The first -- a hulking gray-painted watercraft known as a Logistics Support Vessel -- slowly churned away from the pier at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia. It was followed by three smaller vessels that will also make the roughly 30-day trip to the eastern Mediterranean for the port mission.

"We are not near a deal, meaning that we are not seeing both sides converging on language that can resolve the current disagreement over the implementation of a deal," said foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari. He added that he could not "offer any timeline" on an agreement.

Hamas ally Hizbollah and Israel have exchanged near-daily cross-border fire since the Gaza war erupted in October, but several Israeli strikes have recently hit Hizbollah positions further north, raising fears of a full-blown conflict. Hizbollah has repeatedly said it will only stop its attacks on Israel with a ceasefire in...

With the flow of food and other assistance slowed to a trickle, a UN report citing the territory's Hamas-run health ministry said 25 people have now died from malnutrition and dehydration, most of them children.

As the Muslim world welcomed Ramadan with the customary daytime fast, many Gazans awoke to bombardment that saw residents once more search through the rubble of destroyed homes for survivors and bodies.

"We have witnessed month after month of civilian killing and destruction at a level that is unprecedented in all my years as Secretary-General," he said.

The UN says that the vast majority of Gaza's 2.4 million people are on the brink of famine, particularly in the north where Israeli restrictions have hampered overland aid access. The health ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory said at least 23 people, almost all of them children, have recently died...

Hamas chief said in a televised speech that Israel was unwilling to meet Hamas's conditions for a deal that would have seen hostages held by fighters exchanged for Palestinian prisoners in Israel. Mediators had been pushing for a new truce in the war, now in its sixth month.

His comments came one day after Biden said Netanyahu "must pay more attention to the innocent lives being lost as a consequence of the actions taken" in Gaza. His failure to bring home hostages has led to regular protests in Israel and calls for early elections, including in Tel Aviv...

In his Ramadan message, King Salman while giving thanks for the blessings bestowed upon the kingdom said the war in Gaza would cast a shadow during the holy month. He said "our hearts are heavy with sorrow for the ongoing suffering of our Palestinian brothers facing relentless aggression."

Hizbollah said it had fired dozens of rockets into northern Israel after Israeli strikes the day before left five dead in southern Lebanon, including three of the group's members. Hamas ally Hizbollah and its arch-foe Israel have been exchanging near-daily fire across the border since the Israel-Hamas war broke out...

With Gaza's humanitarian crisis growing more dire and Biden's left flank in uproar, the US president made contradictory remarks as to the question of a "red line" over Israel's threatened offensive on Rafah in southern Gaza. Netanyahu "has a right to defend Israel, a right to continue to pursue Hamas,"...

Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said Israel was preparing for "all possible operational scenarios" during Ramadan, and that it plans to allow "freedom of worship under security and safety restrictions". Hagari said it was because of Hamas that a new truce deal had yet to be reached in the Gaza...

With t-shirts and banners featuring the names and pictures of hostages seized during Hamas's October 7 attack, the crowd demanded swift action to rescue the remaining captives. Around 100 hostages remain in Gaza alive and 31 are presumed dead, Israel has said, a key source of demonstrators' despair.

Lebanon's official National News Agency said the Israeli strike on a house in the Khirbet Selm area killed a family of four," a couple and their two children, and one other person. Hizbollah and Israel have traded deadly cross-border fire on a near-daily basis since war broke out in October...

A boat laden with food for Palestinians in war-ravaged Gaza was "ready" to set sail from Cyprus, an NGO said, as fighting raged between Israeli troops and Hamas ahead of Ramadan. The sea route aims to counter aid access restrictions, which humanitarians and foreign governments have blamed on Israel.

Ankara, Turkey - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday Ankara "firmly backs" Palestinian group Hamas. "No-one can make us qualify Hamas as a terrorist organization," he said in a speech in Istanbul. "Turkey is a country that speaks openly with Hamas leaders and firmly backs them." Erdogan has been...

