Arab and Muslim leaders condemned Israeli forces' "barbaric" actions in Gaza but declined to approve punitive economic and political steps against the country over its war against Hamas. The joint summit in the Saudi capital of the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation highlighted regional divisions over how...

Paris, France - Russia has been spreading "disinformation" about the situation in the Middle East, the president of Microsoft said on Saturday, as tensions soar in the region due to the Israel-Hamas war. Brad Smith, Microsoft vice chair and president, was asked about the role of the US tech giant in...

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - Saudi Foreign Ministry said on Saturday that the Kingdom will hold a joint Arab Islamic extraordinary summit here instead of two summits. “In response to the unprecedented circumstances in Gaza, and after consultation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with the League of the Arab States...

The suffering and death in Gaza has prompted growing calls for a halt in five weeks of fighting in order to protect civilian lives in the densely populated territory. French President Emmanuel Macron called on Israel to stop bombing civilians in Gaza, saying there was "no justification" and the deaths...

New York, USA - There are no safe zones left in Gaza amid Israeli strikes, Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya said. "(Israel’s) deliberate strikes on civilian facilities are a blatant violation of international humanitarian law," he pointed out at a UN Security Council meeting on the...

Emmanuel Macron, speaking to the BBC, cited examples of "these babies, these ladies, these old people" in urging Israel to stop bombing and killing people in Gaza, adding "there is no reason for that and no legitimacy." He said the continuous assault and the deaths in the Gaza Strip were...

New Delhi, India - US Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrapped up a marathon diplomatic push on Friday in India after a whirlwind Middle East trip and G7 talks, saying Israel's pauses in its Gaza offensive would "save lives" but more was needed. "Far too many Palestinians have been killed," Blinken...

The high-level meeting in Cairo comes ahead of Saturday's summits in Saudi Arabia, where Arab and Muslim leaders are expected to press for an end to more than a month of fighting.

President Ebrahim Raisi has said Iran sees it as "its duty to support the resistance groups" but insisted that they act independently.

"The present course chosen by the Israeli authorities will not bring the peace and stability that both Israelis and Palestinians want and deserve," Philippe Lazzarini, head of the United Nations' agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), wrote in a media opinion piece.

The forces encountered an IED (improvised explosive device) blast near the Mosul dam, the military official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity. No casualties were reported. This is the latest in a growing series of attacks on US personnel in the region, following the outbreak of the war between...

Tehran, Iran - Iran on Thursday rejected a G7 statement which called on Tehran to stop supporting Hamas members and taking actions that "destabilize" the Middle East. Tehran's comment came a day after foreign ministers from the G7 group of advanced economies, meeting in Tokyo, expressed support for "humanitarian pauses and...

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - Saudi Arabia said on Thursday that policies to address climate change should not "crush the bones" of countries grappling with energy poverty, ahead of the COP28 climate talks in Dubai. Speaking at a conference on economic cooperation with Africa, the Gulf kingdom's energy minister Prince Abdulaziz bin...

Ramallah, Palestinian Territories - Ten Palestinians were killed on Thursday during an Israeli raid on Jenin in the north of the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said, updating an earlier toll. A statement from the ministry said the current death toll in Jenin stood at 10, up from five...

The emergency meetings of the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation come after over one month of Israeli bombardment has killed more than 10,000 people in Gaza, many of them children, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. With Israel's leaders rebuffing talk of a ceasefire until the captives...

Muscat -– In a significant stride towards enhanced regional cooperation, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has announced progress on the implementation of a unified tourist visa, marking a new milestone in the collective achievements of the member states. The announcement was made by the GCC Secretary General, Jasem Mohamed Albudaiwi,...

Tashkent will host the Iranian and Turkish presidents, as well as Pakistani Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar and Central Asian leaders. The war between Israel and Hamas is not on the agenda, Uzbekistan said.

After more than a month of intense bombardment, hundreds of thousands of people remain trapped in a "dire humanitarian situation" in battle zones without enough food and water, the United Nations said. Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Wednesday his forces were "tightening the stranglehold" around Gaza City.

According to the official, the Rafah crossing point remained closed because Israel refused to approve the list of wounded who were to be evacuated. As a result no wounded Palestinians or dual nationals were evacuated on Wednesday from Gaza to Egypt. The crossing reopened on November 1 to allow people...

A month of Israeli strikes on targets within the Gaza Strip have destroyed or damaged 45 percent of all housing units in the Palestinian territory, Balakrishnan Rajagopal said, warning the destruction comes at a "tremendous cost to human life". The UN special rapporteur on the right to adequate housing stressed...

Geneva, Switzerland - The El Nino weather phenomenon, which triggers higher global temperatures, is expected to last until at least April 2024, the United Nations said on Wednesday. El Nino is a naturally occurring climate pattern typically associated with increased heat worldwide, as well as drought in some parts of the...

Macron had spoken on Tuesday to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the pair will talk again once the aid conference is over, the Elysee Palace added.

Founded in 1957, the European Economic Community (later renamed the EU) started out with six members Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg,  the Netherlands and West Germany.

"We stress the need for urgent action to address the deteriorating humanitarian crisis in Gaza... we support humanitarian pauses and corridors to facilitate urgently needed assistance, civilian movement, and the release of hostages," the ministers said in a joint statement after talks in Japan.

As when the European Union published its annual reports on candidate countries' progress towards EU norms on Wednesday, all eyes will be on Ukraine and Moldova. Turkey, a formal candidate for membership since 1999, will barely be discussed -- but it wasn't always the case.

