LIVE BLOG: The Middle East as it happens

Turkey's military on Wednesday imposed a curfew in parts of the southeast after at least 19 people were killed in pro-Kurdish protests over the government's failure to act against jihadists attacking the Syrian border city of Kobane.

The disturbances were the worst outbreak of such pro-Kurdish violence in years and risked derailing Turkey's own fragile peace process with the Kurds.

In a move unprecedented since the deadliest days of the Kurdish insurgency in the 1990s, the army was deployed to impose a curfew in several cities in the east.

A Palestinian cabinet minister on Wednesday blamed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a recent eruption of violence in Jerusalem, warning against a possible "religious war" that would "harm everyone living" in the holy city.  

"Netanyahu turns a blind eye to the actions of radical [Jewish] settlers," Adnan al-Husseini, Jerusalem affairs minister in the Palestinian government, said.

"He [Netanyahu] supports their repeated attacks against the Al-Aqsa Mosque, attacks by Israeli security men on Muslims, and the prevention of thousands of Muslims from praying at the house of worship," he added in a written statement to Anadolu Agency.

Around 50 countries have confirmed their attendance at an international donors conference to rebuild the war-battered Gaza Strip, to be hosted by Egypt on 12 October, Egypt's Foreign Ministry said in a Wednesday statement.

"Around 30 foreign ministers and over 50 country delegations, in addition to 20 representatives of regional and international organizations led by the UN, will take part in the Cairo-hosted conference for the rebuilding of the Gaza Strip," read the statement, issued by Foreign Ministry spokesman Badr Abdel-Ati.

The one-day conference will feature speeches by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, and Arab League head Nabil al-Arabi, according to Abdel-Ati.

At least 28 tribes have joined the Iraqi army in the western province of Anbar, in the ongoing fight against the extremist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group, said an Iraqi official Wednesday.

"Twenty-eight tribes in Haditha joined to Iraqi army," Abdul Hakeem al-Jeghaifi, governor of Haditha city in Anbar, told The Anadolu Agency.

Forty Salafist inmates have begun an open-ended hunger strike at a Jordanian detention center to protest their prison conditions and alleged ill-treatment, the prisoners' lawyer said.

"The 40 Salafists are in prison pending trial on charges related to the Syria issue," lawyer Moussa al-Abdallat told Anadolu Agency by phone.

"They have started the hunger strike to protest bad detention conditions," he added.

Egypt will return a $500 million deposit from Qatar, made last year during the presidency of Mohamed Morsi, following a request from Doha, the governor of Egypt's central bank said Wednesday.

Hisham Ramez told Egyptian daily Al-Akhbar Tuesday that Qatar had not yet asked for the return of a $2.5 billion deposit which was due to be repaid in November.

He added that the central bank will reimburse that sum in case the Qatari government requests the money back. 

An Islamist militia commander has been killed in clashes with Libyan army forces in the eastern city of Benghazi, a medical source hassaid.

"Selim Nabbous, a commander of the Benghazi Revolutionary Council, was killed in clashes near the Benina airbase," the source told Anadolu Agency.

According to the Assyrian International News Agency, more than 75% of the residents of Alqosh, an Assyrian town 60km north of Mosul, have returned to their town after fleeing from the Islamic State on August 7.

Faez Juhoory, District Director of Alqosh, said that most Alqosh families have returned to the town after security was restored by Kurdish forces

The FBI have issued a public appeal to help track fighters with the Islamic State

“We need the public's assistance in identifying US persons going to fight overseas with terrorist groups or who are returning home from fighting overseas,” said Michael Steinbach, assistant director of the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division.

“No piece of information is too small.”

Boston FBI special agent Vincent Lisi said to CBS last night that “traditionally, the FBI would use other techniques to try to determine who the person was,”

“We’ve come up empty there now so we need to reach out to the public.”

According to Alsawat, Egypt’s former deputy minister of defence Nabil Fouad has said that all the statements on behalf of the foreign ministry reiterate that Egypt will not get militarily involved in Libya.

He quashed rumours that Egypt had been sending weapons to the renegade anti-Islamist general Khalifa Haftar in Libya