Crude prices spiked more than four percent before ebbing somewhat after the allies launched deadly strikes following weeks of disruptive rebel attacks on Red Sea shipping. An analyst at SEB bank said if the US-UK attacks were unsuccessful in destroying Houthi weapons, and oil tankers need to go around Africa,...

Andrea De Domenico, head of the UN aid agency OCHA's office in the occupied Palestinian territories, described how detailed coordination was required with a network of checkpoints, and "the Israelis have systematically, or quasi-systematically, refused" to let them through. In recent days, he said the agency had had three missions...

"First of all, they are not proportional. All of these constitute disproportionate use of force," Erdogan told journalists after Friday prayers in Istanbul. Oman, a mediator in attempts to end Yemen's long-running civil war, expressed its "worry" at the strikes on Houthi rebel military targets that, according to the Houthis,...

Houthi attacks in the Red Sea caused a shortage of parts.

GAZA, PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES - Bombed-out neighborhoods, mass graves dug in the sand, spreading hunger and disease -- as the bloodiest ever Gaza war nears 100 days, besieged Palestinians have endured ever new horrors. More than three months of relentless Israeli bombardment since the October 7 Hamas attack have taken a...

As Blinken wrapped up a whistlestop tour of the region, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) heard arguments in a landmark case accusing Israel of breaching the United Nations Genocide Convention. South Africa told the top UN court that Israel's bombing campaign of the besieged Gaza Strip justified a plausible...

A world away from the death and destruction in Gaza and Israel, robed lawyers battled it out over technical legal arguments in the Peace Palace in The Hague. South Africa argues Israel is breaking its commitments under the UN Genocide Convention, a treaty signed in 1948 in the wake of...

Israeli army said Mustafa Thuria was identified in a document found by troops in Gaza to be a member of Hamas's Gaza City Brigade, while Dahdouh was identified as a "terrorist" belonging to Islamic Jihad. The army statement included a copy of a document it said was a list of...

"Delivering humanitarian aid in Gaza continues to face nearly insurmountable challenges," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press conference. "Intense bombardment, restrictions on movement, fuel shortages, and interrupted communications make it impossible for WHO and our partners to reach those in need."

Footage of the men, including Kahlout, stripped down to their underwear, with some of them appearing to hand over weapons, was last month aired by Israeli media, which reported the alleged surrender of Hamas fighters. The clips sparked outrage on social media, with Hamas denying the individuals were members of...

King Abdullah, in a meeting Sunday with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, called on the United States to press Israel for an "immediate ceasefire" and to put an end to the humanitarian crisis brought by the Gaza war. King Abdullah had also warned Blinken against "the catastrophic repercussions of...

In a statement, Hizbollah said that it targeted the "enemy's northern command centre" in the Israeli city of Safed with "several suicide drones". The attack, according to Hizbollah, an ally of Hamas, was part of its response to the killings of top field commander Wissam Tawil on Monday and Hamas...

Paris, France - US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Middle East leaders will attend a World Economic Forum in Davos next week dominated by the war in Gaza, the WEF said Tuesday. Argentina's libertarian new president, Javier Milei, French President Emmanuel Macron and Chinese Premier Li...

RAMALLAH, PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES - Everyone in Gaza is going hungry and about 2.2 million people are surviving day by day on almost nothing, routinely going without meals, said a Jerusalem-based non-profit organization B'Tselem. The desperate search for food is relentless, and usually unsuccessful, leaving the entire population – including babies,...

The US secretary of state -- on his fourth Middle East tour since the war broke out -- was back in Israel on Tuesday to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and members of his war cabinet, including opposition figure Benny Gantz. He also voiced hope that, after the war, Israel...

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia--Jasem Mohamed Al Budaiwi, Secretary General of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), and Josep Borrell, High Representative of the European Union (EU) for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, have reviewed relations in a meeting in Riyadh. The meeting discussed the latest developments and updates in both the regional...

US top diplomat Antony Blinken also said all the leaders on his tour, which took him to six countries before heading to Israel, had agreed to work with the US to help Gaza's recovery and long-term stability. He was speaking after meeting Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in a lavish...

