A top Palestinian official told the International Court of Justice Monday that Israel was blocking humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza as a "weapon of war", at the start of a week of hearings at the UN's top court.
Israel is not participating at the ICJ but hit back immediately, dismissing the hearings as "part of the systematic persecution and delegitimisation" of the country.
Syrian armed group Jaish al-Islam said its leader was arrested upon arrival at Dubai airport several days ago as supporters gathered in Damascus to demand his release.
Since 2015, Issam Buwaydani has been head of Jaish al-Islam, a group that fought against the now-ousted ruler Bashar al-Assad and once controlled the Eastern Ghouta area near Damascus.
After Syria's new authorities announced the dissolution of armed groups following Assad's December overthrow, Jaish al-Islam was integrated into the new Syrian forces and Buwaydani became a defence ministry official.
Iran's interior minister on Monday blamed "negligence" for a massive explosion that killed 70 people at the country's largest commercial port, with firefighters still battling a blaze at the facility two days later.
The blast occurred on Saturday at the Shahid Rajaee Port in Iran's south, near the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a waterway through which one-fifth of global oil output passes.
The United Nations expressed deep alarm on Monday at reports that US strikes on Yemen killed scores of people at a migrant detention centre in a stronghold of the Huthi rebels.
The US military has hammered the Iran-backed Huthis with near-daily strikes since March 15 in an operation dubbed "Rough Rider", seeking to end their attacks on vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
Huthi-controlled media said the latest strikes on the movement's stronghold of Saada killed at least 68 people, all Africans being held at a "centre for illegal migrants".
The UN's top court will on Monday open a week of hearings on Israel's humanitarian obligations towards Palestinians, more than 50 days into its total blockade on aid entering war-ravaged Gaza.
United Nations representatives will start the five days of sittings at the International Court of Justice in The Hague at 10:00 am (0800 GMT), followed by a Palestinian submission.
Another 38 countries will then address the 15-judge panel, including the United States, China, France, Russia and Saudi Arabia.
At the break of dawn, 10-year-old Youssef al-Najjar races barefoot, clutching a battered pot, to a community kitchen in Gaza City, only to find hundreds of others already queueing.
"People push and shove out of fear of missing their turn. There are little children who fall," said Youssef, his voice barely rising above a whisper.
Thousands of Gazans, including many children, rush to community kitchens every day in the hope of securing food for their families.
Catholic cardinals agreed on Monday to begin a conclave on May 7 to elect a new pope, and highlighted clerical sexual abuse as one of the key challenges facing Pope Francis's successor.
Cardinals under the age of 80 will meet in the Sistine Chapel to choose a new leader for the world's 1.4 billion Catholics, in a mystery-shrouded ritual dating back to the Middle Ages.
The date was decided at a meeting of cardinals of all ages early on Monday, two days after the funeral of Francis, who died on April 21 aged 88.
The United States has hit more than 800 targets in Yemen since mid-March, killing hundreds of Huthi rebel fighters, including members of the group's leadership, the US military said Sunday.
Washington's forces have hammered the Huthis with near-daily air strikes since March 15 in an operation dubbed "Rough Rider," seeking to end the threat they pose to vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden and reestablish US regional "deterrence."
Israel struck south Beirut on Sunday for the third time since a fragile November 27 ceasefire, prompting Lebanese President Joseph Aoun to call on its guarantors France and the United States to force a halt.
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said the strike targeted a building used by Hezbollah to store "precision-guided missiles" and vowed to stop the Iran-backed militant group using Beirut's southern suburbs as a "safe haven".
An AFP correspondent saw a plume of smoke rising over the building in the Hadath neighbourhood after the strike.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza announced Sunday that the death toll from the war had risen to more than 52,000 people, after hundreds previously listed as missing were confirmed dead.
"An additional 697 martyrs have been added to the cumulative statistics after their data was completed and verified by the committee monitoring missing persons," the health ministry said in a statement, giving the overall toll of 52,243.
