Hizbollah fighters fired "dozens of Katyusha rockets" at northern Israel "as part of the response to the Israeli enemy's attacks on... civilian homes, specifically the horrific massacre in Hanin and the killing and injuring of civilians," the group said in a statement.

Gulf states are grappling with the widening Middle East conflict as hostilities between Iran and Israel threaten their security and ambitious plans to reshape their economies. Leaders of the resource-rich Gulf monarchies engaged in a rapid round of diplomacy after last weekend's Iranian drone and missile strikes on Israel raised...

The West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, has seen a surge in violence since early last year, particularly since the Israel-Hamas war erupted in Gaza on October 7. At least 468 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers across the West Bank since October 7, according...

Iran's UN envoy, Amir Saeid Iravani, retorted that the Islamic republic was exercising its "inherent right to self-defence" and "had no choice" but to act. He insisted his country did "not seek escalation or war", but would respond to any "threat or aggression".

Iran's attack came in retaliation for an April 1 strike that levelled the five-storey consular annexe of the Iranian embassy in Damascus and killed seven Revolutionary Guards, two of them generals. Tehran has since vowed to avenge the strike which was widely blamed on Israel.

As expected, Iran retaliated early Sunday by firing more than 200 drones and missiles toward Israel in response to Israel's covert attack of Iran's diplomatic office in Damascus that killed nine people.

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned Wednesday that Israel "must be punished and will be punished", days after one of his advisers said Israeli embassies are "no longer safe". Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz swiftly replied on social media site X that "if Iran attacks from its territory, Israel...

The strike came as talks in Cairo aimed at a ceasefire and a hostage release deal dragged on without signs of a breakthrough. Speaking to Al Jazeera, Haniyeh, who is based in Qatar, suggested the strike was an attempt to shift Hamas's negotiating stance, but insisted it would not work.

Biden urged Netanyahu "to just call for a ceasefire, allow for the next six, eight weeks, total access to all food and medicine going into the country"

Israel has declined to comment on the Damascus strike but analysts saw it as an escalation of Israel's campaign against Iran's regional proxies that runs the risk of triggering a wider war. Among the dead were seven Iranian Revolutionary Guards, two of them generals.

In addition to access to humanitarian aid, the UN's report on children and armed conflict also lists the number of children killed and wounded, as well as attacks on hospitals and schools. The report draws up a "list of shame" of government forces and other armed groups responsible for the...

Russia's invasion of Ukraine more than two years ago upended European leaders' sense of unshakeable post-war peace, prompting many countries to gear up weapons production to supply both Kiev and their own militaries. Former European Council president Tusk, whose country has been one of the staunchest supporters of neighbouring Ukraine,...

Israeli rescue teams searching a damaged building in the border town of Kiryat Shmona "found a 25-year-old who was unconscious, with no pulse and not breathing", and pronounced him dead at the scene, the Magen David Adom emergency service said.

After talks in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, Blinken flies to Israel on Friday, his sixth trip to the region since the war began with Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7. Israel said its spy chief would also head back to Qatar on Friday for more truce talks with US,...

The leader of the US Senate called for Israel to hold new elections in the most strident criticism yet by a senior American official of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's handling of the war in Gaza. The remarks from Chuck Schumer came amid increased pressure from President Joe Biden over the...

Agnes Callamard, secretary general of Amnesty, said nobody was holding Israel to account over the delays to deliveries by land to the Gaza Strip. She said the international community must be prepared to hold Israel to account. "We're not holding the stick that will allow for those violations to stop,"...

Talks are aiming to secure a ceasefire of about six weeks starting between now and Ramadan, which is expected to begin on March 10 or 11, to allow for exchanges of Palestinian captives held by Israel with hostages. During the pause, there can be an "intensification of efforts in regards...

Ahead of the gathering in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, African Union Commission head Moussa Faki Mahamat voiced alarm at the violence gripping many nations, both in Africa and other parts of the world. Sudan was in "flames", Faki said, while also highlighting the jihadist threat in Somalia, "eternal tensions"...

