Israel and Cyprus, neighbor in an unstable region, are going through the "best chapter" in the history of their relations, visiting Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Friday.

Three alleged assailants were killed while carrying out attacks on Israelis on Friday, security forces said, shattering weeks of relative calm in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

The attacks were a reminder of persistent tensions that continue to alarm the international community and came a day after U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon warned the two-state solution was "further than ever" from becoming reality.

Fierce fighting and clashes rocked an eastern district of Syria's capital on Friday, an Agence France Presse correspondent and military source said, despite a fragile truce across the country.

"The Syrian army is blocking an attack by armed groups that tried to enter the capital's east via Jobar... leading to intense clashes and rocket fire," a military source told AFP.  

UN aid trucks carrying food for besieged civilians in Aleppo remained stuck at the Syrian border Friday, as diplomatic tensions mounted between Washington and Moscow over a fragile ceasefire deal.

The truce was billed as the "last chance" to end the five-year war but it has been marred by a lack of aid deliveries, sporadic violence and friction between Russia and the United States, which brokered the deal.

Twenty-three civilians including nine children were killed in air strikes on a town in eastern Syria held by the Islamic State jihadist group on Thursday, a monitor said.

Forty people were killed in fighting between Shiite Huthi rebels and pro-government forces around southwest Yemen's main city of Taez, military sources said Thursday.

Israel's hardline Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman has ordered a boycott of a U.N. special envoy after his criticism of Jewish settlement building in the occupied West Bank, Israeli media reported Thursday.

An Arab Israeli lawmaker has caused an uproar after describing ailing Nobel peace laureate Shimon Peres as covered "head to toe" in Palestinian blood.

France on Thursday called for Washington to disclose details of the Russian-U.S. brokered Syria deal to its allies bombing jihadists in the war-torn country. 

Russia on Thursday said Syrian regime forces have begun pulling back from around a key road into the ravaged city of Aleppo, freeing up the way for aid deliveries.