Syria's government said late Friday it was "closely following" the findings of a new Amnesty International report urging an investigation into sectarian massacres last month.

Analysts said they expected the fighters led by Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) to push on towards the city, a key link between Damascus and the Alawite heartland on the Mediterranean coast.

Experts from the United Nations have warned that Israel might become a pariah state, and its UN membership is under question as Tel Aviv continues to commit genocide in Gaza killing more than 40,000 people since October 7, 2023. Experts also reprimanded the Western countries for double standards on Netanyahu’s...

Israel launched its controversial assault on Rafah earlier this month, dismissing concerns for the safety of the 1.4 million Palestinian civilians then sheltering in the city

Washington, United States - Amal Clooney helped the International Criminal Court weigh evidence that led to the decision to seek arrest warrants for top Israeli and Hamas leaders, the human rights lawyer said Monday. The high-profile British-Lebanese barrister posted a statement on the website of the Clooney Foundation for Justice, which she founded...

The EU Commission's spokesman said in Brussels the aid will be disbursed "in grants", with 736 million euros earmarked to support Lebanon "in response to the Syrian crisis".

Tehran, Iran - Iran on Saturday again threatened retaliation for the deaths of seven Revolutionary Guards in a strike on Damascus, with the army chief saying his country's enemies will "regret" the killings. Tehran has vowed to avenge Monday's air strike on the Syrian capital it blamed on its arch-enemy Israel,...

US-based World Central Kitchen -- founded by Spanish-American celebrity chef Jose Andres -- said a "targeted attack" by Israeli forces on Monday had killed seven aid workers. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later admitted that his military had "unintentionally" killed the group -- who had helped feed communities affected by...

Jerusalem - The Israeli army has suspended leave for its combat units, it said on Thursday, amid the Gaza war and as tensions with Iran grew after a strike on Tehran's consulate in Damascus. Israeli media reported that the military was also calling up more reservist soldiers "against the background...

Beirut, Lebanon - The death toll in Israeli air strikes on Syria has risen to 52, including 38 government soldiers and seven members of Lebanon's Hizbollah movement, a war monitor said on Saturday. Friday's strikes fueled concerns of a wider regional conflagration. They targeted "a rocket depot belonging to Lebanon's Hizbollah"...

Stockholm, Sweden - An Iraqi refugee in Sweden who stoked international outrage by repeatedly desecrating the Quran last year said Wednesday he was leaving the country for neighboring Norway after Sweden revoked his residency permit. Salwan Momika, a Christian Iraqi who burned Qurans at a slew of protests in Sweden over...

He also points out the necessity of leveraging parliamentary diplomacy to avert wars and conflicts, through mediation and good offices that lead to reconciliations and peace agreements, highlighting the Qatar's neutral and credible mediation efforts, which have earned it the confidence of the international community.

Israel's military campaign against Gaza has killed at least 31,553 people, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry. In Rafah, where the majority of Gaza's 2.4 million people have sought refuge, more bloodshed is feared after Israeli prime minister's office said he had approved plans for...

Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes on targets in Syria since civil war broke out in 2011, mainly targeting Iran-backed forces including fighters from Lebanon's Hizbollah movement as well as Syrian army positions. The strikes have increased since Israel's war with Palestinian resistance group Hamas began on October 7.

Britain and the United States have already imposed sanctions on a small number of Israeli settlers accused of committing human rights abuses against Palestinians in the West Bank.

Paris, France - An Israeli tank crew who killed one journalist and wounded six others in Lebanon in October then "likely" opened fire on them with a machine gun, an expert report said on Thursday. The strike in southern Lebanon near the Israeli border on October 13 instantly killed Issam Abdallah,...

The foreign minister said that the catastrophe in Gaza once again reminded the world that "the fact that the Palestinian territories have been occupied for a long time can no longer be ignored." Beijing has been calling for an immediate ceasefire since the start of the current Israel-Hamas war in...

Beirut, Lebanon - Gunmen thought to be linked to the Islamic State group in Syria killed 18 people searching for truffles in the desert Wednesday, a war monitor said. More than 50 people remained missing after the attack that saw heavy clashes with pro-government forces, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights...

UNRWA chief's comments capped a tumultuous day during which Israel and UNRWA have traded accusations, with Israel accusing the agency of having employed more than 450 "terrorists." Israel also recalled its ambassador to the UN for consultations after the country accused the organization of failing to adequately address claims of...

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...

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.

More than 750 others were injured after Israeli soldiers opened fire on civilians gathered at an aid distribution point in the Palestinian territory. The death toll from the "massacre" in Gaza City "rose to 104 martyrs and 760 injuries due to the bullets of the occupation forces that targeted a...

Speaking before the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Antonio Guterres said that Gaza's southernmost city, where more than 1.4 million Palestinians are crowded together in tent cities, was "the core of the humanitarian aid operation" in the Palestinian territory. Guterres stressed Monday that "nothing can justify Hamas's deliberate killing,...

The experts have expressed concern that an unknown number of Palestinian women and children, including girls, have reportedly gone missing after contact with the Israeli army.

