Hizbollah and Israeli army have traded near-daily fire since war broke out on October 7 between Israel and the Palestinian militant group in the Gaza Strip. In the past few days, a series of Israeli strikes has injured officials from Lebanese and Palestinian armed groups in southern Lebanon.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered his military to prepare for an offensive in the southern Gaza city, where the UN says roughly 1.4 million Palestinians are sheltering after fleeing fighting in other areas of the territory. Israel has carried out a relentless bombardment and ground offensive in Gaza...

Speaking at the White House while US President Joe Biden stood next to him, King Abdullah of Jordan said that "we cannot afford an Israeli attack on Rafah." He said that it will result in another humanitarian catastrophe, and called for a lasting ceasefire and that war must end.

As the West Bank grapples with its worst economic crisis in two decades, sparked by Israel's ban on Palestinian day laborers, poverty and despair escalate.

London, UK - Britain on Monday announced sanctions on four "extremist Israeli settlers" accused of committing human rights abuses against Palestinians in the West Bank, following a similar move by the United States earlier this month.The curbs follow what the UK called "unprecedented levels of violence by extremist settlers in the...

World Bank President Ajay Banga said that "what's going on Gaza, but also the challenges of Ukraine... and the Red Sea" are among the top challenges to the global economic outlook. "When you add variables to what is turning out to be probably the lowest growth of the last 55...

Despite maintaining its ties with Israel since the Israel-Hamas war began in October, the UAE has been at pains to express solidarity with Palestinians as anger mounted in the Arab world over the conflict.

Talks have been underway for weeks to secure a second truce in the four-month war, which would see more hostages freed in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.

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.

UN human rights chief Volker Turk urged world powers to "restrain rather than enable" as fears of a looming ground incursion grew among more than one million Palestinians trapped in the territory's far south. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to send ground troops into the crowded Rafah area as...

Another security firm, Ambrey, said the Marshall Islands-flagged, Greece-owned bulk carrier "was targeted by missiles in two separate incidents" within 20 minutes and "was reportedly hit and sustained physical damage on the starboard side". The Houthis, part of the anti-Western, anti-Israel "axis of resistance" of Iran-backed groups, have been targeting...

The military said in a statement that "during a joint IDF (military), ISA (Shin Bet security agency), and Israel Police operation in Rafah, overnight, two Israeli hostages were rescued, Fernando Simon Marman (60) and Louis Har (70), who were kidnapped by the Hamas terrorist organization on October 7th from Kibbutz...

Witnesses heard an intense series of strikes and saw smoke billowing above the city, which now hosts more than half of Gaza's total population after they fled bombardment elsewhere on the Strip. The strikes hit 14 houses and three mosques in different parts of Rafah, according to the Hamas government.

"The Government of India welcomes the release of eight Indian nationals working for the Dahra Global company who were detained in Qatar," the foreign ministry said in a statement. "Seven out of the eight of them have returned to India," it added, thanking Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al...

Foreign governments, including Israel's key ally the United States, and aid groups have voiced deep concern over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's vow to extend operations. Rafah, on the border with Egypt, has remained the last refuge for Palestinians fleeing Israel's relentless bombardment elsewhere in the Gaza Strip.

In late 2020, Morocco established diplomatic ties with Israel under the Abraham Accords brokered by the United States which saw similar moves by the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. As part of the deal, Rabat received Washington's recognition of its claim to sovereignty over the disputed territory of Western Sahara.

TEANECK, US - They are only teenagers, but a pair of New Jersey high school students -- one Jewish and one Muslim -- are tackling an issue much bigger than themselves, bridging divides in their suburb shaken by the Israel-Hamas war.The effort originated soon after the October 7 attacks by Hamas...

Amir-Abdollahian met top officials in Beirut including Hizbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah and parliament speaker Nabih Berri, a powerful ally of the group. He also met Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Ziad Nakhaleh, senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan, and deputy chief of the People's Front for the Liberation of Palestine Jamil Mazhar,...

While the Israel-Lebanon violence has been largely contained to the border area, a strike earlier on Saturday hit the coastal town of Jadra. The second-farthest deadly attack from the border in four months of hostilities "was a failed attempt to assassinate a senior official in the (Hamas) movement", a Palestinian...

Israel's massive military offensive in Gaza as per the territory's health ministry has killed at least 28,064 people, mostly women and children. To critics who say an assault on Rafah is crossing a red line, Netanyahu said: "Those who say that under no circumstances should we enter Rafah are basically...

Israel's army and the Shin Bet security agency said operations in Gaza City in recent weeks had led to the discovery of a "tunnel shaft" near a school run by the humanitarian agency. Documents and weapons in the UN compound itself "confirmed that the offices had in fact also been...

Palestinian Territories - Six-year-old Hind Rajab pleaded to be rescued, after her family's car came under fire in war-ravaged Gaza City, leaving her alone, frightened and injured, surrounded by the bodies of her dead relatives."I am so scared," she had said in a desperate phone call to the Palestine Red...

Beirut, Lebanon - Israeli air strikes that targeted a building in an upscale area near the Syrian capital killed three people early on Saturday, a war monitor said.State media reported that Syrian air defenses responded to an Israeli "air attack".Since Syria's civil war broke out in 2011, Israel has launched hundreds...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week said he had ordered troops to prepare to go in to the city, crowded with displaced Palestinians, as it hunts down those responsible for the deadly October 7 attacks on southern Israel. The announcement has prompted concern from foreign governments including the United States...

