Iranian captain Hassan Rostam has braved the Strait of Hormuz aboard his lenj for four decades, but now watches with despair as the wooden ships are being replaced by cheaper, faster boats.

The sturdy vessels, built by hand, have sailed Gulf waters for centuries, their potbellied silhouette emblematic of regional maritime traditions like the dhows of the Arabian Peninsula.

But these days, "there are fewer and fewer" of them, said Rostam, 62, who has spent his life travelling the waterway between Iran and the United Arab Emirates.

Schalke head to league leaders Bayern Munich on Saturday in the midst of an extraordinary relegation escape act, with more than a little help from centre-back and captain Maya Yoshida.

Made captain early in 2023 with Schalke dead last in the Bundesliga, the 34-year-old Yoshida has been pivotal to the team's surprise resurgence.

Schalke now sit in 15th, one place and two points clear of the relegation spots, with three games remaining.

Fighting raged in the Sudanese capital and a city to the south Wednesday, residents said, pushing more people to undertake dangerous journeys to safety across the country's borders.

Those unable to escape grapple with shortages of food and other essentials, surviving only thanks to Sudanese charity networks among friends and neighbours, as the United States expressed cautious optimism over talks to secure the safe delivery of aid.

A year after an Israeli bullet killed Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, her West Bank office remains almost untouched, but mourners' flowers have piled up in an adjacent room.

The Ramallah street where the news bureau is located has been renamed after her, and a new museum will soon honour her work and that of other reporters covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Fellow journalists say they still have not accepted the loss of Abu Akleh, 51, whose many years of fearless reporting had made her a household name across the Arab world.

A "perfect storm" of overlapping crises forced tens of millions to flee within their own country last year, sending the number of internally displaced people to a record high, monitors said on Thursday.

An unprecedented 71.1 million internally displaced people (IDPs) were registered in 2022 -- up 20 percent from a year earlier -- amid mass displacement for Russia's war in Ukraine, as well as by the monsoon floods that drenched Pakistan.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad received an invitation to next week's Arab summit in Saudi Arabia, the presidency said Wednesday, the first since his country's war began over a decade ago.

The pan-Arab body had suspended Damascus in November 2011 over its crackdown on protests which spiralled into a conflict that has killed more than 500,000 people and displaced millions.

On Sunday, the Arab League welcomed back Syria's government, securing Assad's return to the Arab fold after years of isolation.

The Israeli military said it renewed strikes on Gaza Wednesday, killing one person according to the Palestinian territory's health ministry.

In a statement, the military said it was "currently striking Islamic Jihad terrorist organisation rocket launching infrastructure in the Gaza Strip".

A Gaza health ministry official told AFP one person was killed.

An AFP journalist saw air strikes hit north of Gaza City, with smoke billowing from the densely-populated territory.

Israel's army and Gaza militants traded heavy cross-border fire Wednesday, with 22 Palestinians killed over two days amid the worst escalation of violence to hit the coastal territory in months.

Smoke billowed from the densely populated coastal enclave after Israel announced it was targeting rocket launch sites of the militant group Islamic Jihad.

Gaza's health ministry said seven people were killed, a day after Israeli strikes on the Palestinian territory left 15 dead.

Tunisia's small Jewish community was in shock and mourning Wednesday after a bloody shooting rampage in which a police officer killed five people outside Africa's oldest synagogue.

The shooting Tuesday sparked mass panic during an annual Jewish pilgrimage at the historic Ghriba synagogue on the resort island of Djerba, which was quickly locked down by security forces.

"I never believed that I would experience such terror," recounted one survivor, Raoudha Seibi.

In a dimly lit Damascus cafe, Sharief Homsi kicked off comedy night with a quip about war-battered Syria's modern-day prince charming: an eligible bachelor with attractive supplies of fuel and electricity.

"Marry me, I have a bright future: 100 litres of petrol, solar panels to generate electricity and three gas canisters," he said, performing a mock proposal that had the audience howling.