French President Francois Hollande hit out on Thursday at Russia's role in the ongoing siege of Aleppo, saying that Moscow had broken a promise to aid trapped civilians.

"Russia is making commitments that it is not keeping. There's a moment where you have to answer with action," Hollande told reporters as he arrived for an EU summit overshadowed by events in the besieged city where Syrian and Russian forces are forcing out rebels.

Vehicles were en route Tuesday to two government-held villages under rebel siege in Syria's Idlib province to evacuate sick and wounded residents, a Syrian official told state media.

A Manama court on Thursday adjourned the trial of Bahraini opposition leader and rights activist Nabil Rajab for a fourth time and rejected calls for his release, judicial sources said.

Belgian authorities have detained four people after a series of raids to break up a weapons smuggling ring trying to send guns into Libya in defiance of a U.N. arms embargo.

The Federal Prosecutor's office said Thursday that the raids are part of an inquiry into money laundering and arms smuggling involving companies in the U.S., United Arab Emirates, Niger and Belgium.

Egyptian authorities on Thursday executed a jihadist convicted of involvement in a 2013 gun attack on police in the Sinai Peninsula, state media reported.

After Mohammed Walo's Aleppo neighborhood was recaptured by Syria's army, he crossed into the well-stocked government-held west for groceries. On the way back, he was stopped at a checkpoint and conscripted.

The lights of the Eiffel Tower in Paris were switched off on Wednesday to show support for the people of the shattered Syrian city of Aleppo.

Residents of a wildcat Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank on Thursday rejected a proposal to leave voluntarily, raising fears of violence as an evacuation deadline nears.

The Amona outpost, home to some 40 families, is under a High Court order to be evacuated by December 25 since it was found to have been built on private Palestinian land. 

The U.N.'s Commission of Inquiry for Syria (COI) said Wednesday it had received reports that opposition fighters were blocking civilians from fleeing Aleppo and using them as human shields. 

Islamic State fighters possibly seized air-defense weapons when they recaptured the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra, a U.S. general said Wednesday, adding a potential complication to the coalition's air war.

Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend, who commands the US-led coalition bombing IS in Iraq and Syria, said jihadists seized a trove of gear when they retook the desert city from Russia-backed Syrian regime troops on Sunday.