South Africa wants the ICJ to impose "provisional measures", or emergency actions, while the broader case is being considered -- which would probably take years. "The circumstances could not be more urgent," argues Pretoria, describing an "exceptionally brutal military campaign by Israel in Gaza, which is extensive and ongoing".

On his fourth regional trip since the war began, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Saudi Arabia after talks in Abu Dhabi. Blinken "emphasized the importance of preventing further spread of the conflict", during talks with United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a US...

Witnesses told AFP that two rockets were fired at the car -- one hit the front of the vehicle and the other hit Hamza who was sitting next to the driver. The Israeli army told AFP that it had "struck a terrorist who operated an aircraft that posed a threat...

Ghassan Abu Sitta -- born in Kuwait and who has lived in Britain since the late 1980s -- arrived in Gaza from Egypt on October 9 as part of a Doctors Without Borders medical team. Abu Sitta said he left Gaza after becoming "redundant" because a lack of medical supplies meant...

Blinken will meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the Saudi desert city of Al-Ula, said a US official on condition of anonymity. Qatar, a wealthy Gulf emirate which hosts the largest US military base in the Middle East, also hosts Hamas's political office and is the main residence...

Jordan's king urged Blinken to push for a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to the humanitarian crisis brought by three months of war. King Abdullah, whose country signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994, also reaffirmed the need for a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian question.

The official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported early Sunday that a major deployment of Israeli forces was under way in Jenin. Violence has intensified in the West Bank following an unprecedented attack on Israel launched from the Gaza Strip by Hamas on October 7, which resulted in the deaths of...

The footage from the cemetery in Al-Tuffah neighbourhood in Gaza City showed bodies wrapped in bags and laid out on mounds of soil. Other bodies were strewn around smashed up graves, as a dozen men clad in masks worked with shovels to rebury them, the video showed.

The Houthis say they are targeting Israel and Israeli-linked vessels to push for a stop to the offensive in Gaza. The attacks are endangering a transit route that carries up to 12% of global trade, prompting the US to set up a multinational naval task force to protect Red Sea...

The army spokesman told reporters that its forces dismantled "the Hamas military framework in the northern Gaza Strip" and that Palestinian fighters were now operating in the area only sporadically and "without commanders". He said the army is now concentrating on dismantling Hamas in the centre of the Gaza Strip.

Josep Borrell held talks with the head of Hezbollah's parliamentary bloc, Mohammad Raad, Lebanese media reported. An EU source confirmed the meeting, which came hours after the group's fighters fired rockets at an Israeli military base in response to the killing of a senior Hamas figure in a suspected Israeli...

ISTANBUL, TURKEY - Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh has called on US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to use his current Middle East tour to end Israel's "aggression" as war rages in Gaza. The top US diplomat arrived in Turkey on Friday at the start of a trip that includes planned...

The French leader posted a photograph of an airman standing on the cargo ramp of a military plane, with parachutes visible in the sky below. The supplies dropped by France and Jordan were equipped with systems that remotely guided them to a Jordanian field hospital operating in the territory, the...

Sanaa, Yemen - Thousands rallied in support of Gaza in the rebel-controlled Yemeni capital Sanaa on Friday, chanting anti-US and anti-Israeli slogans. The Houthis have launched more than 20 attacks on merchant ships in the Red Sea in recent weeks, saying they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians in the face of...

BEIRUT, LEBANON - The head of Lebanon's Iran-backed Hizbollah group warned Israel on Friday that it will respond swiftly "on the battlefield" to the killing of Hamas's deputy leader in its south Beirut stronghold. "The response is inevitably coming. We cannot remain silent on a violation of this magnitude because it...

Annalena Baerbock will hold talks with Israel's new Foreign Minister Israel Katz, as well as President Isaac Herzog, foreign ministry spokesman Sebastian Fischer told a regular press conference on Friday. She will also meet with Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas and foreign minister Riyad al-Maliki.

