Baghdad on Tuesday said Jordan's hosting of a meeting of Sunni Iraqis opposed to the Shiite-led government was "unacceptable".

On Friday Iraq recalled its envoy to Amman without giving a reason, but the move came days after a meeting of some 300 Sunni clerics, tribal leaders, insurgent commanders and businessmen in the Jordanian capital.

TV channel Al-Jazeera evacuated its bureau in Gaza when it came under fire on Tuesday, the Qatar-based network said.

Two warning shots were fired at the 11-story Jalaa building in central Gaza City, housing local and international media as well as private apartments, an Agence France Presse correspondent reported.

The Qatar-backed head of the Syrian opposition's interim government was sacked Tuesday, under pressure from Saudi Arabia, once again exposing the sharp divisions between the opposition's main backers.

Since the National Coalition was created in late 2012, rivalries between Riyadh and Doha have consistently undermined the group, which acts as the main opposition body.

Two Turkish soldiers and at least six Kurdish rebels were killed in clashes in southeastern Turkey near the Syrian border, the Turkish military said Tuesday.

The clashes erupted on Monday after Kurdish rebels attempting to cross from Turkey into Syria started firing at a patrol team in Turkey's Sanliurfa province, the army said in a statement.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon demanded Tuesday that Israel and Hamas halt spiraling violence in Gaza as he pushed diplomatic efforts to end bloodshed that has killed more than 620 Palestinians.

Following top-level truce talks in Cairo, the U.N. secretary-general headed to Israel to deliver his message in person as the 15-day conflict showed no sign of easing.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has sacrificed any possibility of Turkey playing a mediation role in Gaza in favor of seeking to impress voters ahead of presidential polls with the toughest ever anti-Israeli rhetoric from a Turkish leader.

Before the rise to power of Erdogan's Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) over a decade ago, NATO member Turkey was Israel's key ally in the Islamic world, a policy enthusiastically cheered by the United States.

The United Nations called for help Tuesday to vaccinate 765,000 Syrian toddlers against polio, in a bid to prevent a resurgence of the childhood killer across the restive Middle East.

"Inside Syria, 765,000 children under the age of five live in hard-to-reach areas where conflict and restriction make it extremely difficult to reach them with humanitarian assistance including regular access to vaccines," U.N. agencies said.

European Union foreign ministers agreed Tuesday to expand sanctions on Syria over the government's "violent repression" of its civilian population.

The ministers added three people and nine entities to the current list of those subject to an asset freeze and a ban on entering the EU, a statement said.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he has stopped talking to U.S. President Barack Obama on the phone, amid growing strains between Ankara and Washington over Syria and the Gaza conflict.

Turkey, a fierce opponent of Syrian President Bashar Assad and an open supporter of armed rebel fighters, felt betrayed when the United States backed away from military action against Damascus in September.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls has blamed extremist groups for violent pro-Palestinian protests that took place last week in and near Paris.

A demonstration in the gritty northern Paris suburb of Sarcelles degenerated into violence Sunday with Jewish shops being looted and police using tear gas and rubber bullets against the crowd.