The Red Cross called Wednesday for safe and unhindered access to Gaza to bring desperately needed aid into the war-torn Palestinian territory wracked by hunger and where babies are freezing to death.

Heavy rain and flooding have ravaged the makeshift shelters in Gaza, leaving thousands with up to 30 centimetres (one foot) of water inside their damaged tents, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said.

Fighters in southern Syria who helped topple President Bashar al-Assad are reluctant to disarm and disband as ordered by the country's new rulers, their spokesman told AFP.

An Islamist-led offensive ripped through Syria from the north and into Damascus on December 8, bringing to a sudden end five decades of rule by the Assad clan.

On December 25, the country's new Islamist rulers said they had reached an agreement with rebel groups on their dissolution and integration under the defence ministry.

A decade after jihadists ransacked Iraq's famed Nimrud site, archaeologists have been painstakingly putting together its ancient treasures, shattered into tens of thousands of tiny fragments.

Once the crown jewel of the ancient Assyrian empire, the UNESCO-listed archaeological site was ravaged by Islamic State (IS) fighters after they seized large areas of Iraq and neighbouring Syria in 2014.

The precious pre-Islamic artefacts destroyed by the jihadists are now in pieces, but the archaeologists working in Nimrud are undaunted by the colossal task they face.

Lebanese lawmakers are due to meet on Thursday to elect a president, but analysts say that even with key political player Hezbollah weakened by war, white smoke is not guaranteed.

The tiny Mediterranean country, already deep in economic and political crisis, has been without a president for more than two years amid bitter divisions between Shiite Muslim group Hezbollah and its opponents.

Israel dealt Hezbollah's armed wing a serious blow during a two-month war this autumn and killed the group's influential leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Turkey threatened Tuesday to launch a military operation against Kurdish forces in Syria unless they accepted Ankara's conditions for a "bloodless" transition after the fall of strongman president Bashar al-Assad.

"We will do what's necessary" if the People's Protection Units (YPG) fail to meet Ankara's demands, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told CNNTurk television. Asked what that might entail, he said: "Military operation".

Fans and players will get a taste of what the 2034 World Cup in Saudi Arabia will be like when the kingdom hosts the Asian Cup, with officials announcing Tuesday dates and stadiums for the regional showpiece.

Saudi Arabia was in December controversially awarded the World Cup but first it hosts the Asian Cup in 2027.

The tournament will be from January 7 to February 5 that year and be held in the capital Riyadh, plus Jeddah and Al Khobar, the Asian Football Confederation said, launching a two-year countdown.

International flights resumed at Syria's main airport in Damascus on Tuesday for the first time since Islamist-led forces toppled president Bashar al-Assad last month.

There was an air of excitement at the terminal, AFP journalists saw, with arriving passengers chanting and cheering, some draped in the country's three-star independence flag.

Syrians carrying colourful balloons and flowers greeted passengers who arrived on the first Qatari commercial flight in nearly 13 years, which landed at around 1:00 pm (10:00 GMT).

A Syrian mayor told AFP he had meetings with Israeli officers as the military conducted incursions in his village inside a Golan Heights buffer zone, saying they had demanded locals relinquish their weapons.

The Israeli military, contacted by AFP, said it could not comment.

Mohamed Mreiwel, mayor of the village of Jabata al-Khashab in Quneitra province, said on Monday that he had met three times with Israeli officials who had asked to see him.

Sebastien Loeb struggled to complete Stage 3 of the Dakar Rally on Tuesday after rolling his car near the start, a setback that is likely to cost him his dream of a first title in the event.

The nine-time World Rally Champion went off the road 12 kilometres into the 327-stage between Bisha and Al Henakiyah. After a nasty bounce his Dacia performed several impressive rolls, which seriously damaged the vehicle.

Visiting US envoy Amos Hochstein said Israeli forces began withdrawing on Monday from a south Lebanon border town more than halfway into a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.

It is the second such pullout since a November 27 ceasefire, and came after United Nations peacekeepers and Lebanon's prime minister late last month called on the Israeli army to speed up its withdrawal from Lebanon's south.