Israel reimposed a blockade of fuel supplies to Gaza on Thursday in response to a resurgence of the flow of fire kites across the border, Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said.

Yemen's Huthi rebels announced a two-week pause in Red Sea operations Wednesday, after attacks against Saudi tankers last week prompted Riyadh to suspend oil shipments through a key waterway.

Four Syrian regime fighters were killed east of the capital, a monitor said on Wednesday, in an ambush claimed by the Islamic State group.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told his troops on Wednesday they were close to winning the country's seven-year war after inflicting a succession of defeats on rebels.

An Israeli court on Tuesday sentenced an Arab woman to five months in prison for incitement to violence and support for a terrorist organization in poems and other social media posts, the justice ministry said.

Dareen Tatour, 36 and an Israeli citizen, posted a video clip of herself reading her poem "Resist, my people, resist them," in October 2015, accompanied by pictures of clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces, according to authorities.

A jihadist group has released videos of a Japanese journalist and an Italian man held captive in Syria in which they appeal for their release, U.S.-based monitors have said.

Israeli MPs are to return from summer recess next week to discuss mounting criticism of a new law proclaiming the country the nation state of the Jewish people, parliament said Tuesday.

Human Rights Watch called on Tuesday for investigations into the "rampant" use of torture against people arrested on suspicion of belonging to the Islamic State group. 

Dozens of Islamic State group fighters were cornered in a pocket of Syria's Daraa on Tuesday after losing all other territory there to a Russian-backed regime assault, a monitor said. 

An Israeli court on Tuesday sentenced an Arab woman to five months in prison for incitement to violence and support for a terrorist organisation in poems and other social media posts, the justice ministry said.