Reuters and the Associated Press report that Syrian rebels backed by the Turkish military have recaptured the strategic town of Saraqeb, the first significant reverse for the Syrian army in a Russian-backed offensive that had made swift gains, the rebels said on Thursday. Reuters reports that Turkey plans to push Syrian government forces away from its military observation posts in northwest Syria’s Idlib region this week, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday, despite advances by Damascus’s Russian-backed military. The Associated Press reports that Syrian government forces bombed civilian targets in the northwestern Idlib province Wednesday, pushing ahead with a fierce military campaign that has sent nearly a million people fleeing from their homes.

The Independent, the Associated Press, Reuters and the Financial Times report that Saudi Arabia has banned religious pilgrims and foreigners from entering the country over coronavirus outbreak fears, after 220 confirmed cases of the Covid-19 illness have been recorded in the Middle East.

BBC News reports that Iran has no plans to quarantine any cities and towns despite the spread of the new coronavirus outbreak across the country, as President Rouhani told a cabinet meeting that health authorities would continue to “only quarantine individuals”. The Independent reports that Iran has accused the US of spreading “propaganda” about the coronavirus, as President Rouhani said the disease should not become an “enemy weapon” that disrupts businesses, having already killed 19 and infected scores more according to official Iranian figures.

BBC News and the Associated Press report that a military funeral has been held in Egypt for former President Hosni Mubarak, who died on Tuesday aged 91. The current President, Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, walked alongside Mubarak’s sons, Alaa and Gamal, in a procession behind his coffin as it was taken to the Field Marshal Tantawi mosque in Cairo.

The Financial Times reports that Egypt wants to attract investors into backing companies owned by the country’s army to address private sector complaints that they are being crowded out of lucrative sectors by the military.

Reuters reports that the US blacklisted a senior member of Iranian-backed Kataib Hezbollah militia on Wednesday, punishing it for its attacks targeting U.S. forces, most recently for killing an American contractor in an Iraqi military base near the northern city of Kirkuk.

In The Times, Richard Spencer writes that the fall of Kafranbel to the Assad regime in the battle for Idlib demonstrates the straining of tensions between Erdogan and Putin, as the rebel defeat had symbolic resonance for supporters of the original Syrian uprising.

In The Guardian, Jack Shenker writes that Mubarak’s fate continues to haunt Egypt’s leaders and gives hope to its people, as the former president’s downfall is a cautionary tale for those who seek to obliterate dissent in a country of 100 million people.

In The Guardian, 50 former prime ministers, foreign ministers and leaders from across Europe write that President Trump’s ‘Peace to Prosperity plan’ for Israel and the Palestinian ‘envisages an outcome with characteristics similar to apartheid’.

At Reuters, photojournalist Khalil Ashawi writes that Syrians fleeing Idlib now deem the Turkish border wall as the ‘symbol of their plight’.

The Israeli media report that the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) have opened all Gaza border crossings and expanded the fishing zone off the coast to 15 nautical miles. The announcement came just two days after the army imposed sanctions on the Strip after Palestinian Islamic Jihad fired more than 100 rockets towards southern Israel.

All the Israeli media report on preparations to deal with the coronavirus. The Health Ministry said that starting Sunday, anyone returning from Italy will have to enter a 14-day quarantine and urged Israelis to reconsider all non-essential travel abroad.

Israeli Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz told Army Radio that Bernie Sanders’ comments about moving the US embassy back to Tel Aviv were “shocking.” Prime Minister Netanyahu was also interviewed on Army Radio and said Sanders was wrong to call him a racist but refrained from further comments insisting: “I am not intervening in the US election.”