Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu designated Al-Aqsa television channel of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas a "terrorist organization" on Wednesday.

Envoys from the 28 EU member states on Wednesday unanimously rejected a proposal by the European Commission to add Saudi Arabia and other nations to the bloc's money-laundering blacklist, European sources said.

Police deployed Wednesday in the Algerian capital with water cannons, a day after thousands of students demonstrated against ailing President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's re-election bid.

A candidate for an extreme-right party that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has sought to boost ahead of April elections should be disqualified over "racist" remarks, the attorney general has said.

Israel's elections committee will begin discussing petitions to bar candidates on Wednesday. 

In Syria's jihadist-controlled Idlib province, Mudar Darwish and fellow medical students clutched banners and chanted against the closure of their university.

"Our future is being wasted because of unfair decisions against our university," Darwish told the crowd gathered in the northwestern region.

Hundreds of civilians streamed out of the Islamic State group's last Syrian stronghold Tuesday into territory held by US-backed forces battling to finish off the jihadists' dying "caliphate".

A total of 3,500 people exited the riverside village of Baghouz, including 500 jihadists who had surrendered, the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces said.

Amnesty International warned Wednesday that dozens of rights activists in Egypt have been put in "grave danger" by email phishing attacks that it says appear to be government orchestrated. 

Iraqi authorities are prosecuting children suspected of ties to the Islamic State group in a "deeply flawed" process, using flimsy accusations or confessions obtained through torture, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday. 

Israeli jets struck a Hamas military target in the Gaza Strip in retaliation for balloon-borne explosive devices late Tuesday, the army said, the fourth such strike in recent days.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will visit Israel ahead of its April 9 election but will not be involved in the country's domestic politics, the State Department said Tuesday.