"There is so much suffering in Gaza," the pontiff said in comments from his private residence, which were read by an aide and broadcast on giant screens in Saint Peter's Square. The 86-year-old is suffering from a lung infection that has caused breathing difficulties, and forced him to cancel a...

The hostages, most of whom were freed during a seven-day truce between Israel and Hamas, spoke in a video broadcast before a crowd of thousands at a rally in central Tel Aviv. In the brief interviews, four women who were held by Hamas related the fear, hunger, and sleeplessness of...

Smoke again clouded the sky over the north of the Palestinian territory, whose Hamas government said 240 people had been killed since a pause in hostilities expired early Friday and combat resumed. After the truce expired on Friday, Israel had told NGOs not to bring aid convoys across the Rafah...

Austin told the Reagan National Defense Forum that he had "learned a thing or two about urban warfare" while fighting in Iraq. "The lesson is not that you can win in urban warfare by protecting civilians. The lesson is that you can only win in urban warfare by protecting civilians,"...

Speaking at a press conference on the sidelines of the UN's COP28 climate talks in Dubai, French President Emmanuel Macron said that the "Israeli authorities" will have to define their objective and desired end state more precisely. He warned that its aim of destroying the Palestinian movement could unleash a...

Khan Yunis, Palestinian Territories - A middle-aged man with a blank, shattered expression walked slowly down a ramp at the hospital, gently cradling in his arms a tiny body wrapped in a white shroud. After the collapse of a week-long truce between Israel and Hamas, the Nasser hospital's morgue in Khan...

Istanbul, Turkey - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday pushed back against mounting US pressure to cut Ankara's historic ties with Hamas in the wake of the group's unprecedented attacks on Israel. The US Treasury's top terrorism financing official conveyed Washington's "profound" alarm about Ankara's past relations with Hamas during...

Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes on its northern neighbour since Syria's civil war began in 2011, primarily targeting Iran-backed forces and Lebanese Hezbollah fighters, as well as Syrian army positions. But it has intensified attacks since its war with Hamas, a Hezbollah ally, began in October.

Both the United Nations chief and the White House called for the break in fighting to be restored, and UN agencies warned of a "catastrophic" humanitarian situation as bombs fell and hospitals again struggled to cope with the wounded after a week-long respite.

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...

The truce agreement between Israel and Hamas stipulates that a minimum of 10 Israeli hostages should be released alive each day. But a source close to Hamas told AFP that two Russian-Israeli women freed on Wednesday in addition to 10 others made up for only eight Israelis being released on...

The overnight releases, which came after a sixth batch of hostages were freed from Gaza, bring the number of Palestinian civilians freed by Israel under a truce deal to 210. Hamas and other fighters in Gaza have released 70 Israelis under the deal, along with nearly 30 hostages of other...

United Nations - Israel’s security can be ensured only through a lasting solution to the Palestinian problem and Russia is sparing no effort to achieve it, Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya said on Wednesday. "As for tomorrow of this conflict, it is time to think about...

Geneva, Switzerland -- The WHO on Wednesday said that a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was possible but those with influence were not doing enough to secure it, expressing concern at Gaza's "crippled" health system. The World Health Organization's chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said there was a high chance of fighting...

Ramallah, Palestinian Territories - An eight-year-old boy and a teenager were killed by the Israeli army on Wednesday in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, according to the Palestinian health ministry. The ministry said in a statement that "Adam al-Ghul, eight years old, and Bassem Abu el-Wafa, 15 years old,...

Oslo, Norway - Oslo's city hall on Wednesday raised the Palestinian flag in a show of solidarity with the people of Gaza, where thousands have lost their lives as Israel bombarded the area in retaliation for the October 7 attack by Hamas. The initiative coincides with the International Day of Solidarity with...

Ankara, Turkey - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday branded Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "the butcher of Gaza" and accused him of spawning anti-Semitism across the world. Erdogan has lashed out repeatedly at Israel for the scale of death and destruction caused by its response to Hamas members' unprecedented...

