In a concluding statement following a meeting in Manama, the 22-member grouping called for "international protection and peacekeeping forces of the United Nations in the occupied Palestinian territories" until a two-state solution is implemented.

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.

King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa was addressing fellow heads of state and government at the 22-strong grouping in Manama, more than seven months into a conflict that has convulsed the region.

Israeli forces took control earlier in May of the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing with Egypt, in a push launched in defiance of US warnings that around 1.4 million civilians sheltering there could be caught in the crossfire.

The United Nations said Tuesday that nearly 450,000 people had been displaced from Rafah since Israel first began issuing evacuation orders for eastern areas of the governorate on May 6.

Lebanese state media said an Israeli strike on a car in the country's south killed two people Tuesday, with a source close to Iran-backed Hezbollah saying a field commander was among the dead.Israel and Hamas ally Hezbollah have exchanged near-daily fire following the Palestinian group's October 7 attack on southern...

Fighting has flared in north Gaza four months after the army said Hamas's command structure there had been dismantled, and six months after Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Hamas had "lost control" of the Palestinian territory.

"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.

The city on the Egyptian border had been sheltering 1.4 million Palestinians, according to the United Nations, but Israel's military operation sparked an exodus of nearly 360,000 people from Rafah so far, said the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).

Israel said its Kerem Shalom southern crossing with Gaza reopened on Wednesday, three days after being closed because of rocket fire claimed by Hamas's armed wing. However, UN agencies and aid groups said they have been unable to transport much-needed supplies through the crossing for security reasons.

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"...

Popplewell was kidnapped from his home during Hamas's October 7 attack along with his mother, Hanna Peri, who was released during a one-week truce in November -- the only pause so far in more than seven months of war. Popplewell's older brother was killed in the attack.

The US has warned that the reputational damage Israel will suffer if it storms a city where an estimated 1.4 million civilians are sheltering will far outweigh any possible military gain. UN chief Antonio Guterres said Friday that Gaza risked an "epic humanitarian disaster" if Israel launched a full-scale ground...

"I have stood hundreds of times before at this podium, but never for a more significant vote than the one about to take place, an historic one," Palestinian ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour said before the vote, his voice full of emotion. He added, "The day will come where...

"The negotiating delegation left Cairo heading to Doha. In practice, the occupation (Israel) rejected the proposal submitted by the mediators and raised objections to it on several central issues," Hamas said in a message to other Palestinian factions, adding it stood by the proposal.

In an interview with CNN on Wednesday, Biden warned he would stop some US weapons supplies to Israel if it carried out its long-threatened ground assault. Israel on Thursday called Biden's comments "very disappointing". Biden told CNN: "If they go into Rafah, I'm not supplying the weapons that have been...

The Lebanese security source, requesting anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the media, said that "four Hezbollah fighters were killed in an Israeli drone strike on their vehicle" in south Lebanon's Bafliyeh village, about 15 kilometers (10 miles) from the frontier. Lebanon's civil defense reported "four martyrs"...

Israeli authorities destroyed around 50 homes belonging to Bedouins in the Negev desert on Wednesday, an AFP journalist reported, with Israel's far-right national security minister saying they were "illegal constructions".Bulldozers flattened the houses in the Wadi al-Khalil village, sparking anger among members of its 500-strong community."There are more than 500...

Biden, a self-described Zionist, had long resisted stopping any of the $3 billion in weapons the United States sends each year to Israel -- and pushed Congress for an increase in the wake of the October 7 attack by Hamas that triggered the war.

Despite international objections, Israel sent tanks into the overcrowded southern city of Rafah on Tuesday and seized the nearby crossing into Egypt that is the main conduit for aid into the besieged Palestinian territory.

Egypt's state-linked Al-Qahera News reported that mediators from Qatar, the United States and Egypt were meeting with a Hamas delegation.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said the proposal "is far from Israel's essential demands", but the government will send negotiators for talks.

The evacuation call followed disagreement between Israel and Hamas over the Palestinian group's demands to end the seven-month war, during weekend negotiations in Cairo. Egyptian state-linked media said the talks stalled after a rocket attack claimed by Hamas killed four Israeli soldiers on Sunday.

The hawkish prime minister has insisted he will send ground troops into Rafah, despite strong concerns voiced by UN agencies and ally Washington for the safety of the 1.2 million civilians inside the city. A top Hamas official accused Netanyahu on Friday of trying to derail a proposed Gaza truce...

Oil prices fell on Wednesday over growing hopes for a cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas and rising crude inventories in the US, the world's biggest oil consumer, Anadolu Agency reported. International benchmark Brent crude traded at $85.28 per barrel at 10.45 a.m. local time (0745GMT), down 1.22% from the...

A Hamas official said the group would respond "within a very short period" to a plan proposed by mediators to halt the fighting for 40 days and to exchange dozens of hostages for many more Palestinian captives. But the group's aim remains an "end to this war", senior Hamas official...

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken renewed calls for Hamas to accept a ceasefire deal Wednesday as he started talks with Israel's leadership."Even in these very difficult times we are determined to get a ceasefire that brings the hostages home -- and to get it now. And the only reason...

