On Bethlehem's Manger Square, Christmas decorations and pilgrims are notably absent for a second wartime festive season in the Israeli-occupied West Bank city.

The Church of the Nativity that dominates the square is as empty as the plaza outside. Only the chants of Armenian monks echo from the crypt where Christians believe Jesus Christ was born.

"Normally on this day you would find 3,000 or 4,000 people inside the church," said Mohammed Sabeh, a security guard for the church.

The United Arab Emirates has informed the United States that it will not arm paramilitaries in Sudan's brutal civil war, US lawmakers long critical of the Gulf power's role quoted the White House as saying on Thursday.

The assurance came as the United States announced $200 million in new aid for Sudan, one of the world's worst humanitarian disasters where tens of thousands have died in fighting since April 2023.

The United Arab Emirates, under fire in Washington, has told the United States it has cut off weapons to paramilitaries in Sudan's brutal civil war, US lawmakers said Thursday.

Two lawmakers said the United Arab Emirates made the promise to address their concerns and that as a result, they would drop their attempt to block $1.2 billion in arms sales to the Gulf power.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday voiced hope that President-elect Donald Trump will pick up his work to normalize ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel, acknowledging a historic deal will not happen under Joe Biden's administration.

Blinken until recently was still voicing hope at reaching an agreement, which he had dangled as an incentive for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to show moderation in the Gaza war.

The UN General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a resolution on Thursday asking the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to assess Israel's obligations to assist Palestinians, amid accusations the Israeli government systematically hinders Gaza aid.

Israel, which has tightly restricted aid going into the Hamas-ruled territory since the outbreak of the war, often blames the inability of relief organizations to handle and distribute large quantities of aid for the dire humanitarian situation.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Thursday that there was a "flame of hope" in Syria following the fall of president Bashar al-Assad's regime but warned of significant challenges ahead.

He also underlined that Israel's widespread strikes on Syrian military infrastructure were "violations" of the country's sovereignty and called for them to cease.

"The Middle East is being consumed by many fires, but today, there is a flame of hope in Syria, and that flame must not be extinguished," he said.

As Syrians pour out of prisons that Bashar al-Assad used to cement his grip on power, the Saudi-based family of one detainee is desperate for any news, even if it confirms their worst fears.

Rania al-Abassi, a Syrian dentist and former national chess champion, disappeared into Assad's lethal network of detention facilities in 2013 along with her husband and their six children.

In the villages above the Syrian port city of Tartus they once hailed the sons who died fighting in Bashar al-Assad's service as martyrs.

But mothers are now nervous to display their sons' pictures, and no longer hide their bitterness towards the ousted leader for whom they sacrificed so much.

"It's true my son is dead," said Jamila Jabr, the 60-year-old mother of Humam, an army conscript who was killed in combat in 2012.

"But the important thing is that Bashar al-Assad is gone. He destroyed us and destroyed our children's futures and starved us."

Israel on Thursday faced accusations of "acts of genocide" and exhibiting "signs of ethnic cleansing" in its military offensive in Gaza, charges Israeli authorities dismissed as "lies".

They are the latest in a series of accusations levelled against Israel -- and denied by the country -- during its 14-month war against Palestinian Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.

Georgina Deiratani, a Syrian Christian who has lived in Moscow for over two decades, says she is still in shock at the ouster of president Bashar al-Assad and his escape to Russia.

"Everybody is saying 'congratulations'," said the 37-year-old, one of several thousand Syrians estimated to be living in the Russian capital.

"But for me this is the end of Syria."

She remembers growing up in a country where different communities lived in harmony, but makes no mention of the brutality of the half-century dictatorship of Assad and his father before him.