Dubai, UAE-- The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and China have called for a closed-door meeting of the UN Security Council on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict for Monday. The UN Security Council will discuss, in particular, the strikes on the Palestinian refugee camp Jabalia in the north of the Gaza Strip and...

Gaza faces a dire humanitarian crisis as food supplies near exhaustion and the financial sector falls into chaos amid the ongoing conflict, a WFP report points out.

Washington, United States - The US is using unarmed assets of the Department of Defense to help locate hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, a senior US official said at a news conference. "We are using unarmed DoD assets to try to help locate some of the American...

Washington, United States - US Secretary of State Antony Blinken who arrived in Israel today on a diplomatic visit will address the pressing issue of minimizing harm to civilians in Gaza amid growing concern over casualties resulting from Israel's bombardment of the region, Reuters reported. During his visit, Blinken will...

The border tensions have revived memories of Hizbollah's devastating 2006 war with Israel that killed more than 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and 160 in Israel, largely soldiers. Hizbollah receives financial support as well as weapons and equipment from Iran, and has built up its powerful arsenal since 2006....

The ongoing Gaza conflict has driven gold prices over $2,000/oz, highlighting the deep connection between geopolitical tensions and global financial market reactions.

From L'Oréal's controversy involving model Amena Khan to Chanel's significant financial pledge, the fashion industry is deeply entwined in political discourse amid Gaza conflict.

TEHRAN, IRAN - Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Sunday said Israel's ongoing bombardment of Gaza "may force everyone" to act in the latest warning issued by the Islamic republic since the start of the Israel-Hamas conflict. Israel has been pounding the tiny Palestinian territory since Hamas fighters stormed across the border...

New York, United States - Oil prices experienced a 3% surge on Friday, reaching a one-week high, driven by escalating tensions in the Middle East, raising concerns about potential disruptions in global crude supplies, Reuters reported. Brent crude futures increased by $2.55, or 2.9%, settling at $90.48 a barrel, while...

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the US supports pauses in Israel's war against Hamas in order to let aid to flow into the Gaza Strip. He said the aid can include fuel needed for the restoration of electrical power, medical care, water purification and "so many...

Istanbul, Turkey - Turkey is ready to act as a guarantor country for Palestine in the settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in his address to a parliamentary session on Wednesday, Russian agency TASS reported. Erdogan also proposed to convene an international peace conference aimed...

Cairo, Israel - The areas near Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City and Al-Quds Hospital in the western part of the Gaza Strip have been shelled by Israel's air force, Palestine's WAFA news agency reported, according to Russia's TASS news agency. WAFA said that the strikes aimed to hinder the operations...

Since Wednesday, three Iraqi bases used by US-led coalition troops have been targeted in five separate attacks -- Ain al-Assad, the Al-Harir base in northern Iraq and a military camp near Baghdad airport. The United States currently has about 2,500 troops stationed at the three bases, alongside around 1,000 soldiers...

Maryan Apparel in the southern state of Kerala said it had supplied around 100,000 uniforms to Israel's police force for every year since 2015. "It is a moral decision," the company's managing director Thomas Olickal told AFP.

Xi met Egypt's Mostafa Madbouli in Beijing on Thursday, repeating China's support for a "two-state solution... to realise the peaceful coexistence of Palestine and Israel", according to multiple state media outlets. "China is willing to enhance cooperation with Egypt... and inject more certainty and stability into the region and the...

The airlines' net income stood at US$1.1bn, up 20.7 percent.

Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian warned in a live broadcast to state TV of the possibility of pre-emptive action by the resistance axis in "in the coming hours" while Israel prepares to invade the Gaza Strip. Tehran has repeatedly warned that invasion of Gaza would be met with a response...

Beijing, China - Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is embarking on a visit to the Middle East next week,  state media agency CGTN reported on Sunday. Wang's visit comes amid escalating tensions in the region and reflects China's commitment to playing a more prominent role in the resolution of the...

Amidst the escalating Israel-Hamas conflict, an alarming number of journalists have been killed, injured, or missing, underscoring the importance of ensuring their safety.

Speaking from Beirut's airport, the top diplomat said that Iran's regional allies, known as the "axis of resistance", could respond if Israel's Gaza offensive escalates. "The continuation of war crimes against Palestinians and Gaza will receive a response from the rest of the axes," he told reporters. At least 1,200...

EU internal market commissioner Thierry Breton raised the alarm in letters sent to Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, whose Meta group includes Facebook and Instagram. He demanded late on Tuesday each of them provides details within 24 hours on how "illegal content and disinformation" is being removed from their platforms in...

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman tells Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas that he was working to prevent an expansion of conflict between Israel and Gaza.

The UN's World Food Programme expressed concern over the mounting challenges civilians, including vulnerable children and families, face in accessing essential food supplies, with food distribution networks disrupted by hostilities. The WFP is concerned about stocks in food shops and the impact of power cuts in the Gaza Strip.

Caught unawares by the surprise attack, PM Benjamin Netanyahu has warned Israelis to prepare for a "long and difficult war" with Hamas, raising concerns of a much wider conflict.

World calls for restraint as Palestinian death toll reaches 370 and Israeli casualties cross 600, prompting Netanyahu to warn of a "long and difficult" battle against Hamas.

Hamas militants fired barrages of rockets at Israel from multiple locations across the Palestinian territory, according to the accounts of many journalists from Gaza City. Palestinian militants have begun a "war" against Israel, the country's defense minister said, adding "troops are fighting against the enemy at every location."

Turkey has also launched strikes on positions of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in northern Iraq since Sunday, when two policemen were wounded in an attack in Ankara claimed by the PKK. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan alleged the perpetrators of the attack had been trained in Syria and warned...

