Washington, US - The United States sanctioned three Israeli settlers and two farming outposts on Thursday, accusing them of being involved in "undermining stability in the West Bank." The move marks the second time this year that Washington has sanctioned Israeli settlers, as it looks to respond to the rise in...

The leader of the US Senate called for Israel to hold new elections in the most strident criticism yet by a senior American official of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's handling of the war in Gaza. The remarks from Chuck Schumer came amid increased pressure from President Joe Biden over the...

The new budget passed by a vote of 62 lawmakers to 55. It modifies the budget passed in May 2023, increasing the spending limit by 70.4 billion shekels ($19.4 billion), or more than 14 percent, according to a statement from Israel's legislature, the Knesset.

Beirut, Lebanon--Palestinian resistance group Hamas said one of its members was killed in an Israeli strike in south Lebanon on Wednesday that state media said killed three people. Hamas said the man killed in the strike was Hadi Mustafa, a member of its armed wing in Lebanon from the Palestinian refugee...

Asked about the reported deaths, the Israeli military said soldiers "fired toward armed suspects identified in the area" and that "hits were identified", but did not confirm fatalities. It described the operation as "counterterrorism activity".

"The people in Gaza are lacking the most basic necessities. We want to do our part to ensure that they get access to food and medicine," said Defense Minister Boris Pistorius.

The incident comes amid mounting concern about worsening humanitarian conditions in Gaza, where Israel has carried out relentless military operations since October. Gaza's dire food shortages after more than five months of war have resulted in 27 deaths from malnutrition and dehydration, most of them children.

Aid groups have been warning of the risk of famine in besieged Gaza for weeks, and the UN has reported particular difficulty in accessing the territory's north for deliveries of food and other humanitarian supplies. Israel has maintained strict control over aid entering the Gaza Strip since the outbreak of...

Jerusalem--The Israeli army said Tuesday it hit about 4,500 Hizbollah targets in Lebanon and Syria over the past five months, killing 300 of the group's fighters and wounding more than 750. The targets were hit from the air and from the ground, the army said in a statement, and included...

A Jordanian citizen has died after being shot by Israeli forces in the West Bank, Palestinian authorities said, with the military accusing the man of aiding a fighter. Tawfiq Aed Fawaz Hussein, 25, was shot at Zeita junction north of the West Bank city of Tulkarm on Monday, the Palestinian...

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.

A security source said Israeli aircraft targeted a former Hizbollah building near Dar Al Amal Hospital, adding that Israel "conducted another raid on a warehouse west of Baalbek". Strikes have largely remained confined to border regions, but several have hit Hizbollah positions further north in recent weeks

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...

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,"...

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...

London, UK - Thousands of protesters marched in central London on Saturday to call for a ceasefire in Gaza amid ongoing bombardments by Israel after the Hamas attack on its territory on October 7. Regular marches protesting Israel's military response to the attacks have seen dozens arrested for anti-Semitic chanting and...

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...

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.

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...

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...

While negotiators in Cairo tried to surmount tough stumbling blocks, fighting again raged in Gaza where the UN warns famine looms and desperate crowds have stopped and looted food aid trucks. Gazans were waiting to collect bags of flour outside an office of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA,...

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.

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...

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.

The head of the UNRWA is set to defend his organization's work at the General Assembly, after crippling backlash over accusations that some employees were involved in Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel. Philippe Lazzarini warned in a letter to the General Assembly's president that his agency is at a...

"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...

Israel routinely demolishes the homes of Palestinians accused of carrying out attacks, arguing that such measures act as a deterrent, while critics say it amounts to collective punishment.

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.

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."