Geneva, Switzerland - The war in Gaza has "ruptured any sense of a shared humanity," the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Saturday. ICRC head Mirjana Spoljaric called for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza, saying Israel and Hamas must respect international law and protect civilians caught...

CENTCOM and coalition forces determined that the drones "presented an imminent threat to merchant vessels, US Navy and coalition ships in the region". It was one of the Houthis' largest attacks since they began in November a campaign of drone and missile strikes against ships in the Red Sea area,...

In his annual State of the Union address to Congress, President Joe Biden said the US military would "lead an emergency mission to establish a temporary pier in the Mediterranean on the coast of Gaza that can receive large shipments carrying food, water medicine and temporary shelters."

Other parts of the Islamic world may be grappling with their own challenges, from conflicts to high inflation. But many Muslims say their thoughts are with Palestinians this year.

UN rights chief warned Volker Turk said there had been a drastic acceleration in Israeli illegal settlement building in the occupied West Bank as it wages a relentless war in the Palestinian territory of Gaza. He said creating and expanding settlements amounted to the transfer by Israel of its own...

RAMALLAH, PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES – "I don't sleep anymore," Latifa Abu Hamid said while looking at pictures of her children hanging on the walls of her living room, two women and 10 men. All have passed through Israeli prisons. Four are still languishing in jail while a fifth died in custody 14...

Using his annual State of the Union address to deliver some of his strongest comments yet about the five-month-long war, Biden also ordered the US military to lead "an emergency mission" to build a temporary pier off Gaza to facilitate more aid deliveries.

Madrid, Spain--Spain said Thursday it would give an additional $21.87 million to the UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA, which is facing a cash crunch after several nations suspended their funding. The agency has been at the centre of controversy since Israel accused about a dozen of its employees of involvement in...

The UN aid coordinator for the Palestinian territory Sigrid Kaag said her message to UN Security Council was that the international community must "flood the market in Gaza with humanitarian goods" and "re-energize the private sector" so more commercial goods can enter to meet civilians' needs.

In the wasteland of Jabalia, northern Gaza, Palestinians gathered to receive meals at a distribution point. "There is no gas to cook our food on. There is no flour or rice," said Bassam al-Hou, standing beside large, blackened cooking pots among the rubble.

President Joe Biden will tell Congress that he has ordered the US military to set up a port in Gaza to get more humanitarian aid by sea, senior US officials said. The announcement will not involve any US boots on the ground in the Palestinian enclave, as military personnel will...

Rome, Italy - The UN's food agency on Thursday said it was pressing Israel to allow it to use the Ashdod port north of Gaza to make it easier to reach starving Palestinians. "We have several requests with the Israelis," World Food Program (WFP) Deputy Executive Director Carl Skau told AFP in...

A senior Hamas official confirmed that the group's delegation in talks seeking a Gaza truce left Cairo for consultations in Doha, while voicing dissatisfaction with Israel's responses. "We are awaiting the final official response from the enemy (Israel)," said the official, who was involved in negotiations in Cairo but declined...

Palestinian Territories - Gaza's Hamas-run government media office said on Thursday that Israel had returned dozens of bodies that had been exhumed from graves in the besieged territory in recent weeks. Israeli forces have on several occasions taken bodies from Gaza to Israel for examinations as they look for hostages seized...

The Houthi rebels have been defiantly hitting ships in vital commercial waters in professed solidarity with the Palestinians as Israel pounds Hamas-ruled Gaza in response to the October 7 attack. Asked if the latest attack showed a failure of the US and UK strikes on the Houthis, Miller said, "We...

The foreign minister said that the catastrophe in Gaza once again reminded the world that "the fact that the Palestinian territories have been occupied for a long time can no longer be ignored." Beijing has been calling for an immediate ceasefire since the start of the current Israel-Hamas war in...

The administrative step forward comes after Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich last month vowed to expand settlements, in response to Palestinian gunmen killing an Israeli civilian and wounding several others in the West Bank.

