A Saudi human rights activist appeared via a video link Wednesday at a UN forum in the kingdom to denounce the "silencing" of dissent under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Lina al-Hathloul's appearance at the Internet Governance Forum was a rare instance of an outspoken critic of Prince Mohammed, the de facto ruler, addressing a gathering on Saudi soil.

Human Rights Watch researcher Joey Shea described the panel and Hathloul's speech as "historic".

After losing hope of finding his two brothers among those freed from Syrian jails, Ziad Alaywi was filled with dread, knowing there was only one place they were likely to be: a mass grave.

"We want to know where our children are, our brothers," said the 55-year-old standing by a deep trench near Najha, southeast of Damascus.

"Were they killed? Are they buried here?" he asked, pointing to the ditch, one of several believed to hold the bodies of prisoners tortured to death.

International organisations have called these acts "crimes against humanity".

Human Rights Watch on Thursday accused Israel of committing "acts of genocide" in the Gaza Strip by damaging water infrastructure and cutting off supplies to civilians, which Israel dismissed as "appalling lies".

In a new report, which focused specifically on water, the New York-based rights group detailed what it said were deliberate efforts by Israeli authorities "of a systematic nature" to deprive Gazans of water, which had "likely caused thousands of deaths... and will likely continue to cause deaths".

The UN envoy to Syria called on Wednesday for "free and fair" elections after the ouster of president Bashar al-Assad, voicing hope for a political solution for Kurdish-held areas.

Assad fled Syria following a lightning offensive spearheaded by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), more than 13 years after his crackdown on democracy protests precipitated one of the deadliest wars of the century.

Tired and sad, Palestinian activist Fakhri Abu Diab stood amid the rubble of his home in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, just a narrow valley away from the famed domes of the Old City.

In early November, bulldozers from the Israeli-controlled Jerusalem municipality tore down his house in the Silwan neighbourhood for a second time, citing unauthorised construction.

"They want to expel us from the area," said the 62-year-old, who has organised protests against the demolitions in Silwan's Al-Bustan area.

Britain, France and Germany accused Iran on Tuesday of growing its stockpile of high enriched uranium to "unprecedented levels" without "any credible civilian justification."

The three countries known as the E3 said in a statement ahead of a UN Security Council meeting Tuesday on Tehran's nuclear program that Iran must "reverse its nuclear escalation."

Iran has increased its manufacturing of enriched uranium such that it is the only non-nuclear weapons state to possess uranium enriched to 60 percent, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) nuclear watchdog said.

Bashar al-Assad's overthrow has cleared the way for US strikes against the Islamic State group in areas previously shielded by Syrian and Russian air defenses -- but the jihadists may also try to exploit the vacuum left by his fall.

The militant group,often referred to as ISIS or IS, rose out of the chaos of the Syrian civil war to seize swathes of territory there and in neighboring Iraq, prompting a US-led air campaign starting in 2014 in support of local ground forces who ultimately defeated the jihadists.

Britain, France and Germany accused Iran on Tuesday of growing its stockpile of high enriched uranium to "unprecedented levels" without "any credible civilian justification."

The three countries known as the E3 said in a statement ahead of a UN Security Council meeting on Tehran's nuclear program that Iran must "reverse its nuclear escalation."

Iran has increased its manufacturing of enriched uranium such that it is the only non-nuclear weapons state to possess uranium enriched to 60 percent, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) nuclear watchdog said.

The leader of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces on Tuesday proposed a "demilitarised zone" in the northern town of Kobane as fighting with Turkish-backed groups grips northern Syria.

"Reaffirming our firm commitment to achieving a comprehensive ceasefire across all of Syria, we announce our readiness to propose the establishment of a demilitarised zone in the city of Kobane, with the redeployment of security forces under American supervision and presence," Mazloum Abdi wrote on X.

International Organization for Migration chief Amy Pope said Tuesday the UN agency was not advising the large-scale return of refugees to Syria before the situation has stabilised after the ouster of Bashar al-Assad.

"People have the right to return home... but we are not advising any sort of large-scale return... the system can't bear that kind of influx," Pope said.