Turkey and Egypt cut ties in 2013 after Sisi, then Egypt's defense minister, ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, an ally of Turkey and part of the Muslim Brotherhood movement. At the time, Erdogan said he would never speak to "anyone" like Sisi, who in 2014 became president of the Arab...

Without action, "the situation will deteriorate," he warned. "Conflicts are multiplying. The climate crisis is set to spiral, as emissions continue to rise. And acute food insecurity has been increasing year on year."

While the Israel-Lebanon violence has been largely contained to the border area, a strike earlier on Saturday hit the coastal town of Jadra. The second-farthest deadly attack from the border in four months of hostilities "was a failed attempt to assassinate a senior official in the (Hamas) movement", a Palestinian...

Israel's army and the Shin Bet security agency said operations in Gaza City in recent weeks had led to the discovery of a "tunnel shaft" near a school run by the humanitarian agency. Documents and weapons in the UN compound itself "confirmed that the offices had in fact also been...

Fitch -- which is the last of the big three US ratings agencies -- placed Israel on negative watch over risks from the conflict. "The weakened security environment implies higher social risk and indicates weaker executive and legislative institutions than Moody's previously assessed," the ratings agency said Friday in the...

Republicans in the House of Representatives scheduled the vote after the Democratic-led Senate released a bipartisan bill Sunday pairing billions of dollars for Israel and Ukraine with some of the strictest immigration curbs in decades. But support for that $118bn package has dwindled, with Donald Trump pressuring Republicans to avoid handing President Joe...

Palestinian Territories - US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was due to fly to Egypt on Tuesday as part of a Middle East crisis tour seeking a new truce and "an enduring end" to the Israel-Palestine war. In Cairo, Blinken is scheduled to meet Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, the...

The attack was the latest in a series of drone and missile strikes launched by the Houthis since the start of the Gaza war between Israel and Palestinian fighters group Hamas nearly four months ago. The Houthis have also repeatedly targeted vessels in the Red Sea with strikes they say...

The North Korean leader has in recent weeks declared South Korea his country's "principal enemy", jettisoned agencies dedicated to reunification and outreach, and threatened war as he hailed the test launch of a new strategic cruise missile from a submarine, calling it a key moment in the development of the...

Its revenue dived almost a fifth percent to US$316.6 billion.

Palestinian Territories - International efforts towards a new pause in the devastating Gaza war gathered pace Wednesday, as Israel bombarded the Palestinian territory during fierce fighting with Palestinian fighters. Hamas was reviewing a proposal for a six-week truce in its war with Israel, a source told AFP, after mediators gathered...

US President Joe Biden held Iran-backed fighters responsible for the killing of US troops and vowed to hold the perpetrators to account. It is the first time American soldiers have been killed by hostile fire in the region since Israel launched its war on Gaza, and the incident will further...

Iran and Pakistan routinely blame each other for allowing militants to operate from the other's territory to launch attacks, but it is rare that official forces on either side engage. China, close partner of both countries, urged restraint, with foreign ministry spokeswoman saying both should "avoid actions that would lead...

Prime Minister Li Qiang, who will make a special address on Tuesday, will be the most senior Chinese official to attend Davos since President Xi Jinping in 2017. The Prime Minister will be joined by Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao, the governor of the People's Bank of China and high-ranking...

The Turkish ministry said the strikes had targeted 29 locations including "caves, bunkers, shelters and oil installations" belonging to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the YPG (People's Protection Units), a Syrian Kurdish militia which is a central element of US-allied forces in a coalition against Islamic State. Meanwhile, 113...

Beijing, China--China called Friday for all sides to prevent the Yemen conflict from expanding, after strikes by the United States and United Kingdom on Houthi rebel targets. Heavy US and British air strikes pounded targets in rebel-held Yemen early on Friday after weeks of disruptive attacks on Red Sea shipping by...