On November 19, Huthis seized Israeli-linked cargo vessel the Galaxy Leader and its 25 international crew at the entrance to the Red Sea. On Sunday, two ballistic missiles were launched from an area controlled by Huthi rebels in Yemen, landing around 10 nautical miles from US destroyer the USS Mason,...

So far, 60 Israeli hostages have been freed from Gaza under the terms of the deal, with a Russian-Israeli, 20 Thai and one Filipino freed outside the scope of the agreement. In return, 180 Palestinian civilians -- all women and minors -- have been released. Among them was 14-year-old Ahmad...

The leaders of the US Central Intelligence Agency and Israel's Mossad were scheduled to meet Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, the source said, adding that Egyptian officials were also taking part. The informed source said CIA director Bill Burns and Mossad head David Barnea would hold a...

ROME, ITALY - The population of Gaza, especially women and children, risk famine if humanitarian food supplies do not continue, the UN's World Food Program warned on Tuesday. The WFP said it had delivered food to 121,161 people in Gaza since Friday, when a four-day truce between Israel and Hamas began....

The meeting came after the world's richest person visited a kibbutz community devastated in attacks by Hamas fighters on October 7, and met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defense officials. Musk has been criticized over what critics say is a proliferation of hate speech on X, formerly Twitter, since...

Shortly after the arrival of the hostages was confirmed, Israel's prison authority said 33 Palestinian civilians had been released. The freed Israelis are dual nationals of France, Germany and Argentina, according to Qatar, which helped mediate the deal.

The terms of the truce agreement pausing the fighting in the Gaza Strip say it can be extended beyond its initial four-day term as long as 10 hostages are released for each extra day, with three times as many Palestinians freed in return. As such, another 50 hostages would imply...

Beirut, Lebanon -- From Lebanon, Palestinian Fatima al-Ashwah has been praying for relatives in Gaza, but received grim news that Israeli bombing killed around 12 of them days before a temporary truce between Israel and Hamas. "They bombed their house," leaving some of them "in pieces," said Ashwah, drained by...

The shooter, who is still on the loose, was described by police as "a white man with a handgun." The incident occurred amid high tensions, and occasional violence, on college campuses and elsewhere in the United States over the Israel-Hamas war.

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...

The fledgling rapprochement between the North African country and Israel had made steady progress since 2020 when the two governments normalized relations, but that has been thrown into reverse by the deadly conflict in the Palestinian territory. Morocco, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain all established diplomatic ties with Israel...

A US defence official told a media outlet that an unknown number of "unidentified armed individuals" seized the M/V Central Park in the Gulf of Aden. Ambrey, the maritime security firm, said that "US naval forces are engaged in the situation" after the incident involving the Central Park, which is...

Hamas released a third group of hostages including a four-year-old American girl with more Palestinian prisoners set to be freed in exchange. A source close to the group said it was willing to prolong a truce. The Israeli army said 13 released hostages were back in the country and another...

Eleven ambulances, three coaches and a flatbed were delivered to Al-Shifa hospital, which had seen heavy fighting in recent days, "to assist with evacuations," the UN said. The day prior, when a temporary truce between Israel and Hamas began in order to facilitate the hostage exchange, a total of 137...

Carrying placards and waving Palestinian flags, thousands of protestors chanted slogans before Canada's Parliament in Ottawa, demanding a permanent ceasefire in the fighting between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Among the protestors were people from diverse backgrounds: Arabs, Muslims, Jews, anti-war, labor and social justice organizations.

Jerusalem -  Plans to release another group of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners suffered a setback on Saturday, the second day of a four-day truce after seven weeks of war. On Friday evening the Palestinian group freed 13 Israelis, along with an unexpected 10 Thais and one Filipino,...

