More than two million Israelis lack adequate shelter in case of rockets fired from Gaza to the south or from Lebanon or Syria to the north, an official report said Tuesday.

Gunmen killed the head of a local radio station in the Iraqi city of Kirkuk on Tuesday, the latest in a string of such murders in the troubled country.

Forces loyal to Libya's unity government said Tuesday they were hunting down the last jihadists in the city of Sirte after the Islamic State group's ouster from its former bastion.

Israeli far-right politicians on Tuesday welcomed initial approval of a bill to legalize some 4,000 settler homes in the West Bank, calling it a step towards annexation of most of the Palestinian territory.

A seven-year-old Syrian girl whose Twitter account from Aleppo gained international attention has fled her home amid heavy fighting, but she and her family are safe for now, her father told AFP Tuesday.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday said he would try to get Syrian peace talks going again with Russia's help as government forces closed in on rebels in the besieged city of Aleppo.

Syrian government troops seized five new districts of eastern Aleppo on Tuesday, including the strategic Shaar neighborhood, a monitoring group said.

Egyptian authorities announced Tuesday the arrest of 25 members of an international network allegedly trafficking in human organs, including university professors and doctors.

Syria's government on Tuesday said it would not agree to a ceasefire in Aleppo unless it guarantees a full withdrawal of rebel factions from the city. 

Yemeni authorities have arrested eight suspected Islamic State group jihadists implicated in a spate of attacks targeting security personnel in second city Aden this year, police said.

Police in the southern port city, headquarters of Yemen's internationally recognised government, also seized silenced pistols and letters from IS leaders in Iraq and Syria, a statement said late on Monday.