Israel and Palestinian militants unleashed salvos of fire for a fourth day on Saturday, with the Islamic Jihad militant group launching rockets and the Israeli military pounding targets inside the Gaza Strip.

There were no immediate reports of casualties in Gaza or Israel on Saturday. But in a reminder of the combustible situation in the occupied West Bank, the Israeli military raided the Balata refugee camp in the northern city of Nablus, killing two Palestinians. The Palestinian Health Ministry identified the two as 32-year-old Said Mesha and 19-year-old Adnan Araj. At least three other Palestinians were wounded in the raid, the latest of near-daily Israeli arrest operations against suspected militants in the territory.

Ann Snow has been appointed UK Special Representative to Syria. She has taken up the role in succession to Jonathan Hargreaves.

Snow joined the British Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) in 2009. She has served in Malaysia and worked on Iran, China and Counter Terrorism. She takes up the role after 15 months of full-time Arabic-language training.

Amnesty International on Friday called on the United Nations to keep delivering crucial aid to quake-stricken Syrians via two crossings in rebel-held areas even if authorization from Damascus expires.

On February 6, a devastating earthquake hit Turkey and Syria, killing more than 55,000 people across both countries.

The cycle has become grimly familiar.

Over three days, Israeli airstrikes on Gaza have killed at least 28 people, including senior Palestinian militants, as well as children as young as 4 years old. Palestinian militants in Gaza have fired over 600 rockets toward Israel, killing one person, setting off warning sirens as far north as the coastal city of Tel Aviv and sending tens of thousands of Israelis into bomb shelters.

French prosecutors are seeking to send former President Nicolas Sarkozy and 12 others to trial on charges that his 2007 presidential campaign received millions in illegal financing from the government of late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.

After a decade of investigation, the French national financial prosecutor's office announced its decision Friday to seek a trial. It's now up to judges to determine whether to move ahead. In general, judges in France follow such prosecutors' requests, though not always.

Israel and Gaza militants traded heavy fire Friday as hopes faded of securing a truce to end days of fighting that have killed dozens, all but one of them Palestinian.

The violence has been met with international calls for de-escalation, with the European Union pushing Thursday for an "immediate comprehensive ceasefire."

Foreign ministers of France, Germany, Jordan and Egypt on Thursday called for an end to the violence between Israel and Gaza militants, who have been trading heavy fire for three days.

"The bloodletting must end now," said German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock after hosting talks with her counterparts.

Warring parties in Yemen are "serious" about ending a devastating eight-year-old conflict but it is impossible to predict when direct talks, much less a breakthrough, might happen, Saudi Arabia's envoy told AFP.

"Everybody is serious. Serious means everybody is looking for peace," Mohammed al-Jaber said in his first extensive comments after meeting with Huthi leaders in Sanaa last month. But he added: "It's not easy to be clear about next steps."

A second Syrian police officer has died following a car bombing at a Damascus police station, the interior ministry said Thursday, a day after the blast that was claimed by Islamic State group jihadists.

The ministry said Wednesday that a vehicle exploded at the Barzeh police station in the north of the capital, killing a lieutenant colonel and wounding four others, adding that an investigation was ongoing.

Tunisian authorities have opened an investigation into a shooting attack at a synagogue that killed two Jewish pilgrims and three members of the country's security forces. The motive of the gunman, whom guards killed before he could enter the building on the island of Djerba, remained unclear.

The island's historic Ghriba synagogue, thought to be one of the world's oldest Jewish temples, is a popular pilgrimage destination, but it was unknown if the assailant, a member of the Tunisian National Guard, specifically targeted Jews in Tuesday's attack.