The Appeals Court in The Hague sided with a group of human rights organizations that argued the parts contributed to violations of law by Israel in its war with Hamas.

New defense technologies including artificial intelligence-powered gunsights and robotic drones form a bright spot in an otherwise dire period for Israel's tech industry. Over 150 countries in December backed a UN resolution identifying "serious challenges and concerns" in new military tech, including "artificial intelligence and autonomy in weapons systems."

"Ten people, including six civilians and two Hizbollah fighters, were killed in Israeli strikes on a building in the Hamra neighborhood of Homs," the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, told AFP. The strikes completely levelled the building in one of the city's most affluent...

The US secretary of state is expected to discuss a proposed truce hammered out in a Paris meeting in January of top US, Israeli, Egyptian and Qatari officials. The diplomatic push has become more urgent with the surge in attacks by Iran-backed groups in solidarity with Hamas, triggering counterattacks by...

The targets included a site operated by Lebanese group Hezbollah on a road leading to the Sayyida Zeinab district and a site on the road to Damascus airport that had recently been vacated by pro-Iran groups, the Britain-based war monitor said.

The row between Israel and UNRWA follows the UN's ICJ ruling that Israel must prevent possible acts of genocide in the conflict and allow more aid into Gaza. Israel's envoy to the UN slammed Guterres, saying the UN chief had repeatedly ignored "evidence" presented to him regarding UNRWA's involvement in...

Israel responded with a military offensive that has killed at least 25,105 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. The healthcare system has almost entirely collapsed, with hospitals overwhelmed and doctors having to treat a growing number of casualties with dwindling resources.

Demonstrators marched through the city's Habima Square, a frequent protest site, with some carrying signs calling Netanyahu "the face of evil" and demanding "elections now". Protesters demanding the return of hostages also gathered in Haifa and outside the premier's Jerusalem residence.

The mid-morning strike, which caused a large plume of smoke to billow into the sky, was also reported by Syrian state media. An AFP correspondent at the scene said the destroyed building was cordoned off with ambulances, firefighters and Syrian Arab Red Crescent rescue teams all present at the site.

Thousands of Gazan men may have been detained by Israeli forces since war erupted on October 7, often facing conditions that could amount to torture, the UN's human rights representative in the Palestinian territories said. Some of those released have reported being blindfolded, beaten and ultimately freed wearing only diapers,...

Israel had four divisions operating in Gaza before Monday's announced withdrawal, though it was unclear how many soldiers were involved in the pullout. The war broke out after Hamas fighters launched an unprecedented attack and Israel responded by bombarding the territory by land, sea and air, killing more than 24,000...

Qamishli, Syria - Hundreds of northeast Syrian villages and towns have lost power after Turkish strikes pounded electricity stations and infrastructure, the region's semi-autonomous Kurdish administration said on Monday. The Kurdish administration said Turkey launched a slew of strikes since Friday, mostly concentrated on infrastructure including power stations and oil refineries....

Violence has surged in the West Bank since October 7, when the Palestinian armed group Hamas launched an attack in southern Israel that sparked a full-scale conflict in the Gaza Strip. Israeli army raids and attacks by settlers have killed at least 343 people in the West Bank since then,...

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...

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...

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...

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...

The prime minister has presided over breakneck economic growth, but her government has been accused of a ruthless opposition crackdown. Her party faced almost no rivals in the seats it contested, but it avoided fielding candidates in a few constituencies to avoid the legislature being branded a one-party institution.

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...

Nearly three months of conflict have claimed almost 22,000 lives in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, and devastated much of the besieged territory. Despite relentless global demands for a ceasefire, military spokesman Daniel Hagari said Monday the army was preparing for "prolonged fighting" expected to last "throughout this...

Jerusalem - Israeli settlers killed at least 10 Palestinians and torched dozens of homes in the occupied West Bank in 2023, making it the "most violent" year on record for settler attacks, an Israeli watchdog said on Monday. Numerous West Bank attacks were carried out by a large group of...

Yunus, 83, is credited with lifting millions out of poverty with his pioneering microfinance bank but has earned the enmity of longtime Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who has accused him of "sucking blood" from the poor.

Israel unilaterally withdrew the last of its troops and settlers in 2005, ending a presence inside Gaza that began in 1967 but maintaining near complete control over the territory's borders. All settlements on occupied Palestinian land are regarded as illegal under international law, regardless of whether they were approved by...

Air strikes in eastern Syria "likely" launched by Israel killed at least 19 pro-Iran fighters, a war monitor said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said "19 pro-Iranian fighters, including four Syrians, and six Iraqis, were killed and more than 18 were wounded" in at least nine air strikes overnight...

"The United Nations will keep rallying the world for peace, sustainable development and human rights. Let’s resolve to make 2024 a year of building trust and hope in all that we can accomplish together. I wish you a happy and peaceful New Year," the United Nations Secretary-General adds.

Holding banners demanding an immediate ceasefire, the activists gathered in Manhattan's Bryant Park while some briefly stood in the middle of the busy Sixth Avenue in the heart of New York's Midtown district. Several women shrouded in black held baby dolls swaddled in white cloths to represent the toll the...