A regime offensive in southern Syria has forced more than 270,000 people from their homes, the United Nations said Monday.

Rebels in southern Syria were sharply divided Monday over whether to accept deals offered by government backer Russia that would see regime forces retake control of opposition towns.

Australia ended direct aid to the Palestinian Authority on Monday over fears it could be used to support people convicted of political violence.

France has "participated in the bloody Egyptian repression" for the past five years by delivering weapons and surveillance systems to President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's government, rights groups charged in a report released Monday.

Syrian rebels and local officials pursued talks with regime ally Russia on Sunday over the fate of a key southern region facing a government offensive, a Britain-based monitor said.

The Jordan-backed talks came as a tentative calm reigned over most fronts in the southern province of Daraa, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said.

The Israeli military said Sunday it would be reinforcing troops along the frontier with Syria and stepping up its humanitarian efforts in the area amid a fierce Syrian government offensive that has displaced thousands of people.

The military said it would be sending armor and artillery to the area. The United Nations has warned of a catastrophe in southern Syria, where government forces are on the offensive against insurgents in fighting that has forced thousands of people to flee toward the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and the Jordanian border.

Two Palestinians died and six others have been injured in Gaza when a blast went off in a fireworks factory, causing a fire, health and security officials said. 

The Jordanian army has sent cross-border deliveries of aid to displaced people in Syria's southern province of Daraa, where Damascus is pressing an offensive to oust rebels, officials said.

A suicide bombing Sunday targeting a warehouse in Kirkuk where ballot boxes from Iraq's May elections were stored wounded 19 people, days before a vote recount, a security source said.

The United Arab Emirates on Sunday announced it had halted the offensive it is backing against Huthi rebels in Yemen's port city of Hodeida, to give a chance to U.N. diplomatic efforts.