Israel’s national water company has cut crucial water supplies to large areas of the occupied West Bank, leaving tens of thousands of Palestinians without access to safe drinking water during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

At least 42 civilians including five children were killed in regime, Russian and US-led coalition air strikes in northern Syria on Wednesday, a monitor said.

Thousands of Palestinians from the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem marched to the Al-Aqsa Mosque today to perform the first Friday prayer of the Ramadan holy month.

Minister of State for Education and Professional Training Engr Muhammad Baligh ur Rahman on Wednesday said the government was making efforts to make Quranic education compulsory in all public schools across the country.

The Afghan Taliban on Wednesday announced influential religious figure Haibatullah Akhundzada as their new leader after confirming supremo Mullah Akhtar Mansour’s death in a U.S. drone strike.

The Israeli air force carried out strikes on Hamas sites in Gaza early Thursday in response to a rocket attack targeting the Jewish state, the army and Palestinian sources said.

World leaders have renewed their calls for a cessation of hostilities in Syria after meeting in Vienna, hoping to restart peace talks aimed at halting Syria’s civil war.

Three bombings in Baghdad have killed at least 70 people and wounded more than 100, police and medical sources say, as a wave of violence continues unabated in the Iraqi capital.

Twenty-five Palestinian children were killed in the last three months of 2015 during a wave of anti-Israeli attacks and the number detained was the highest in seven years, the UN children’s agency said.

Police on Thursday arrested 15 Israeli rightwing activists who were planning to go to the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound without authorization, a statement said.