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."

Hospitals are granted special protection under the laws of war, but they have been repeatedly hit in Gaza over the past four months. There are no fully functioning hospitals left in the Palestinian territory, the United Nations said Wednesday, while just over a third of them are working at limited...

Rafah is the southernmost city in the Palestinian enclave that has been hit by a fierce Israeli offensive since the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel. Many of the population of 2.2 million have taken refuge there. Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told officials to "submit to the cabinet...

Fitch -- which is the last of the big three US ratings agencies -- placed Israel on negative watch over risks from the conflict. "The weakened security environment implies higher social risk and indicates weaker executive and legislative institutions than Moody's previously assessed," the ratings agency said Friday in the...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the army to prepare to "evacuate" hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from Gaza's Rafah, his office said, after US warned it would not support any ground assault. Netanyahu's planned offensive on Rafah, where an estimated 1.3 million civilians have sought refuge, drew condemnation...

The number of checkpoints and barriers in the Palestinian territory has greatly increased since October 7, adding hours to already lengthy commutes and forcing residents to either wait at the checkpoints or take long detours. Largely unaffected are the 490,000 Israelis living across the West Bank in settlements -- considered...

Saudi Arabia, home to the holiest sites in Islam, has never recognised Israel, though officials were considering doing so before the Hamas' October 7 attack. Israeli ground offensive has killed at least 27,840 people, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza health ministry.

"We expect the negotiations to be very complex and difficult but Hamas is open to discussions and the movement is keen to reach a ceasefire," added the official, who is familiar with the negotiations. "The two parties will hold several rounds of negotiations indirectly," he said on condition of anonymity

Four students and a woman and her son were among the dead along with an unidentified civilian, the Observatory said, while a Syrian working with Lebanon's Hizbollah group and an unidentified pro-Iran fighter were also killed. A source close to Hizbollah confirmed to AFP that two of the Iran-backed fighters...

"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...

"There's a lot of work to be done, but we are very much focused on doing that work and hopefully being able to resume the release of hostages that was interrupted" after a week-long truce in November, he said. The US top envoy, on his fifth Middle East tour since...

Cairo, Egypt -- Egypt and Qatar are sponsoring a new round of negotiations to start Thursday in Cairo aimed at achieving "calm" in Gaza as well as a hostage release deal, an Egyptian official said.A Hamas source with knowledge of the matter confirmed the Palestinian group had agreed to the talks,...

As customers in the Middle East shun international restaurants, local businesses report they have benefited from the boycott.

Republicans in the House of Representatives scheduled the vote after the Democratic-led Senate released a bipartisan bill Sunday pairing billions of dollars for Israel and Ukraine with some of the strictest immigration curbs in decades. But support for that $118bn package has dwindled, with Donald Trump pressuring Republicans to avoid handing President Joe...

The move comes two weeks after Britain and the United States unveiled new coordinated asset freezes and travel bans on the fighters. Hamas itself, along with several linked groups, is already listed by Ottawa as a banned terrorist organization.

Last week, a Hamas source said the truce deal calls for a six-week pause to fighting as Hamas frees hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel and more aid for Gaza. On Monday, Netanyahu said Hamas had presented "demands that we will not accept" for an exchange involving...

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that five people have been killed including three civilians, and seven others were injured in Israeli strikes on a building in the Hamra neighbourhood of Homs city. The country's defence ministry reported that "the Israeli enemy launched air strikes targeting a number of...

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - Saudi Arabia on Tuesday explicitly conveyed to the United States its stance on diplomatic relations with Israel, making it clear that such ties will not be established without significant progress on the Palestinian issue. The Kingdom insists on the recognition of an independent Palestinian state within...

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - Saudi Arabia drew 27 million foreign tourists in 2023 and has more than doubled its goal for the end of the decade, an official said on Tuesday.The announcement came less than five years after the Gulf kingdom fully opened up to tourism and as fears persist that...

The Palestinian Ministry of Education said more than 4,851 students were killed by Israeli forces in Gaza, while 8,227 others were injured. In the West Bank, a total of 44 students were killed, 283 others injured and 89 detained.

French minister denounced anti-Palestinian rhetoric and "even calls to commit war crimes" by Israeli officials, after some Netanyahu allies have appeared to endorse Jewish re-settlement of the Gaza Strip after the war. Sejourne called for supporting the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority of president Mahmud Abbas.

Palestinian Territories - US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was due to fly to Egypt on Tuesday as part of a Middle East crisis tour seeking a new truce and "an enduring end" to the Israel-Palestine war.In Cairo, Blinken is scheduled to meet Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, the day...

The OECD raised its 2024 world economic growth forecast Monday but warned that the Middle East conflict posed a risk, with disruptions in Red Sea shipping threatening to increase consumer prices. Global growth "proved unexpectedly resilient" in 2023, reaching 3.1 percent as inflation declined faster than anticipated..

MADRID, SPAIN -  Spain said on Monday that it would give an additional US$$3.8 million (3.5 million euros) in aid to the UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA, which is facing a cash crunch after several nations suspended their funding.Over a dozen countries, including major donors the United States, Germany, Britain and...

On his fifth trip to the region since the war broke out, Blinken will visit Saudi Arabia, Israel and mediators Egypt and Qatar. Ahead of the trip he stressed the need for "urgently addressing humanitarian needs in Gaza", after aid groups have repeatedly sounded the alarm over the devastating impact...

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...