The U.N. humanitarian chief urged Syria's warring parties on Wednesday to ensure the delivery of desperately needed aid to Syrians stranded near the border with Jordan and warned again that a major military operation in extremist-controlled Idlib would be a humanitarian catastrophe.

Mark Lowcock said the U.N. wants an aid convoy, with more than 100 trucks accompanied by some 250 U.N. and Syrian Arab Red Crescent personnel, to leave for the isolated Rukban camp on the Syria-Jordan border by Feb. 5. Its 42,000 people "remain stranded in deteriorating conditions since the last convoy to the area in early November," which was the first since January 2018, he said.

Yemeni medics scrambled to save a 20-year-old woman after a sniper's bullet tore a gash in her scalp in the port city of Hodeida, where a fragile ceasefire has brought limited respite to war-weary civilians.

Outside a camp for the displaced in northwest Syria, 15-year-old Sabaa al-Jassim hacked away at a mountain of trash hoping to find scraps to sell for food.

Using a hooked metal rod, he stabbed at acrid household waste in the village of Kafr Lusin, looking for plastic to trade for a few dollars to feed his 11-member family.

The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen released seven Huthi rebel prisoners on Wednesday and returned them to Sanaa, the United Nations said.

U.S. aid to the Palestinian security services will end this week at the Palestinians' request, an official in the West Bank said Wednesday, to preempt lawsuits over alleged support for terrorism.

The Palestinian Authority has demanded the funding stop at the end of January for fear it could expose the PA to costly lawsuits under the U.S. Anti-Terrorism Clarification Act (ATCA), which comes into force on February 1.

Palestinian and European officials expressed concern and regret Wednesday over Israel's decision not to renew the mandate of an international monitoring group in the  occupied West Bank city of Hebron.

The Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH) was established after a massacre of Palestinians in 1994.

Israel has threatened to bar Amnesty International from accessing Israeli territory over its charge Wednesday that digital tourism companies are profiting from "war crimes" in the occupied West Bank.

A Palestinian woman tried to stab Israeli guards at a checkpoint on the outskirts of Jerusalem on Wednesday, Israeli police said, with Palestinian officials reporting she was shot dead.

Twelve people have been killed in floods after heavy rain lashed northern parts of Saudi Arabia this week, the civil defence agency said on Wednesday.

Ten died in the northwestern city of Tabuk and one each in the holy city of Medina and in northern border areas, the agency said in a statement cited by the official SPA news agency.

Bullish on security, conservative in diplomacy -- ending weeks of silence, retired Israeli general Benny Gantz has launched his campaign to become prime minister.

What did his maiden political speech delivered on Tuesday night reveal about his chances of beating long-term incumbent Benjamin Netanyahu in April's election?