New Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi will not attend an unprecedented gathering of African leaders here next week, a U.S. official said Thursday, after he was given a belated invitation.

U.S. lawmakers saw graphic images of the brutal conflict in Syria Thursday as an army defector gave an eyewitness account of the horrors he was forced to photograph.

Israel vowed Thursday to keep its troops in Gaza until they finish destroying a network of cross-border tunnels, despite sharp U.N. and U.S. criticism over the Palestinian death toll that hit 1,435.

Speaking at a cabinet meeting in Tel Aviv, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would not accept any ceasefire that did not allow troops to continue destroying tunnels used by militants to attack Israel.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday launched one of his strongest attacks yet on Israel over its offensive in the Gaza Strip, accusing the Jewish state of showing "Hitler-like fascism" against the Palestinians.

Speaking at a mass rally in eastern Turkey to promote his candidacy in presidential elections, Erdogan said he was happy to give back an award that was bestowed upon him by an American Jewish Group in 2004.

A premature baby rescued by Gaza doctors from her dead mother's womb last week has died due to complications and power cuts affecting the intensive care unit where she was treated.

The six-day-old baby was born by emergency Caesarean section Friday after doctors at Deir al-Balah hospital in central Gaza managed to save her from the womb of her mother, who died when an Israeli tank shell hit her home.

Hamas's top military commander Mohammed Deif, who has survived assassination attempts and defied the Middle East's most powerful forces, is proving a redoubtable foe for Israel in its latest incursion in Gaza.

As Israel presses its deadly offensive aimed at halting militant rocket fire and eliminating Hamas's tunnel network, Deif has warned there will be no truce in the Palestinian enclave until Israel ends its eight-year blockade.

Australian journalist Peter Greste is "coping well" in jail since his conviction by an Egyptian court, his parents said Thursday, but said the family were devastated by the many months he has already spent behind bars.

"In his mind, and in ours too, there’s absolutely no way he’s going to be there for the next seven years," his mother, 75-year-old Lois Greste, said, while accompanied by her husband, Juris Greste, 78.

Identifying the victims from last week's Air Algerie crash in Mali "could take weeks, months and maybe years", Algeria's chief of police said on Thursday.

An Air Algerie McDonnell Douglas 83 flying from Burkina Faso to Algiers crashed in northern Mali last Thursday, killing all 118 people on board.

Spain will temporarily evacuate its ambassador and most of its embassy staff from Libya because of the "worsening security situation" in the capital Tripoli, the foreign ministry said Thursday.

"The government of Spain trusts that the situation of instability in Libya can be overcome soon and reiterates its call for a ceasefire as soon as possible," the statement added.

Yemen has repatriated eight Saudis wanted for suspected links to Al-Qaida, the kingdom's interior ministry announced on Thursday, in the second handover of its kind since February.

"As part of joint efforts between security services in the two countries, the kingdom has received eight Saudis wanted" for joining Al-Qaida in Yemen, a ministry spokesman said, quoted by official news agency SPA.