Hamas on Monday unveiled a new policy document easing its stance on Israel after having called for years for the country's destruction, as the Palestinian Islamist movement seeks to improve its international standing.

The move comes ahead of a first face-to-face meeting on Wednesday between U.S. President Donald Trump and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose Fatah party remains deeply divided from Hamas.

Arab League chief Ahmed Abul Gheit warned Monday that Iran and Israel were the main beneficiaries of turmoil across the Arab world, which he described as the worst he has ever seen.

Syrian government forces used deadly nerve gas in Khan Sheikhun and in three other recent attacks, Human Rights Watch said Monday, describing a "clear pattern" of chemical weapons use that could amount to crimes against humanity.

The Algiers-backed Polisario Front independence movement said Monday it was prepared to embark on negotiations with Morocco on the disputed territory of Western Sahara.

A new U.N. body tasked with identifying individuals guilty of atrocities in Syria should start work shortly, a key step towards holding war crimes suspects to account, the U.N. rights chief said Monday. 

Popular support for a hunger strike by hundreds of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel has been gaining momentum with West Bank marches, sit-ins and a social media campaign showing video clips of celebrities from across the Arab world drinking salty water in solidarity.

The strike is one of the largest such protests in recent years, with potential fallout beyond the prisoners' demands for better conditions in Israel lockups.

The leader of al-Qaida' branch in Yemen says his militants have often fought alongside Yemeni government factions — remarks that could embarrass the U.S.-backed coalition fighting the impoverished Arab country's Shiite rebels.

Qasim al-Rimi leads the group known as Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, considered by Washington to be the most dangerous offshoot of the global terror network.

US-led strikes aimed against the Islamic State group have "unintentionally" killed 352 civilians since the offensive began in 2014, according to the US military.

The tally from the Combined Joint Task Force did not include findings from an investigation the coalition said it had launched into one allegedly particularly deadly strike on March 17 in west Mosul.

US-backed fighters have captured 80 percent of Syria's Tabqa from the Islamic State group, a monitor said on Monday, a week after they first entered the town.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) broke into Tabqa from the south last week and have steadily advanced north, cornering IS in three contiguous neighbourhoods on the bank of the Euphrates River.

By launching air strikes against Syrian Kurdish fighters and threatening more action, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is seeking to send a tough message to Donald Trump in the hope of bringing about a major U-turn in US Syria policy.