Saudi Arabia says no Israel normalization without Palestinian state
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - Saudi Arabia said Wednesday it will not formalize ties with Israel unless a Palestinian state is established,...Geostrategy
OPEC+ sticks to oil output plan after Trump’s price demand
In a bid to boost prices, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) headed by Saudi Arabia and Russian-led allies...Business Energy Geostrategy
Lebanon resumes ‘voluntary’ repatriations of Syrians
Syrian state news agency SANA reported that an unspecified number of people had arrived from Lebanon as part of the...Around 330 people had registered to be part of the "voluntary return"
Lebanon, which has been mired in a crushing economic crisis since late 2019, says it hosts around two million Syrians, the world's highest number of refugees per capita
Fierce fighting rocks Gaza after US warning of anarchy, insurgency
The city on the Egyptian border had been sheltering 1.4 million Palestinians, according to the United Nations, but Israel's military...AFP correspondents in Gaza reported helicopter strikes and heavy artillery shelling in the east of Rafah, as well as battles in northern Gaza's Jabalia refugee camp
Israel last week defied a chorus of warnings - including from top ally Washington - and sent tanks and troops into the east of Rafah to pursue fighters
Israel opens new border crossing into northern Gaza
Israel said its Kerem Shalom southern crossing with Gaza reopened on Wednesday, three days after being closed because of rocket...Israeli tanks entered Rafah in southern Gaza on Tuesday, seizing control of the Palestinian side of the crossing from Egypt
The United Nations has said it has not been able to receive aid through Gaza's two main crossings in days
Hamas says Israeli-British hostage held in Gaza dead
Popplewell was kidnapped from his home during Hamas's October 7 attack along with his mother, Hanna Peri, who was released...Earlier on Saturday, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades released an 11-second clip showing captive Nadav Popplewell alive and identifying himself
In the video, the footage was superimposed with text in Arabic and Hebrew that read: "Time is running out. Your government is lying."
US slams Israel’s use of American weapons in Gaza
The US has warned that the reputational damage Israel will suffer if it storms a city where an estimated 1.4...Israel's main international ally said it was "reasonable to assess" that Israel has used weapons in ways inconsistent with international humanitarian law
Relations between the two allies sunk earlier in the week after US President Joe Biden threatened to halt some arms deliveries if Israel went ahead with an assault on Rafah
Kuwait emir dissolves parliament in new political crisis
The state's ruler attributed his move to the "interference" of some MPs in the emir's powers and others imposing "conditions"...The Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) said "an emiri order was issued to dissolve the national assembly and suspend some articles of the constitution for a period not exceeding four years
It said the emir, Sheikh Meshaal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, and the council of ministers were "assuming the powers granted to the national assembly."
Hamas says ‘ball is completely’ in Israel’s hands in Gaza truce talks
"The negotiating delegation left Cairo heading to Doha. In practice, the occupation (Israel) rejected the proposal submitted by the mediators...State-linked Egyptian outlet Al-Qahera News reported Thursday that representatives of both camps left Cairo after two days of negotiations
Efforts by Egypt and other mediators, namely Qatar and the United States, "continue to bring the points of view of the two parties closer together", the outlet added
Israel hits Rafah despite US warning on arms transfers
In an interview with CNN on Wednesday, Biden warned he would stop some US weapons supplies to Israel if it...An AFP correspondent and witnesses on Thursday reported Israeli strikes on several parts of Rafah, where the United Nations said 1.4 million people were sheltering
Israel has already defied international objections by sending in tanks and conducting what it called "targeted raids" in the east of Rafah
Israel destroys dozens of Bedouin homes in Negev desert
Israeli authorities destroyed around 50 homes belonging to Bedouins in the Negev desert on Wednesday, an AFP journalist reported, with...Israel considers the homes built in Wadi al-Khalil to be illegal
Only 11,000 bedouins remained within Israel's borders after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War
Biden threatens to stop arm shipments if Israel invades Rafah
Biden, a self-described Zionist, had long resisted stopping any of the $3 billion in weapons the United States sends each...In an interview with CNN Biden also deplored the fact that civilians had been killed by the dropping of US bombs on the Palestinian territory
His fresh warning came after the US last week halted a shipment of huge American bombs to Israel as it appeared ready to proceed with a major attack on Rafah
