Israeli forces bombed Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip overnight in retaliation for Palestinian rocket attacks, the military said Thursday.

The head of Iraq's Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary force has walked back his deputy's accusation that the United States was behind a string of recent explosions at the group's bases.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will host his Russian and Iranian counterparts for a summit on Syria in Ankara on September 16, the presidential spokesman said.

Two Israeli Arabs were charged Thursday over their alleged support for the Islamic State group, including downloading guides to prepare terror attacks, Israel's domestic security agency said.

Damascus said Thursday it is opening a corridor for civilians to leave the rebel-held northwestern region of Idlib, where government bombardment has killed hundreds since late April, state media said. 

Airstrikes hit a hospital in a rebel-held village in northwestern Syria, knocking it out of service early on Wednesday, opposition activists said as government forces pressed their offensive on the last major rebel stronghold in the war-torn country.

There was no immediate word on casualties from the airstrike on the Rahma hospital in Tel Mannas, said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Thiqa news agency, an activist collective.

The United Arab Emirates on Wednesday rejected accusations it supported Yemeni separatists in their seizure of the government's de facto capital Aden.

The United Nations has postponed a conference against torture due to be held in Cairo after fierce criticism of Egypt's rights record, a U.N. spokesman said.

After Egypt's president appointed top judges for the first time in the country's modern history, criticism of the judiciary's lack of independence is rampant.

A large explosion hit an arms depot belonging to an Iranian-backed militia faction north of Baghdad on Tuesday, the latest in a series of mysterious blasts at military bases and munitions depots around the country in the past few weeks.