Blinken, on his latest tour of the region since the Gaza war erupted in October, observed Jordan's efforts to bring in food and supplies and praised the "extraordinary work" led by the United Nations.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken demanded Tuesday that Hamas accept a proposal for a Gaza ceasefire and release of hostages

Jerusalem, Undefined - Hopes rose on Monday for a long-sought-after truce and hostage release deal after almost seven months of war in Gaza between Palestinian Hamas fighters and Israel.Washington's top diplomat said he was "hopeful" Hamas would accept the offer, which his British counterpart said could see the release of thousands...

Earlier on Monday, European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told reporters he would encourage Arab leaders to put forward their proposal for a two-state solution and that he wanted EU member states to invite Arab leaders to Brussels to present it.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken renewed US opposition to an Israeli offensive on Gaza's southernmost city of Rafah. "We have not yet seen a plan that gives us confidence that civilians can be effectively protected," Blinken told a meeting of the World Economic Forum in Riyadh. U.S. National Security...

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Monday for tighter defence integration among Gulf Arabs in response to Iran, part of efforts to encourage moderation by Israel by dangling the prospect of better ties with the region.Blinken was starting his seventh visit to the Middle East since the October 7...

Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates - Palestinian writer Basim Khandaqji, jailed 20 years ago in Israel, won a prestigious prize for Arabic fiction on Sunday for his novel "A Mask, the Colour of the Sky".The award of the 2024 International Prize for Arabic Fiction was announced at a ceremony in Abu...

Egypt, Qatar and the United States have been trying to mediate a new truce ever since a one-week halt to the fighting in November saw 80 Israeli hostages exchanged for 240 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. Protesters within Israel are demanding that the government secure freedom for other hostages.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's visit to Riyadh comes nearly seven months after the eruption of war in Gaza put the brakes on what was intended as a signature foreign policy achievement for his boss, US President Joe Biden. It also comes as Americans prepare to vote in November...

NETSCOUT SYSTEMS, INC. released findings from its 2H2023 DDoS Threat Intelligence Report that dissects trends and attack methodologies adversaries use against service providers, enterprises, and end-users. The information cited in the report disseminated data on DDoS attacks from 214 countries and territories.  NETSCOUT observed more than 7 million DDoS attacks...

Israeli forces are carrying out "offensive action" across southern Lebanon, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Wednesday without specifying whether ground troops had crossed the border. He also claimed that "half of Hizbollah's commanders in southern Lebanon have been eliminated" in months of violence.

US-Israeli relations been strained by Israel's conduct of the war in Gaza and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's determination to send troops into the southern Gazan city of Rafah, where 1.5 million people are sheltering, many in makeshift encampments. Fears are rising that Israel will soon launch an assault on...

Israel's foreign minister on Wednesday thanked the US Senate for approving $13 billion in military aid that he said sent a "strong message" to the country's enemies."I thank the US Senate for passing the Israel aid package tonight with an overwhelming bipartisan majority," Israel Katz posted on social media site...

Hizbollah fighters fired "dozens of Katyusha rockets" at northern Israel "as part of the response to the Israeli enemy's attacks on... civilian homes, specifically the horrific massacre in Hanin and the killing and injuring of civilians," the group said in a statement.

Rockets were fired late Sunday from northern Iraq at a military base in Syria housing a US-led coalition, according to Iraqi security forces.In response, the Iraqi forces launched a major search operation in northern Nineveh province and found the vehicle used in the attack, they said in a statement.It is...

Iran downplayed Israel's reported retaliation for its unprecedented drone and missile attack, tamping down fears that escalating attacks between the arch enemies could tip over into a broader war in the Middle East. However a deadly blast at an Iraqi military base underlined the persisting tensions in the region.

An unidentified Israeli official told The Washington Post the "strike" was retaliation for Iran's drone and missile barrage and was intended to signal that Israel was able to hit inside Iran. Iran's Tasnim news agency, citing "informed sources", denied that Iran had been attacked from outside.

Ministers from Italy, the UK, US, France, Germany, Japan and Canada also slammed the "unacceptable number of civilians" killed in Gaza during Israel's military offensive.

Israeli strikes on Friday targeted a Syrian army position in the country's south, a war monitor said, as US media reported Israel had carried out hits on its arch-rival Iran.Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the strikes, which he attributed to Israel, "targeted...

Hours after the strike on Arab al-Aramshe, an Arab-majority village in northern Israel near the border, Israeli forces hit targets in eastern Lebanon, a Hizbollah source told AFP. According to the source, the strikes targeted a warehouse in Iaat, a residential area near Baalbek, and "lightly" wounded one man.

Against the backdrop of the grinding conflict in Gaza, a city largely devastated by more than six months of war and a siege on its 2.4 million people, the Security Council is expected to take up the matter of full Palestinian UN membership this Thursday, several diplomatic sources told AFP....

The United States announced Tuesday that it was preparing new sanctions on Iran's missile and drone program after last weekend’s attack on Israel, and the EU's foreign policy chief signaled the bloc would levy new punitive measures as well.Iran has characterized its attack on Israel as an act of self-defense...

Moscow, Russia - Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Iranian counterpart, Ebrahim Raisi, discussed the latest escalation in the Middle East in a conversation on Tuesday, the Kremlin said, reported by Russian news agency TASS.On April 1, Israel carried out an airstrike on Iran’s consulate in Damascus and on April...