The Israeli air force's attacks on four high rise buildings in the Gaza strip amounted to war crimes, a new report by Amnesty International says.

The report, which focused exclusively on these attacks in which no one died, says the destruction by Israel was extensive and “appeared to be wanton”, for no military reasons.

"All the evidence we have shows this large-scale destruction was carried out deliberately and with no military justification," said Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa director, Philip Luther.

"Both the facts on the ground and statements made by Israeli military spokespeople at the time indicate that the attacks were a collective punishment against the people of Gaza and were designed to destroy their already precarious livelihoods."

The Chinese government has sentenced six people to death, for helping organise an attack on a market in its restive Uyghur province earlier this year, which left 39 people dead.

Two others were given death penalties for another attack on a railway station in the provincial capital Urumqi.

The exiled World Uyghur Congress has blamed the violence on the central government's policies, which the group says repress the local culture.

The Xinjiang province, originally inhabited by the Uyghur, a Turkic people following Islam, has seen violence escalate over recent months, with scores left dead in regular attacks, blamed by Beijing on terrorists, however experts say the violence is also rooted in the social and economic exclusion of Uyghur.

China has systematically settled Han Chinese in the region, in an effort to rebalance the ethnic makeup of the Xinjiang province. In November the government announced it would deploy thousands of former soldiers in Xinjiang, to counter the increasing violence.

The Canadian government has closed its embassy in the Egyptian capital Cairo over "security concerns", a day after the British mission in the city closed.

Canada's Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney said in a statement that Canadians must remain vigilant.

"That is why we are taking part in the coalition that is currently conducting air strikes against ISIL [ISIS], and supporting the security forces in Iraq in their fight against this terrorist scourge," he said.

The International Criminal Court accepted the status of Palestine as a ‘non-state party observer,’ that could allow for war crimes investigation into crimes committed in Palestinian territories, reports the New York Times.

The recognition of Palestine allows it to ratify the Rome Statute, which will allow the International Criminal Court to investigate and prosecute those responsible for war crimes committed on Palestinian land.

The Vice President of Uruguay Damilo Astori said the Armenian genocide would not be forgotten by his country, as Uruguay pursued closer ties with Armenia.

Speaking before departing to the Armenian capital, Astori told reporters,

“The Armenian genocide will live forever in our memory. There is no history or future without memory.”

The Syrian armed forces general command accused Israel of conducting two airstrikes near Damascus, in a statement made on Sunday.

Israeli officials refused to confirm or deny responsibility for the airstrikes, and, in a statement made last week, pledged to continue to deal with regional threats, reports the New York Times.

Israel has ordered investigations into eight "exceptional incidents" that happened during Operation Cast Lead in Gaza earlier this year, which left over 2,000 Palestinians and more than 70 Israelis dead.

The IDF spokesperson issued a 19-page statement announcing the probes, including one into an IDF air strike on the home of the Abu Jama family in Khan Yunis on July 20.  The 27 Palestinians deaths included 19 children and 2 pregnant women.

"The factual findings and materials collated by the Fact-Finding Assessment Mechanism and presented to the MAG [Military Advocate General, Maj. Gen. Danny Efroni], indicated the existence of grounds for a reasonable suspicion that the incident involved a deviation from the rules and procedures applicable to IDF forces. As a result, the MAG has ordered a criminal investigation into the incident," the statement said.

Other incidents that will be probed include the killing of ambulance drivers and the use of human shields.

Hamas spokesperson Fawzi Barhoum, said in response that the new Israeli investigations were aimed at circumventing the UN inquiry. He called for "independent probes to bring Israeli war criminals to justice."

The British Embassy in Cairo was closed to the public due to concerns over suspected militant plans to target foreign embassies in Egypt, reports Reuters.

“The decision to suspend public services at the embassy has been taken for security reasons and is in the best interests of our staff,” said an embassy spokesman.

The US embassy, released a statement on Friday, warning staff to not stray far from their homes.