Pointedly declining to endorse the man she has portrayed as chaotic and mentally incompetent, former UN ambassador Haley said Trump would have to earn the support of moderates who backed her longshot campaign. Her withdrawal leaves America facing a battle for the White House between two elderly men that many...

Southeast Asia is home to about 40 percent of the world's Muslim population, and ASEAN heavyweights Indonesia and Malaysia are staunch supporters of the Palestinian cause. But other influential ASEAN nations such as Singapore have closer ties with Israel -- and are less eager to stoke controversy.

The fighting began with an attack by Hamas on southern Israel on October 7, resulting in about 1,160 deaths, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. Israel's retaliatory offensive in the Gaza Strip has killed 30,534 people, mostly women and children, according to...

Jeddah, Saudi Arabia — Saudi Minister of Foreign Affairs Prince Faisal bin Farhan has emphasized the unanimous rejection of the displacement of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip by the Islamic countries. During his presidential address at the Extraordinary Session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization of Islamic...

Yemen's Houthi rebels, who since November have fired drones and missiles at numerous ships in the Red Sea area vital for world trade, claimed responsibility for the latest incident. They say their campaign is in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip where Israel is battling Hamas fighters.

According to the Hizbollah-affiliated Islamic Health Committee, three volunteer paramedics died "due to a direct Zionist attack on an emergency centre" in south Lebanon's Adaysseh. The armed group later said its fighters targeted Gesher Haziv "with batches of Katyusha rockets" in retaliation.

"A diplomatic solution is the only way to end the current hostilities" and achieve "a lasting fair security arrangement between Lebanon and Israel", Washington's envoy Amos Hochstein told reporters in Beirut, adding that "a temporary ceasefire is not enough". "A limited war is not containable," he said after meeting with parliamentary...

Taking an unusually sharp tone, Harris demanded Israel "do more to significantly increase the flow of aid" into Gaza, where she said people are starving and the conditions "inhumane". Pressure for a truce has mounted after attempted aid deliveries have descended into scenes of tragedy, and convoys have failed to...

An Israeli siege on Gaza has sparked UN warnings of famine, and France's foreign ministry said Israel is "clearly responsible" for aid blockages. On Saturday the United States started airdropping food rations. Jordan and some other countries have already done so.

Yemen's government also said earlier Saturday that the ship which was departed UAE and was bound for the Bulgarian port of Varna, had sunk. Since November, the Houthis have been carrying out attacks on ships linked to Israel in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, saying they are...

The Hamas official said that if Israel were to meet its demands -- which include a military withdrawal from Gaza and stepped-up humanitarian aid -- this would "pave the way for an agreement within the next 24-48 hours". The health ministry in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip said at least 90...

A paramedic was among those killed and children were wounded in the blast close to the Emirati Maternity Hospital, ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said in a statement. Israeli troops have carried out multiple operations in and around hospitals in the Gaza Strip since they launched their offensive in the Palestinian...

As the peaceful demonstration was underway in Jerusalem, a senior US official said a truce deal which may see hostages freed could be within reach. Mediators from many countries have scrambled to lock in a new truce before the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan begins later this month.

A senior US official told reporters that the framework agreement envisages a six-week cessation of hostilities, which could begin immediately if the Palestinian movement Hamas signs off on the release of the most vulnerable hostages it holds. The official said that the Israelis have "more or less accepted it."

Israel's top ally the United States said it began air-dropping aid into war-ravaged Gaza, as the Hamas-ruled territory's health ministry reported over a dozen child malnutrition deaths. The start of the US relief operation came hours after President Joe Biden, who has pushed Israel to allow more aid in, announced...

Palestinian Territories - A Hamas delegation was expected to fly to Cairo on Saturday for talks on a truce in Gaza, a source close to the group told AFP, as mediators scrambled to secure a deal. Egyptian, Qatari and US go-betweens have been shuttling between Israeli and Hamas negotiators, trying...