4.03pm GMT

Here is a summary of the day's key events:

Syria

• A rocket strike has leveled buildings and killed at least 20 people in a neighbourhood of Aleppo, activists say. The source of the attack on Jabral Badro appeared to be a ground-to-ground missile, possibly a Scud. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the death toll at 23, including 10 children and three women.

• Russia has rejected a call by UN investigators for Syrian leaders identified as suspected war criminals to face the international criminal court. Deputy foreign minister Gennady Gatilov told a news conference that this was "not the path we should follow ... at this stage it would be untimely and unconstructive".

• The FSA has given Hezbollah 48 hours to cease attacks in Syria or face retaliation in Lebanon. The Lebanese Shia group has been accused of attacking Syrian villages near the border with Lebanon but has consistently denied involvement in the Syrian conflict. Syria's ambassador to Lebanon also denied that Hezbollah was supporting the Assad government with attacks.

• Two mortars exploded near one of President Bashar al-Assad's palaces in Damascus. The state news agency Sana accused "terrorists", a term it uses to describe all opposition fighters, of being behind the attack. It said the blasts caused only "material damage".

• Barack Obama could reconsider his decision not to arm Syrian rebels, the New York Times reports. The report, citing a senior administration official, suggested that, surrounded by a new national security team, the US president might come to a different decision.

• Two Russian planes are travelling to Syria today to evacuate Russian civilians who wish to leave. Additionally four Russian naval ships are standing by in the Mediterranean, according to sate news agency Ria Novosti, which reported that they were there to assist in the possible evacuation of civilians.

Israel/Palestinian Territories

• The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) are planning to erect a field hospital near Israel’s border with Syrian border on the Golan Heights in order to treat wounded Syrian attempting to cross into Israel for medical assistance, according to a report by Israel's Channel 10. The report comes two days after IDF troops evacuated seven wounded Syrian refugees to an Israeli hospital after they had approached the border and appealed for help.

• Palestinian protesters clashed with Israeli soldiers at a rally in support of four imprisoned Palestinians on hunger strike, as hundreds of inmates said they were refusing food for the day in solidarity with the fasting inmates. About 100 Palestinians set fire to tires and threw rocks at the Israeli soldiers near the Ofer prison in the West Bank, prompting the troops to respond with tear gas near, the military said. One of the four hunger-striking Palestinians is 35-year-old Samer Issawi whose health has severely deteriorated after he has refused food, on-and-off, for more than 200 days.

• The Gaza Strip's Hamas government and local smugglers are accusing Egypt of flooding cross-border tunnels with sewage water in order to halt a thriving smuggling trade.

Egypt

• Thousands of protesters have been demonstrating on the third day of a general strike in the restive city of Port Said. They chanted against Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi and forced government employees to leave early. The protesters are demanding justice for security officials they blame for killing some 50 people during demonstrations in the city last month.

• Egypt's public prosecutor has filed new criminal charges against the last prime minister of ousted President Hosni Mubarak over alleged illegal real estate sales, judicial sources said on Tuesday. The charges against Ahmed Shafiq, who was also the defeated run-off candidate in Egypt's first free presidential election last year, relate to deals struck in 2005. Shafiq fled to the United Arab Emirates after losing to Morsi.

• Egypt's opposition National Salvation Front has set out a series of conditions that must be met before it participates in the national dialogue that Morsi has called for in order to settle the country's political crisis. The conditions include forming a national salvation government and selecting a new attorney general.

Tunisia

• Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali is pursuing "another solution" to Tunisia's biggest political crisis since the uprising two years ago after his plan to form a cabinet of technocrats failed. Jebali, left out on a limb after his proposals for a non-partisan government were rebuffed by his own ruling Islamist Ennahda party, is due to meet President Moncef Marzouki to discuss ways to exit the crisis sparked by the 6 February killing of a leftist politician.