"Since the beginning of the Israeli ground invasion of the eastern part of Khan Yunis province, the civil defence and medical teams have recovered approximately 300 bodies of martyrs, many of them decomposed," Gaza's civil defense agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.

Nablus, Palestinian Territories -- Israeli settlers on Sunday attacked a group of foreign volunteers helping Palestinian farmers in the occupied West Bank, injuring some who needed hospital treatment, the activists and Israeli army said. Eight mainly American volunteers were working with the farmers in an olive grove near the Palestinian village...

Baghdad, Iraq -- Iraq said Sunday a new power line will bring electricity from Turkey to its northern provinces as authorities aim to diversify the country's energy sources to ease chronic power outages. The 115-kilometre (71-mile) line connects to the Kisik power station west of Mosul and will provide 300 megawatts...

Jerusalem: The Palestinian leadership hailed as "historic" Friday a ruling by the top UN court that Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories is illegal, but the opinion drew condemnation from Israel. The office of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said it welcomed the "historic decision and demands that Israel be compelled...

Air passengers crowded into airports to wait for news as dozens of flights were cancelled and operators struggled to keep services on track, after an update to a program operating on Microsoft Windows crashed the system. Microsoft said the issue began on Thursday, affecting Windows users running cybersecurity software CrowdStrike...

The vote, which drew swift criticism from the Palestinian leadership and the international community, is largely symbolic but laid down a marker ahead of a planned address by Netanyahu to the US Congress next Wednesday. The veteran hawk has shown little interest in efforts by the US administration to broker...

Brussels, Belgium -- The European Union on Monday announced sanctions on five Israelis -- including those termed "extremist settlers" -- and three organizations for abuses against Palestinians in the West Bank and blocking humanitarian aid to Gaza. The asset freezes and visa bans are the second round of sanctions from the...

Paris, France -- When Google announced this week that its climate emissions had risen by 48 percent since 2019, it pointed the finger at artificial intelligence. US tech firms are building vast networks of data centres across the globe and say AI is fuelling the growth, throwing the spotlight on the...

United Nations, United States --The UN humanitarian coordinator for Gaza said Tuesday that 1.9 million people -- 80 percent of the territory's population -- were now displaced, adding she was "deeply concerned" by reports of new evacuation orders for Khan Yunis. The United Nations has estimated that up to 250,000 people...

Hundreds of thousands had already left Rafah ahead of and during a ground offensive launched by Israeli troops on the southernmost city since early May. The warning for Al-Qarara, Bani Suhaila and other towns in the two governorates, made on social media and in an official statement, came hours after...

Cairo, Egypt -- At least once a day, the hum of every fan, air conditioner and fridge across Egypt goes quiet. The lights go out and an expletive is muttered or hurled into the quickly-heating air. Lifts stop, errands are cancelled and meetings delayed for as long as the power stays...

Jerusalem, Undefined -- Israel's national carrier El Al said Sunday its Warsaw to Tel Aviv flight was not allowed to refuel at Antalya airport after making an emergency landing to evacuate a passenger for medical reasons. Turkish workers at Antalya airport refused to refuel flight LY5102 before it could take off...

"At this conference, European companies are signing over 20 new deals ... which are worth over 40 billion euros," Ursula von der Leyen said at the meeting in the Egyptian capital. The conference comes after a $7.9 billion EU funding package was signed in March to support the indebted North...

The flare-up in the northern Gaza Strip's Shujaiya district, which witnesses and medics said caused numerous casualties, comes as fears grow of a wider regional conflagration involving Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah, a Hamas ally.

World Bank’s latest Migration and Development Brief said the modest 0.7 percent growth rate reflects large variances in regional growth, but remittances remained a crucial source of external finance for developing countries in 2023, bolstering the current accounts of several countries grappling with food insecurity and debt issues.

Dubai, UAE -- Dubai on Monday announced an $8 billion plan for a stormwater runoff system, two months after an unprecedented deluge and widespread flooding brought the desert state to a standstill. The rainwater drainage network announced by Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum on social media platform X is set...

