Qatar Airways on Thursday posted a record net profit of $1.54 billion for the 2021-2022 financial year, a result it attributed to a "successful strategy" during the coronavirus pandemic.

The state-owned airline said the profit result was "200 percent above its highest annual historical profit" and achieved on the back of $14.4 billion in overall income.

It said that the revenue figure was "a remarkable two percent higher than the full financial year pre-Covid" in 2019-2020.

Israel announced an extra 2,000 entry permits for Palestinians in Gaza Thursday, bringing the total number of permits for workers from the blockaded enclave to 14,000.

"Following a security assessment, the minister of defence has decided to raise the quota of entry permits for work and commerce in Israel by an additional 2,000," COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry body responsible for civil affairs in the Palestinian territories, said.

Qatar Airways on Thursday posted a record net profit of $1.54 billion for the 2021-2022 financial year, a result it attributed to a "successful strategy" during the coronavirus pandemic.

The state-owned airline said the profit result was "200 percent above its highest annual historical profit" and achieved on the back of $14.4 billion in overall income.

It said that the revenue figure was "a remarkable two percent higher than the full financial year pre-Covid" in 2019-2020.

Israeli police said Thursday they had concluded an internal investigation into violence at the funeral of slain Al Jazeera TV journalist Shireen Abu Akleh -- without however releasing any findings.

The police launched the probe following an international outcry after the veteran reporter's coffin was almost dropped when police attacked the pallbearers during her funeral last month.

Thousands had attended the service in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, and images of the unrest were broadcast live on TV. Israeli authorities blamed Palestinian protesters for the ugly scenes.

The World Trade Organization concluded a landmark bundle of deals Friday covering fishing subsidies, food insecurity and Covid-19 vaccines following hectic round-the-clock talks.

WTO director-general Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said trade ministers had struck an "unprecedented" number of agreements that would affect the lives of people everywhere.

The talks in Geneva began Sunday and had been due to wrap up on Wednesday.

But instead the WTO's 164 members went through two straight nights before getting the package over the line at around 5:00 am (0300 GMT) Friday.

US coalition forces said they captured a senior Islamic State group bomb maker in a pre-dawn raid Thursday that, witnesses said, saw troops in helicopters swoop down on an isolated house in rebel-held northwestern Syria.

A war monitor and AFP correspondents said two military helicopters touched down for only a few minutes, and several shots were fired, in a village in an area controlled by Turkish-backed rebel groups.

Mark Eliyahu sat and tuned his ancient Persian violin-like "kamanci" in a yurt in northern Israel -- but many of his biggest fans are in Iran, a country he cannot visit.

Eliyahu's ethereal music, partly inspired by his Jewish roots from the Dagestan region of the Caucasus, is gaining recognition in Israel.

Yet despite the bitter hostility between the Israeli government and Tehran, which cut ties in the wake of the 1979 Iranian revolution, he also has a growing following among Iranians.

Flights were cancelled, public transport ground to a halt and government offices were closed in a nationwide strike by Tunisia's main trade union Thursday, piling pressure on a president already facing multiple crises.

The powerful UGTT confederation had urged workers across the North African country's vast public sector to strike, halting work at 159 state agencies and public companies to demand concessions on salaries and threatened reforms.

A UN-backed court for Lebanon will sentence two Hezbollah members in their absence Thursday for the 2005 assassination of former premier Rafic Hariri in what could be the cash-strapped tribunal's final act.

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), which is based in the Netherlands, found Habib Merhi and Hussein Oneissi guilty on appeal in March over a huge bombing which killed Hariri and 21 others and injured 226.

Russia's war in Ukraine has pushed global displacement numbers above 100 million for the first time, and the UN warns the resulting hunger crisis could force many more to flee their homes.

Efforts to address the global food insecurity crisis, which has been dramatically aggravated by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, is "of paramount importance... to prevent a larger number of people moving," the United Nations refugee chief Filippo Grandi told reporters.

"If you ask me how many... I don't know, but it will be pretty big numbers."