Across the Middle East last week, Muslims continued to observe the holy month of Ramadan while Egypt saw a dramatic escalation as the country prepared to mark the second anniversary of mass protests that led to the military's ouster of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.
A car bombing in Cairo assassinated the country's state prosecutor, followed by a wave of coordinated attacks on Egyptian troops by militants from an Islamic State affiliate in northern Sinai.
Days of fierce fighting engulfed the restive peninsula until President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi announced that his troops had foiled an attempt by the Islamic State to seize territory and set up an extremist state there.
In Yemen, Saudi-led airstrikes hit Houthi rebel targets in the capital of Sanaa as the United Nations declared its highest-level humanitarian emergency in the conflict-torn nation where over 80 percent of the population need assistance
In Kabul, troops from a NATO-led convoy were targeted by a suicide attack and civilians, angered over the attack, turned on the soldiers.
Meanwhile, two lion cubs — Mona and Max — finally left a Gaza refugee camp and embarked on a journey to a wildlife sanctuary in Jordan. A Gaza family had bought the lions from a local zoo that was damaged in last year's Israel-Hamas war.
And near an extinct volcano in northern Israel overlooking the Sea of Galilee, Israeli and Russian history buffs and members of knight clubs re-enacted the 12 century Battle of Hattin in which Saladin's army defeated the crusaders.
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Associated Press photographers and photo editors on Twitter: http://apne.ws/15Oo6jo
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AP Middle East Regional photo editor Maya Alleruzzo in Cairo curated this gallery. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/mayaalleruzzo.
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