Jenin, Palestinian Territories -- Israeli troops tied a wounded Palestinian to a military vehicle during a raid in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, the army said Sunday, admitting that soldiers had violated operational procedures. Footage of the incident, which occurred on Saturday, has gone viral and shows a man...

Palestinian Territories -- Israel bombed Gaza on Friday as exchanges of fire and threats over the Lebanon border raised fears of a wider war. Five municipal workers died "during an Israeli bombing" of a garage in Gaza City, said Mahmud Basal, spokesman for the civil defense agency in the territory. In...

"The state did not fail, but there was a misjudgment on the part of people who did not appreciate the risks," the official told AFP in the government's first comments on the deaths. An AFP tally on Friday, compiling official statements and reports from diplomats involved in the response, put...

The new deaths reported Thursday included 58 from Egypt, according to an Arab diplomat who provided a breakdown showing that of 658 Egyptians who died, 630 were unregistered pilgrims. Around 10 countries have reported 1,081 deaths during the pilgrimage.

Witnesses reported gunfire and artillery shelling near Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, where the civil defence agency said at least 13 people died in two separate strikes on a family home and on a commercial building. Al-Awda hospital in central Gaza said it received the bodies of "six martyrs...

The military said the soldiers were killed when the Namer armored vehicle they were travelling in exploded near Gaza's far-southern city of Rafah, where troops are engaged in fierce street battles. There was no immediate word on what triggered the blast.

Beirut, Lebanon -- Hezbollah said it fired a new wave of rockets and drones at the Israeli army on Thursday, after an Israeli strike killed one of its senior commanders. It was Hezbollah's largest simultaneous attack in near-daily cross-border fire between it and the Israeli army since its ally Hamas's October...

With the change, which includes the removal of the "Likes" tab on a profile page, users will no longer be able to track the likes of other users to figure out their interests or political leanings. The change comes as the platform has become a home for right-wing content since...

Kuwait City, Kuwait -- A fire killed 49 people in Kuwait when it ripped through a building housing nearly 200 foreign workers on Wednesday, the government said. The blaze, which broke out in the six-story building south of Kuwait City at around dawn, also left dozens of people injured, the health...

The text of the resolution "welcomes" the truce and hostage release proposal announced on May 31 by President Joe Biden, and "urges both parties to fully implement its terms without delay and without condition." Unlike earlier drafts, the resolution states that Israel has "accepted" the US ceasefire proposal.

Bonn, Germany -- The incoming president of the COP29 UN climate summit in Azerbaijan told AFP on Friday that his country would keep increasing fossil fuel production "in parallel" with investments in cleaner alternatives. Mukhtar Babayev defended his country's hosting of the world's most important climate summit despite its surging natural...

Geneva, Switzerland -- The war in Gaza has seen the unemployment rate in the besieged Palestinian territory surge to nearly 80 percent, the United Nations said Friday. The UN's labour agency said the war between Hamas and Israel had "caused loss of jobs and livelihoods on a massive scale". Since the...

Jerusalem, Undefined -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that Israel was "prepared for a very intense operation" along the border with Lebanon, where Israeli troops have exchanged near-daily fire with Hezbollah fighters. Almost eight months of exchanges between Israel and Hezbollah have intensified over the past week, with Israel...

Despite widespread cultural and contextual differences, many women around the world are experiencing similar challenges in and out of the workplace, according to the "Women @ Work 2024: A Global Outlook" report by Deloitte.

Geneva, Switzerland -- Some 55 percent of all structures in the Gaza Strip have been destroyed, damaged or possibly damaged since war erupted in the Palestinian territory eight months ago, according to preliminary satellite analysis by the UN. The analysis showed more than 137,000 buildings affected, UNOSAT, the United Nations satellite...

Deir El-Balah, Palestinian Territories -- Amira al-Taweel scoured pharmacies in northern Gaza for milk to feed her child but could not find a single bottle to satisfy his hunger. "Youssef needs treatment and milk, but there' none available in Gaza," the 33-year-old mother told AFP at Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in central...