Sudani, whose government relies on support from Tehran-aligned parties, has repeatedly said in recent weeks he would like to see foreign troops leave Iraq. But the latest remarks came amid soaring regional tensions, with the repercussions of the Israel-Hamas war, raging for nearly three months, increasingly felt in Iraq and...

The commander of Sudanese paramilitary forces Mohamed Hamdan Daglo wrote on X, previously Twitter, that he had apprised South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in a meeting in Pretoria about "the root causes of the war and the factors contributing to its persistence." Daglo has also met regional leaders in Kenya,...

Macron told the Israeli premier of his "deepest concern" about civilian deaths and the humanitarian emergency in Gaza. He also insisted on the importance of measures to end violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank and prevent new planned settlements.

Dubai, UAE-- At least 100 journalists have been killed since Israel’s war on Gaza began on October 7, according to new figures released by the government media office in Gaza. Palestinian journalist Muhammed Abu Hweidy was the latest to be killed in an Israeli air raid on his home in...

The Council in a joint statement denounced attacks on civilians and the spread of the violence "into areas hosting large populations of internally displaced persons, refugees, and asylum seekers." The statement added that the members of the Security Council expressed alarm at the spreading violence and deteriorating humanitarian situation in Sudan."

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said six other people were injured in the attacks. Earlier, five government soldiers were killed by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, formerly the local branch of Al-Qaeda, in the north of Latakia province, according to the Observatory.

On Friday, it said 11 pro-government forces and five HTS fighters had been killed after the jihadists launched an attack in neighboring Aleppo province a day earlier. Late last month, Syrian government bombardment killed nine civilians including six children as they harvested olives in Idlib province, reported the Observatory, which...

Dubai, UAE - Rebels from the Yemeni Ansar Allah movement (the Houthi) have staged a drone attack on a British commercial vessel in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the Al Hadath television channel reported, citing sources. According to Al Hadath, the ship with the British crew was flying the British flag. According to...

ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan has vowed to ramp up efforts in investigating war crimes in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, highlighting the importance of adherence to international humanitarian law amidst the complexities of the densely populated conflict zones. Khan urges unimpeded aid delivery to Gaza, emphasizing legal compliance.

Dubai, UAE--The IMF announced Friday that it will revise its economic outlook for the Middle East and North Africa region due to the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict. The conflict will have wide-ranging consequences for "both people and economies" in the region, although the extent of the impact remains "highly uncertain," the...

The resumption of fighting dashed hopes for an extension of a seven-day truce that had seen dozens of hostages freed in exchange for Palestinian civilian releases by Israel. On Thursday, US top diplomat Antony Blinken, meeting Israeli and Palestinian officials, called for the pause in hostilities to be extended, and...

Beijing, China--China's top diplomat Wang Yi will visit New York this week to hold a United Nations Security Council meeting on the Israel-Hamas conflict, Beijing's foreign ministry said on Monday. "As it holds the rotating presidency of the United Nations Security Council this month, China will hold a high-level meeting on...

Ravaged by war and rocked by Islamic State group attacks, Iraq's demand for mental health professionals is great, but help is hard to come by. Baghdad's Al-Rashad psychiatric hospital receives patients suffering from serious psychological illnesses, such as schizophrenia, and offers outpatient treatment for depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Manama, Bahrain-- The ongoing war in Gaza represents a serious setback for the efforts to reduce tension in the region as a whole, said Dr. Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to the UAE President. Speaking at the 19th Manama Dialogue, he warned: “Prolonging the war would only amplify its associated risks,...

Tens of thousands of civilians have streamed out of devastated northern Gaza in recent days, with men, women and children clutching meagre possessions as they emerge from the devastated warzone. They have fled close-quarter fighting, with Hamas militants using rocket-propelled grenades against Israeli troops backed by armoured vehicles and heavy...

Geneva, Switzerland - UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk has described hostage-taking by Palestinian armed groups and Israel's "collective punishment" of Palestinian civilians as war crimes. "The atrocities perpetrated by Palestinian armed groups on October 7 were heinous, brutal and shocking, they were war crimes - as is...