The United Nations chief has launched a $397 million appeal to help nearly 5 million survivors of last week's devastating earthquake in rebel-held northwest Syria who have received very little assistance because of deep divisions exacerbated by the country's 12-year war.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced the appeal a day after he welcomed an agreement between the U.N. and Syrian President Bashar Assad to open two new crossing points from Turkey for an initial period of three months. The U.N. has only been allowed to deliver aid to the northwest Idlib area through a single crossing at Bab Al-Hawa -- at Syrian ally Russia's insistence. Since the quake, the U.N. says 84 trucks have gone through Bab Al-Hawa.

Israel's far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, long accused of inflaming Jewish-Arab tensions, has set his sights on one of the conflict's most sensitive issues: Palestinian prisoners.

Since joining Israel's new government led by veteran Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu late last year, Ben-Gvir has pledged to ensure Palestinian inmates are not being treated too comfortably.

A Saudi Arabian plane carrying aid to quake-hit Syria landed in second city Aleppo Tuesday -- the first in more than a decade of war, a transport ministry official told AFP.

Residents of the Gaza Strip said Israeli aircraft launched a series of airstrikes at militant sites in the coastal Palestinian territory early Monday.

The airstrikes appear to be a response to the firing of a rocket by Palestinian militants toward southern Israel Saturday evening. Israeli air defenses intercepted the rocket.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi offered effusive praise Monday for the United Arab Emirates, seeking to repair a rift between Cairo and the Gulf Arab states that have supplied billions of dollars in aid to his nation.

Al-Sisi has relied on handouts from Gulf Arab states to keep his country's economy afloat since seizing power in 2013. Estimates suggest over $100 billion in Gulf money has gone to Cairo via Central Bank deposits, fuel aid and other support since then.

Tens of thousands of Israelis — hoisting flags, blowing on horns and chanting "democracy" and "no to dictatorship"— protested outside the parliament building Monday as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government formally launched a contentious plan to overhaul the country's legal system.

It was the largest protest outside the Knesset in years and reflected the deep divisions over the plan. The proposed changes have triggered weeks of mass demonstrations, drawn cries of protests from influential business leaders and former military men and even prompted a statement of concern from President Joe Biden.

After years of war, residents of areas in northwest Syria struck by a massive earthquake are grappling with their new and worsening reality.

Almost one week after the devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck northern Syria and neighboring Turkey, the United Nations has acknowledged an international failure to help Syrian quake victims.

World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus arrived on Saturday in Syria's quake-stricken city of Aleppo, state media reported. 

The United Nations rights chief has called for an immediate ceasefire in Syria to facilitate the delivery of aid to all victims of the region's devastating earthquake.

International aid was trickling into parts of Turkey and Syria on Saturday where rescuers toiled to pull children from rubble in areas devastated by a massive earthquake that has killed over 24,000 people.