The Palestinian Authority has recalled its envoys to Romania, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Austria after their ambassadors attended an Israeli reception marking the U.S. embassy's move to Jerusalem, it said Wednesday.

The statement from the PA's foreign ministry said the EU nations' ambassadors had attended the reception on Sunday, a day before the U.S. opened its Israel embassy in Jerusalem.

The Syrian government retook full control of central Syria on Wednesday as rebels and their relatives were evacuated from final pockets of territory still outside the regime's grasp, an AFP correspondent reported.

Arab foreign ministers are to hold an "extraordinary" meeting Thursday in Cairo to discuss the deadly violence on the Gaza-Israel border, the organization said.

Guatemala inaugurated its Israel embassy in Jerusalem on Wednesday, becoming the first country to follow in the footsteps of the United States' deeply controversial move that was accompanied by deadly violence on the Gaza border.

Pope Francis said Wednesday he was "very worried" by escalating violence in the Middle East after 60 Gazans were shot dead by Israeli troops while protesting the US embassy's move to Jerusalem. 

A global arms watchdog on Wednesday confirmed that chlorine was "likely used as a chemical weapon" in a February attack on the Syrian town of Saraqeb.

Turkey has told the Israeli consul general in Istanbul to leave the country temporarily, state media said Wednesday, the latest of a series of tit-for-tat expulsions in a growing crisis over Israel's deadly firing on Palestinians on the Gaza border.

Belgium on Tuesday demanded a U.N. inquiry into the violence in Gaza and summoned Israel's ambassador to the foreign ministry after she described all the Palestinian victims as "terrorists."

Israel came under mounting international pressure amid calls Tuesday for an independent probe after its forces killed 60 Palestinians during protests along the Gaza border as the United States opened an embassy in Jerusalem.

The U.N. Security Council held an emergency meeting Tuesday on the violence in Gaza, with Kuwait preparing a draft resolution to protect Palestinian civilians and the United States defending ally Israel's use of "restraint."