An Israeli-owned cargo ship was damaged in a suspected drone attack by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in the Indian Ocean, a US defense official said. "We are aware of reports that there was a suspected IRGC-initiated Shahed-136 UAV (that) struck a civilian motor vessel in the Indian Ocean," the...

The WHO said the head of the biggest hospital in Gaza was arrested on Wednesday along with five other health workers, while they were taking part in a UN mission to evacuate patients. The Israeli forces detained three medical personnel from the Palestine Red Crescent Society and three from the...

Dubai, UAE--Senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh has called the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip a political victory at a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in Doha. "The ceasefire is a political victory achieved as a result of the success of the resistance forces on the ground. Our enemy...

Santiago, Chile - Thousands of miles from the Middle East, in a stadium in Santiago, Chile, the nation of Palestine exists, if only for the 90 minutes of a soccer match. Chileans and Palestinians created that alternate reality again on Thursday when Club Deportivo Palestino, which traces its origins to Palestinian...

Germany on November 2 banned Hamas and Samidoun. According to official figures, Germany hosts an estimated 450 members of Hamas, proscribed as a "terrorist" organization by the European Union, the United States and Israel. The ministry said that while Hamas members had not staged "violent action" in Germany so far,...

An Egyptian security source told AFP that Israeli security officials, International Red Cross-Red Crescent staff and an Egyptian team would deploy to Rafah, on the Egypt-Gaza border, to receive the hostages, who will then be flown to Israel. AFP has confirmed the identities of 210 of the roughly 240 people...

Beirut, Lebanon - Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has met with Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hizbollah, which has traded cross-border fire with Israel since the start of the Gaza war, the Lebanese movement said on Thursday. Since the Israel-Hamas war began on October 7, the border between Lebanon and Israel...

Cairo, Egypt - Tunisian film star Hend Sabri has resigned as World Food Program goodwill ambassador in protest at what she called the use of starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza. Sabri, a leading figure in Arab cinema, said that she had decided with "a heavy heart and deep...

An official in the Hamas-run health ministry specified to AFP that one other doctor and two nurses had been detained, as well as the hospital director. In a statement, Hamas said it "strongly denounces" the arrest of Salmiya and his colleagues, calling on the International Committee of the Red Cross...

The warning comes after the Huthis on Sunday seized an Israel-linked cargo vessel, opening a new dimension in the Gaza war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas. Helicopter-borne troops seized the Galaxy Leader and its 25 international crew days after the Huthis threatened to target Israeli shipping because...

After tedious days marked by idle chitchat and dreary diets of beans and instant coffee, the men, all Egyptians, took some comfort in news that more fuel and other essentials may soon be allowed in as part of a four-day truce that could begin as soon as Friday. But it...

exposed the double standards and selective application of international laws and UN resolutions by the global community. Representing Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi finance minister Mohammed Al-Jadaan said that the Israeli invasion of the besieged Gaza was in flagrant violation of international laws and it had led to...

The Huthis have declared themselves part of the "axis of resistance" of Iran's allies and proxies and have launched a series of drones and missiles towards Israel after the start of the war in Gaza. The Huthis have also threatened to target Israeli shipping over the country's war with Hamas,...

The delay is a hammer blow to families desperate to see their loved ones return home, and to two million-plus Gazans praying for an end to 47 days of war and destruction. The complex and carefully choreographed deal saw Israel and Hamas militants agree a four-day truce, during which at...

New York, United States - Wall Street stocks resumed their upward climb early Wednesday following strong results from artificial intelligence player Nvidia as US Treasury yields retreated. Nvidia said it made a profit of $9.2 billion on revenue of a whopping $18.1 billion in the third quarter, compared with $5.9 billion...

Erdogan went on to reiterate his claim that Israel was a “terrorist state”: “We need to know this once and for all. Israel is a terrorist state. There is no need to hesitate to say this. This is the truth we know. This is the case.”

Some world leaders like Ramaphosa and Erdogan use the term genocide to describe Israeli actions in Gaza. Israel has also been accused of war crimes by rights organizations.