Turkey on Friday denounced the US decision to put the head of Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on its terror blacklist, saying it hoped the move would not have a negative impact on Ankara's humanitarian aid to Gaza.

The US State Department on Wednesday also slapped sanctions on Ismail Haniya, who was named head of Hamas in May 2017.

At least 90 people were feared dead on Friday in the latest migrant tragedy in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Libya, the UN migration agency said. 

Israeli forces struck a Hamas position in Gaza early Friday after a rocket was fired from the Palestinian enclave.

Desperate to escape Syria's terrors, Ammar Maarawi bolted. In early 2016, he paid smugglers and endured a dangerous sea crossing to Greece and an exhausting journey by train, bus and foot through Europe.

Two years later, the 36-year-old is back home in Aleppo. He returned last summer — depressed, homesick and dreading another winter, he couldn't bear life in the German city of Suhl.

Arab foreign ministers on Thursday called for the creation of a U.N.-backed "multilateral mechanism" to help revive the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians.

About 150 Syrian civil society groups are accusing U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres of rewarding Russia by dispatching the special envoy to the Sochi peace congress.

At least seven Palestinians died in an explosion in Gaza City Thursday, in what officials said was an intentional act after a family quarrel.

Three Turkish soldiers were killed on Thursday in two separate attacks by Kurdish militants in northern Iraq and in southeastern Turkey, the military said.

After battling Yemen's government, the Southern Transitional Council now controls the city of Aden and its mission statement, seen by AFP on Thursday, openly calls for the independence of the south.

The two leading Palestinian factions missed another deadline Thursday to implement a reconciliation deal, potentially burying the landmark accord aimed at ending their decade-long split.