Palestinian official news agency Wafa reported that Israeli forces had fired "live bullets and tear gas canisters at several young men and children" at the entrance to the camp, adding that the teenager died of his wounds. Saturday's incident is the latest in the West Bank, where violence linked to...

The delegation was led by the Saudi non-resident ambassador to the Palestinian territories, Nayef al-Sudairi, who was to meet Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and top Palestinian diplomat Riyad al-Maliki. Sudairi, the oil-rich kingdom's envoy to Jordan, was last month also named for the Palestinian territories post and appointed consul general for...

Violence has surged in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since early last year, particularly in the West Bank where eight Palestinians have now been killed in Israeli incursions since Tuesday. "Two Palestinians were killed by live Israeli bullets to the head" during the pre-dawn raid, the ministry said.

General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the de facto ruler of Sudan since a 2021 coup, alluded to the rival Rapid Support Forces' ties with Wagner, the Russian mercenary group hit by Western sanctions over alleged abuses in Africa. "The danger of this war is now a threat to regional and international...

Only slightly more than 10 percent of Iraq's 13 million women of working age are in the job market, according to a July 2022 report issued by the International Labour Organization. When the war in Mosul ended in the summer of 2017, the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR estimated the...

Ukrainian officials said the Palau-flagged Resilient Africa vessel was carrying 3,000 tons of wheat when it left Ukraine's Chornomorsk port on Tuesday. It was destined for Israel, according to marine traffic websites, representing the first successful Black Sea voyage since Russia pulled out of a UN-backed deal to export Ukrainian...

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has demanded India treat with "utmost seriousness" allegations that Indian agents played a role in the June murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar. The fallout prompted tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions and a forceful denial from India, which said any suggestion it played a role in Nijjar's killing...

In recent days, violence has also risen in the Gaza Strip, with Palestinians in the coastal enclave holding protests along the Israeli border fence that have turned violent. The violence in Gaza follows an Israeli announcement late on Sunday that it would keep the Erez border crossing closed. The crossing...

A million people have crossed Sudan's borders since April, fleeing the devastating war between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, according to the United Nations. That figure would probably be higher, were it not for the fact that many like Omar needed passports renewed or issued from...

Sanaa, Yemen - Flooding and lightning strikes in Yemen have killed eight civilians, an official and a doctor told AFP on Saturday, underscoring the threat of extreme weather in the war-ravaged country. The lightning strikes occurred on Friday in the Al-Layha and Al-Zahra districts of Hodeida governorate on the Red Sea...

TRIPOLI, LIBYA - Over a decade of bloody power battles in Libya have resulted in vital infrastructure falling into disrepair, culminating in the catastrophic death toll in Sunday's flood, politicians and analysts have said.   Wracked by conflict and division ever since a NATO-backed uprising toppled and killed longtime dictator Moamer...

The Ain al-Helweh refugee camp, on the outskirts of the southern city of Sidon, has been rocked by violence since last week. The clashes have pitted members of the Fatah movement, which controls the camp, against hardline Islamist militants, excluding Hamas.

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia-- The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) intends to deepen the process of dialogue with the international community in order to achieve achieve global security and stability, and resolve all conflicts through peaceful means. This was stated by the GCC Secretary General Jassem Mohamed Al-Budaiwi while participating in the...

Supporters of the powerful Shiite Muslim cleric Moqtada Sadr set the Swedish embassy in Baghdad alight on the night of July 20, after a Stockholm-based Iraqi refugee desecrated the Koran in Stockholm. The internal security forces court in Baghdad on Tuesday found 18 police officers guilty of failing to carry...

Cohen's trip comes less than two weeks before the third anniversary of the accords in mid-September. Despite now having steady ties, Bahrain and the UAE have joined other Gulf Arab states in issuing a series of condemnations against Israel this year.

The curfew was imposed in the evening after rival protests -- between Kurdish residents on one side and Turkmen and Arabs on the other -- descended into violence despite a security presence. Warning shots were fired to force Kurdish demonstrators to disperse. An AFP correspondent said vehicles on a main...

No Iraqi officials or security sources have been able to tell AFP why the killing of Stephen Troell took place in a city where such attacks on foreigners have been rare in recent years. Troell had lived with his wife and children in the Iraqi capital for at least two years....

Israel's defence ministry said its security personnel at the Hashmonaim checkpoint were informed by the army that the truck was coming their way. In a separate statement, Israel's Defence Minister Yoav Gallant offered his condolences to the family of the soldier killed and praised the security forces "for their determined...

The mandate of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, which expires Thursday, was extended last year with a slight modification that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah criticised at the time as "a violation of Lebanese sovereignty." The Security Council on Wednesday is to meet on extending UNIFIL's mandate.

Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes in the last 12 years of civil war in Syria, primarily targeting Iran-backed forces and Lebanese Hezbollah fighters as well as Syrian army positions. "The Israeli enemy undertook an aerial aggression from the direction of the Mediterranean west of Latakia, targeting Aleppo International...

The rebels "detonated tunnels they had dug beneath army positions and simultaneously launched an assault from other tunnels", said Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Britain-based Observatory. The attack, which also wounded 20 soldiers, came as Syria and its main military ally Russia bombarded the mountainous Jabal al-Zawiya area of...

Both the Syrian army and Russian air force "carried out several air and artillery strikes targeting terrorist headquarters in the countryside of Aleppo, Latakia and Hama," a statement said, after "repeated attacks" on regime-held areas in the provinces. The strikes left dozens of fighters "dead or wounded", the defence ministry...

The latest tit-for-tat exchange saw Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and the chief of Lebanon's powerful Hezbollah movement, Hassan Nasrallah, vow to send the other's country "back to the Stone Age" if the other escalates violence. On the sleepy streets of Ghajar, home to manicured flower beds and ice cream...