Rafah, Palestinian Territories - Qatari, Egyptian and US mediators called on Israel and Hamas Saturday to "finalise" the truce deal outlined by US President Joe Biden, as Israeli forces pounded Rafah in southern Gaza. Fighting has raged in the besieged Gaza Strip since Biden said Israel was offering a new roadmap...

"The exodus that we've seen in the past 20 days or so out of Rafah has been an awesome and horrific experience for many, many people," Matthew Hollingworth, the World Food Programme (WFP) director for the Palestinian territories. They have fled the fighting to areas where there was not enough...

The British defence ministry said in a statement that its planes launched strikes in "a joint operation with US forces against Houthi military facilities to degrade their ability to persist with their attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden".

Geneva, Switzerland -- Humanity is in a race against time to harness the colossal emerging power of artificial intelligence for the good of all, while averting dire risks, a top UN official said Thursday. "We've let the genie out of the bottle," said Doreen Bogdan-Martin, head of the United Nations' International...

"In the absence of a plan for the day after, there won't be a day after. And this is where we need to go, and (what) we need to get, as quickly as possible," Blinken told reporters on a visit to Moldova. Such a plan would ensure that Israel is...

Rafah, Palestinian Territories -- Hundreds braved roads in Rafah in south Gaza Tuesday as they fled Israel's expanding ground assault, with increased shelling, tanks in the city center, and forces positioned on higher ground. "We are panicking and afraid," 40-year-old Ihab Zorob of west Rafah told AFP. "Our children and wives...

A "strong" Palestinian Authority is needed to bring peace in the Middle East, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said just before going into the meeting with Mustafa. The talks were being held as efforts were narrowing to try to find a Gaza truce and a hostage-release deal.

The International Court of Justice also demanded the immediate release of all hostages still held by Palestinian militants, hours after the Israeli military announced troops had recovered the bodies of three more of the captives from north Gaza. The Hague-based court, whose orders are legally binding but lack direct enforcement...

Soldiers are present in the hospital's courtyard and in nearby houses," said hospital's acting director, Dr Mohammad Saleh, adding that there was "continuous gunfire and shelling" towards it. Troops stormed the hospital building on Wednesday evening, he said.

The agreement signed with Khaldoon Al Mubarak, managing director of the Abu Dhabi government-controlled fund Mubadala, opens "a new era of economic cooperation" in the burgeoning sector, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said. "France has chosen to be the leading country in Europe on AI, and for that, we...

Paris, France -- Iran's powerful allies on Monday mourned the death of its President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash, while regional groups hailed him as a supporter of the Palestinian cause. Russia and China called the deceased leader a "friend", while Iran's arch-foes the United States and Israel had yet...

Karim Khan said he was seeking warrants against Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for crimes including "starvation", "willful killing", and "extermination and/or murder". The ICC is the world's only independent court set up to probe the gravest offences including genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

"If fuel runs out, aid doesn't get to the people where they need it, that famine, which we have talked about for so long, and which is looming, will not be looming anymore. It will be present," Martin Griffiths said. "And I think our worry, as citizens of the international...

Jerusalem, Undefined -- New divisions have emerged among Israel's leaders over post-war Gaza's governance, with an unexpected Hamas fightback in parts of the Palestinian territory piling pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The Israeli army has been battling Hamas across Gaza for more than seven months while also exchanging near-daily fire...

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said "additional forces will enter" the Rafah area and "this activity will intensify". "Hundreds of targets have already been struck and our forces are maneuvering in the area," Gallant said following a troop visit on Wednesday.

Paris, France -- Last year's northern hemisphere summer was the hottest in 2,000 years, according to a new study published on Tuesday. Scientists say 2023 was the hottest year globally since records began in 1850, but the study in the journal Nature indicates human-caused climate change pushed northern summer highs well...

"There is no clarity how to stop the war from the Israeli side. I don't think that they are considering this as an option... even when we are talking about the deal and leading to a potential ceasefire," Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani told the Qatar Economic Forum.

Pretoria brought its case to the ICJ in December, calling on the UN court to order Israel to suspend its military operations in Gaza. In its most recent appeal to the ICJ on Friday, South Africa again accused Israel of "continuing violations of the Genocide Convention" and of being "contemptuous"...