Tens of thousands of civilians have fled from the southern Idlib region in northwestern Syria to the north of the province amid heavy bombardment this week, the U.N. humanitarian agency said Friday.

Iraq's top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani called Friday for early elections to end the months of political paralysis that have gripped the protest-hit country.

Libya's U.N.-recognized unity government on Friday urged five "friendly countries" to implement military deals as it seeks to repel the forces of an eastern-based strongman fighting to seize the capital.

The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor said Friday she wanted t open a full investigation into alleged war crimes in the Palestinian territories, sparking a furious reaction from Israel.

Clashes between Syrian regime forces and armed groups in the country's last major opposition bastion have killed more than 60 on both sides in the past 24 hours despite UN calls for de-escalation, a war monitoring group said Friday.

A car bomb killed five people including three children in the Turkish-controlled region of northern Syria on Thursday, Turkey's defense ministry said.

Human Rights Watch called on Egyptian authorities Thursday to provide "critically needed medical care" to an imprisoned Islamist activist who is the daughter of a Muslim Brotherhood leader.

Aisha al-Shater, 39, was arrested in November 2018 in a crackdown that swept up other political and rights activists as well as lawyers, according to HRW.

Former prime minister Abdelmadjid Tebboune was sworn in as the new president of protest-hit Algeria on Thursday, a week after winning a widely boycotted election.

Israeli warplanes attacked an arms plant in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip early Thursday, after Palestinian militants in the enclave fired a rocket at Israel,the army said.

"Overnight, a rocket was launched from the Gaza Strip at Israeli territory," an English-language army statement said.

Syrian regime air strikes and artillery fire on Tuesday killed 23 civilians in the last major opposition bastion in the northwest of the country, a war monitor said.