arabia and fellow Gulf power the United Arab Emirates despite reservations from other Arab leaders.

Assad "arrived at King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah to participate in... the Arab League summit" to be held Friday, Syrian state television reported.

Lying in a Gaza hospital, Najwa Abu Aisha says she stood on the roof of her home when shrapnel sliced through her spinal cord in the latest cross-border violence.

"I was on the roof checking the water barrels, (when) suddenly I heard the sound of an explosion which caused the water barrel to fall on me. I fell on the neighbour's house and, after that, I didn't feel anything," she said.

Tens of thousands of Israeli nationalists marched to Jerusalem's Old City on Thursday in an annual flag-waving march commemorating Israel's capture of it, as tensions on the Gaza border remained high.

Palestinians in annexed east Jerusalem closed their shops and were banned from the Damascus Gate entrance to the Old City, a social hub, to make way for the marchers, some of whom attacked journalists with rocks and bottles, an AFP reporter said.

Police said they made two arrests over the attack, one of an adult and one of a minor.

Turkey's opposition leader vowed Thursday to send back millions of migrants in a strident message aimed at winning the backing of an ultra-nationalist who helped push last weekend's presidential vote to a runoff.

Secular opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu delivered his first public address since a landmark election Sunday in which he came in almost five points behind President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Kilicdaroglu's performance was the opposition's best of the Turkish leader's two-decade rule.

Tributes to Syrian culture are everywhere at Riyadh's Damascu Cafe –- from the traditional bean stew on the menu to folk songs that pour from the speakers, name-checking the war-torn country's cities and towns.

There's even a staffer who was hired for his resemblance to beloved Syrian comedian Duraid Lahham, and who spends long shifts posing for selfies with homesick customers

Egyptian luxury brands are harnessing traditional craftsmanship from jewellery design to carpet weaving to bring the country's ancient cultural riches to the world.

Experts in the sector say the global appeal of Arab and Islamic designs from other countries shows Egypt could do more to promote its rich, millennia-old artistic heritage.

Conflict-plagued countries in the Middle East are among the most vulnerable to climate change but are almost entirely excluded from meaningful financing to mitigate its effects, aid groups warned Thursday.

In a joint report focusing on Iraq, Syria and Yemen, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Norwegian Red Cross demanded greater assistance, saying the combined effects of climate change and armed conflict create an alarming cocktail of humanitarian woes.

On a gentle slope looking out over Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, villagers work their way across pink-dotted terraces, gathering perfumed Damask roses that are used for essential oils, sweets and cosmetics.

The rose harvest "gives you a bit of hope, it makes things beautiful, it calms you down -- it gives you strength to carry on", said Leila al-Dirani, picking the flowers from her family's land in the village of Qsarnaba.