Syria's army is launching its assault on rebel districts of the flashpoint southern city of Daraa, state media said on Tuesday, following a week of escalating operations in the countryside.

Air strikes and artillery fire killed 55 people near Yemen's Hodeida, medical sources and residents said Tuesday, as the UAE insisted Huthi rebels pull out of the key port city.

Air strikes and ground fighting in southern Syria have forced at least 45,000 people to flee, the United Nations said on Tuesday, the largest displacement in the area so far.

Backed by Russia, Syrian government forces have ramped up air strikes and ground attacks on rebel positions in the south, particularly its main province of Daraa. 

An Israeli parliamentary vote scheduled for Tuesday on recognising the World War I killings of Armenians as genocide has been cancelled because of government opposition, the lawmaker behind the initiative said.

Syrian government forces took two villages in the southern province of Daraa overnight, a monitor and state media said on Tuesday, cutting off a pocket of rebel-held territory.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday declined to offer a timetable for announcing his proposed Middle East peace plan, saying only that "progress" had been made in tackling the complex issue. 

The United Nations implored member countries Monday to fill a critical funding gap that the Trump administration created by sharply cutting the U.S. contribution to a program that helps Palestinian refugees across the Middle East.

The U.N. held a conference to raise money for basic services — from food assistance and medical care to sanitation — for 5 million refugees in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

The EU on Monday called for all sides in the Yemen conflict to stop the escalation of violence and ensure the port of Hodeida stays open for vital humanitarian supplies.

A Tunisian shepherd has died from wounds sustained when he was attacked over the weekend by jihadists in the country's mountainous centre, the defense ministry said Monday.  

Italy's far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini called Monday on a visit to Tripoli for processing centers to be set up south of Libya's borders as a way to block attempts by migrants to cross the Mediterranean.