According to the navy, it "responded swiftly to a maritime incident in Arabian Sea involving a hijacking attempt" of a Liberian-flagged bulk carrier ship. The incident comes at a time when many vessels have been rerouted from the Red Sea, where Yemen's Houthi rebels have carried out drone and missile...

The unveiling of Gallant's plan comes on the eve of a visit by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is travelling to the Middle East to press for more humanitarian aid for Gaza and to stave off any regional escalation of the conflict.

Washington, United States - US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna agreed to seek steps to avoid a wider Middle East war following strikes in Lebanon and Iran, the State Department said on Thursday. In a telephone call the day before, the two top diplomats "discussed...

Baghdad, Iraq - A "US strike" in Baghdad on Thursday killed a military commander of the Hashed al-Shaabi, the ex-paramilitary force said, with an Iraq security official reporting two deaths in a drone attack. "A drone targeted the logistical support headquarters of Hashed al-Shaabi," mainly pro-Iranian former paramilitary units integrated into...

Saudi Arabia and Qatar condemned comments by two Israeli ministers calling for Palestinians to emigrate from the Gaza Strip. Israel's National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir on Monday called for promoting "a solution to encourage the emigration of Gaza's residents" and the re-establishment of Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip.

Beirut, Lebanon - Four Hizbollah fighters were killed overnight in southern Lebanon, the Iran-backed movement announced on Thursday, in what Lebanese state media said were Israeli strikes on the border town of Naqura. The deaths, which according to a source close to the powerful group include a local Hizbollah leader, follow...

Rafah, Palestinian Territories--Hunger is everywhere at Rafah zoo, in Gaza's far south, as internally displaced Palestinians seek shelter from the war between cages and animals die of starvation. "The situation is very tragic, there's no food, water, medicine, or anything," its owner Ahmed Jumaa said, a parrot perched on his shoulder....

The two explosions -- labelled a "terrorist attack" by state media and regional authorities -- came amid high Middle East tensions over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and the killing of a Hamas senior leader in Lebanon on Tuesday. The unclaimed attacks, which sparked fears of a widening conflict in...

"I think that hardly anyone of our counterparts will deny the fact that developments in the Red Sea are the direct projection of violence in Gaza, where the cruel operation of Israel continues already for three months," the Russian diplomat said at the meeting of the UN Security Council.

Antony Blinken will leave Washington on Thursday evening on a trip that will include Israel, marking his fourth trip to the region and fifth to Israel since Hamas fighters carried out the deadliest-ever attack inside Israel on October 7. No details have been offered about which Arab country he will...

The comments at issue came in a video of a preacher, Mahmoud Al Hasanat, which Atal posted to his 3.2-million-follower Instagram account five days after Hamas' bloody October 7 assault on Israel.

Ben-Gvir on Monday called for promoting "a solution to encourage the emigration of Gaza's residents" and the re-establishment of Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip. His comments came the day after Smotrich also called for the return of settlers to Gaza, adding that Israel should "encourage" the territory's approximately 2.4 million Palestinians to...

The Palestinian Ministry of Education said that since the beginning of the aggression, the number of students killed in the Gaza Strip has reached more than 4,119, with 7,536 others injured. The Ministry added that in the Gaza Strip, 221 teachers and administrators were killed, and 703 others were injured.

Israel has previously announced the deaths in Gaza of Hamas commanders IN the war, but Aruri is the most high-profile figure to be killed, and his death came in the first strike on the Lebanese capital since hostilities began. The strike adds to widespread fears that the Israel-Hamas war could...

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reiterated his call for an immediate ceasefire, alongside urgent action to get food, medical supplies and water to Gazan civilians "forced to live in unspeakable conditions of hunger, disease spread, and lack of hygiene and sanitation". Tedros added that only a "fraction" of Gazans needing...

London, UK - Britain's former prime minister Tony Blair has strongly denied an Israeli media report linking him to talks last week about the resettlement of Palestinians from Gaza in other countries. Channel 12 claimed on Sunday that Blair, who left office in 2007 and served as a Middle East envoy...

Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said, "We will never allow espionage activities to be conducted against the national unity and solidarity of our country."