Kabul police spokesman Khalid Zadran said the explosion occurred in the capital's Dasht-e-Barchi neighborhood -- an enclave of the historically oppressed Shiite Hazara community. The Islamic State (IS) group later claimed the attack -- its second targeting the Shiite neighborhood in a matter of weeks.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), citing figures from the Hamas-run ministry of health, 192 health workers have been killed since the start of the war. The Hamas-controlled health ministry in Gaza says the war has killed more than 10,300 people, many of them...

Dubai, UAE - Eighteen hospitals in the Gaza Strip were forced to end their work in the Gaza Strip amid heavy Israeli shelling and air raids, the healthcare authority of the Palestinian exclave has told Al Jazeera. "A total of 18 hospitals, including eight state-run facilities, had to stop their...

In a rebuke to the Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu who vowed to have "overall security" of Gaza after the war, the State Department said that the US does not support the reoccupation of the enclave, "Palestinians must be at the forefront of these decisions and Gaza is Palestinian land and...

Beirut, Lebanon - Visiting US envoy Amos Hochstein on Tuesday urged for calm to return to Lebanon's southern border with Israel, after weeks of skirmishes following the start of the Israel-Hamas war. "The United States does not want to see conflict in Gaza escalating and expanding into Lebanon," Hochstein told a...

The UN called for an overhaul of the global financial system to help the world's poorest countries and their struggle to fill "enormous financial gaps". A report from UNCTAD highlighted how multiple crises, from the Covid pandemic to soaring inflation, and declining foreign direct investment have hit poorer countries particularly...

In the relentless bombardment and ground attacks, 10,328 Palestinians have been killed in the besieged enclave, 300 since Monday alone. The toll includes more than 4,000 children.

Over 760,000 Palestinians fled or were driven from their homes in what is referred to by Palestinians as the "Nakba" (catastrophe in Arabic). Around 180,000 fled to Gaza, with the rest scattered across the West Bank and neighboring Arab countries, specifically Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

The upcoming summit is being organised by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), a 57-member bloc of majority Muslim countries. It will be Raisi's first visit to the kingdom since the two countries agreed to restore diplomatic relations after seven years of estrangement, a deal brokered by China in March.

The Israeli military has relentlessly attacked Gaza by air, land and sea since October 7, when Hamas militants launched a cross-border attack that left 1,400 dead in Israel, most of them civilians, according to Israeli authorities, and over 240 hostages taken. The death toll in Gaza has surpassed 10,000 people,...

Manama, Bahrain - In a convenience store in Bahrain, 14-year-old Jana Abdullah carries a tablet as she shops, checking a list of Western brands to avoid as Israel pounds Gaza in its campaign to destroy Hamas. Jana and her 10-year-old brother, Ali, used to eat at McDonald's nearly daily but they...

Turkmenistan is one of the most closed societies in the world, where dissent is outlawed and the Berdymukhamedov family have exercised tight control over for almost two decades.

"By doing so the European Union will spend a total of 100 million euros in humanitarian aid for the civilians in Gaza," EU chief von der Leyen told EU diplomats in Brussels. Von der Leyen said flows of aid into Gaza from Egypt "remain too small" and the EU was...

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

Beirut, Lebanon -- At least 61 per cent of employment, equivalent to 182,000 jobs, has been lost in the Gaza Strip since the start of the current Israel-Hamas war, a new ILO report estimates. The conflict in Gaza is also having a spillover effect in the West Bank, where an...

RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA – The Kingdom’s ministry of investment and ministry of foreign affairs launched the second phase of issuing a "Visiting Investor" business visit e-visa. This service is offered to foreign investors as part of the Kingdom’s efforts to boost investment, consistent with Saudi Vision 2030, which aims to...

The heads of 18 organizations including UNICEF, the World Food Program and the World Health Organization described the horrific toll on both sides since the October 7 Hamas cross-border attack from Gaza into Israel, which left about 1,400 people dead, mainly civilians, according to Israeli authorities. Israel has retaliated with...

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...

During his meeting with Blinken on Sunday, Iraqi Prime Minister reiterated calls for a ceasefire and pointed to "the urgency of containing the crisis and preventing its spread", a statement from his office said. Iraq does not recognize Israel as a state and its government is close to Iran, which...

Amman, Jordan-- Jordan and Lebanon have called for the speeding up of international efforts to stop the war on Gaza and prevent a spillover of the conflict in the region. The exhortation to halt the destruction of life and property in the besieged enclave of the Gaza Strip came in...

Taking to X, formerly Twitter, King Abdullah said that Jordan's air force personnel air-dropped at midnight urgent medical aid to Jordanian's field hospital in Gaza. Terming it as "our duty to aid our brothers and sisters injured in the war on Gaza", he said the kingdom will always be there...

Israeli Heritage Minister Amichay Eliyahu was suspended from government meetings "until further notice" for advocating dropping a nuclear bomb on besieged and devastated Gaza.

AMMAN, JORDAN  – Foreign ministers from key Arab nations – including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Qatar, and representatives from the Palestinian Authority – met here to discuss strategies for ending the ongoing conflict in Gaza. The meeting, held on Saturday, was aimed at coordinating efforts to halt...

Blinken arrived in Ramallah under tight security one day after meeting in Jordan with Arab foreign ministers angered by mounting civilian deaths in Gaza, where the Hamas-run health ministry said dozens were killed in a strike on a refugee camp. Washington has rebuffed calls for a ceasefire, instead backing Israel's...

The UNODC warned of potential "humanitarian consequences for many vulnerable rural communities" due to the sudden contraction of Afghanistan's opium economy, as growers have had to turn to far less lucrative alternative crops. Farmers' incomes, estimated at $1.36 billion in 2022, have fallen by 92 percent to $110 million this...