Human Rights Watch (HRW) criticized a Morocco court on Wednesday for sentencing a prominent journalist to three years in prison on a "dubious charge" relating to a northern protest movement.

Saudi Arabia on Wednesday intercepted a missile fired from rebel-held territory in neighbouring Yemen, where a Riyadh-led coalition is fighting the insurgents, state media said.

Preparations were underway on Wednesday to evacuate thousands of people from two pro-regime Syrian towns, an AFP reporter and state media said, after three years of encirclement by hardline rebels.

No date has been set for the start of evacuations from Fuaa and Kafraya in the northwestern province of Idlib, but they could begin in the coming days.

Three civilians were killed and nine wounded when a mortar shell hit a crowded market in southwestern Yemen, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said Wednesday.

A deal was reached on Tuesday for the evacuation of two pro-regime towns in Syria, allowing thousands to leave after three years of encirclement by hardline rebels.

Fuaa and Kafraya are the last remaining towns under siege in Syria, where the medieval tactic was mostly made notorious by government forces in the seven-year war.

Saudi Arabia on Tuesday executed seven death row inmates who had been convicted of murder and drug trafficking, state media reported. 

Israel placed new restrictions on its only cargo crossing with the Gaza Strip on Tuesday in response to continued Hamas hostilities, even after it agreed to a cease-fire ending 24 hours of intense fighting.

Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Israel will cease transferring gas and fuel through the Kerem Shalom crossing until Sunday but will allow food and essential medication to cross. Commercial cargo was suspended last week.

Yemeni officials and witnesses say heavy fighting between pro-government forces and Shiite rebels has killed more than 30 civilians, including women and children, in the last two weeks.

Government forces have been trying to seize rebel-held areas along the western coast, while an allied Saudi-led coalition has been targeting the rebels, known as Houthis, with airstrikes.

Air strikes on Tuesday killed more than a dozen civilians in parts of Syria's south near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, a war monitor said.

A Palestinian has died days after being shot by Israeli forces in clashes along the Gaza border, the enclave's health ministry said Tuesday.

Sari al-Shobaki had been transferred to Jerusalem for treatment after being shot several days ago east of Gaza City, the ministry in the Hamas-run territory said.