In addition to access to humanitarian aid, the UN's report on children and armed conflict also lists the number of children killed and wounded, as well as attacks on hospitals and schools. The report draws up a "list of shame" of government forces and other armed groups responsible for the...

The Supreme leader said in a speech to officials in Tehran that the defeat of "the Zionist regime in Gaza will continue and this regime will be close to decline and dissolution." He said "desperate efforts" like the one committed in Syria will not save them and they will be...

Israel's armed forces chief Herzi Halevi called the attack a "grave mistake", which he blamed on night-time "misidentification", adding in a video message that "we are sorry for the unintentional harm to the members of WCK". Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged the "tragic case" would be investigated "right to...

Vatican City, Holy See - Pope Francis expressed his "deep sorrow" on Wednesday for the deaths of seven charity workers killed by an Israeli strike while they were delivering aid in Gaza. "I express my deep sorrow for the volunteers killed while they were distributing humanitarian aid in Gaza," the 87-year-old...

The UN Human Rights Council on Friday is set to consider a draft resolution calling for a cessation of arms sales to Israel, nearly six months into the war in Gaza. If the text is adopted, it would mark the first time that UN’s top rights body has taken a...

Jerusalem, Undefined - Israel's military said Wednesday it had obtained information that indicated a Hizbollah explosive charge caused the blast that wounded UN peacekeepers in Lebanon last week. The UN peacekeeping force said three military observers and a translator were wounded in Saturday's blast in south Lebanon, where Israel and Hizbollah...

"If it is true that the convoy was deliberately attacked because it was supposed to contain a terrorist, and that civilian lives were therefore sacrificed, I do not know of any (political) system in which this would be justified," he told Polish public radio Trojka.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the military had "unintentionally" killed the aid workers, calling it a "tragic case" that would be investigated. The aid workers' deaths come as relentless Israeli strikes continue to pound the territory, flattening critical infrastructure, all but collapsing the health system and pushing the population...

Jerusalem--Four Israeli police were injured in a car-ramming attack at a checkpoint in the centre of the country, police said Wednesday, adding that the assailant was killed after trying to stab other security forces. The 26-year-old attacker crashed into four police officers at a checkpoint in the town of Kochav...

The British-born official, who spent a week in the besieged Palestinian territory last month, said even when aid got through the border, there were still major problems getting it to those who need it most, particularly women and girls.

World Central Kitchen -- one of two NGOs spearheading efforts to deliver aid by boat -- said a "targeted Israeli strike" on Monday killed Australian, British, Palestinian, Polish and US-Canadian staff. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged a "swift, impartial investigation" into the airstrike and said Israel needed to...

"We have to think seriously about doing it this semester," Sanchez told a group of Spanish journalists accompanying him on a tour of three Middle East countries Sanchez had said on March 9 he would propose that parliament vote in favor of this recognition by the end of the current...

Netanyahu was quick to single out Qatar-based channel Al Jazeera, with which his government has a long-running feud that predates Israel's war with Hamas in Gaza. The broadcaster slammed the ban as "part of a series of systematic Israeli attacks to silence Al Jazeera", including the killing of one of...

In a statement, Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani "strongly condemned" the attack and said that Iran "reserves the right to carry out a reaction and will decide on the type of response and the punishment of the aggressor." Iran's ambassador in Damascus, Hossein Akbari, said, "the five-storey consulate building...

According to the health ministry in Gaza, the bodies of four foreign aid workers and their Palestinian driver were brought to a hospital in the town of Deir el-Balah after an Israeli strike targeted their vehicle. Hamas said the aid workers included "British, Australian and Polish nationalities, with the fourth...

Beirut, Lebanon--Lebanon's Iran-backed Hizbollah group warned Tuesday that Israel will pay for killing high-level Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) in a strike on the country's consulate in Damascus, Syria, the day before. Hizbollah has exchanged near-daily cross-border fire with Israel in support of its ally Hamas since the Gaza war erupted in...

The White House said in a statement that the two sides had a "constructive engagement on Rafah" during two hours of videoconference talks, attended by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sulliva. The US side expressed its concerns with various courses of action in Rafah.

Palestinian Territories - Israeli forces on Monday pulled out of Gaza's largest hospital complex after an intensive two-week military operation, leaving behind charred buildings and bodies strewn at the sprawling complex. Israel said it had battled Palestinian fighters hiding inside Gaza City's Al-Shifa Hospital, killed at least 200 enemy fighters...

Jerusalem, Undefined - Israeli police said Monday they had arrested the sister of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh "as part of a terror probe in southern Israel". Police told AFP that Sabah Abdel Salam Haniyeh, who is an Israeli citizen, was taken into custody in the town of Tel Sheva as part...

Palestinian Territories - The health ministry in Gaza said Monday that at least 32,845 people have been killed in the territory in the Israeli aerial and ground assault since Oct 7. The toll includes at least 63 deaths over the past 24 hours, a ministry statement said, adding that 75,392...

The Hamas government media office said the Israeli air strikes had provided cover for the withdrawing vehicles. The army launched its operation on March 18 and has described it as a "precise" one targeting Hamas fighters it accused of operating from the complex. Hamas has denied operating from Al-Shifa and...

The prime minister's office said in a statement that Benjamin Netanyahu was in "good shape and beginning to recover after the operation on Sunday evening." His doctors discovered the hernia on Saturday during a routine checkup, and after consultations the decision was made for the premier to undergo surgery.

RAFAH, PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES – Meters away from the concrete and steel fence separating the Gaza Strip from Egypt, 11-year-old Malak Ayad flies a paper kite high in the sky -- a welcome distraction from the horrors of war. "Every day I play with my brothers and cousins with kites next to the Egyptian...

The official said the gap between the two sides' negotiating positions was too wide. "I doubt that there will be any progress in these negotiations because the positions are too far apart," said the official.

LONDON, UK – Thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters rallied in London on Saturday, in the latest demonstration in the British capital demanding a ceasefire in Gaza and more aid for the war-ravaged territory. The event, organized by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, began at Russell Square in the city center before attendees marched...

UN agencies have warned repeatedly that northern Gaza is on the verge of famine and called it a man-made crisis because aid lorries are backed up on the Egypt-Gaza border awaiting long checks by Israeli officials. Israel has denied responsibility.

"Around 9,000 patients urgently need to be evacuated abroad for lifesaving health services, including treatment for cancer, injuries from bombardments, kidney dialysis and other chronic conditions," WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X. It is is up from 8,000 in the WHO's previous assessment at the beginning of...

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"...

Washington, US--The US Treasury Department pushed back on Friday against claims it had eased sanctions against West Bank settlers after pressure from Israel's finance minister. The US recently sanctioned seven Israeli settlers and two farming outposts in the West Bank in response to a surge in violence, freezing their assets...

The go-ahead for a new round of talks on a Gaza ceasefire came a day after the world's top court ordered Israel to ensure aid reaches desperate civilians. But despite a binding UN Security Council resolution earlier this week demanding an "immediate ceasefire", fighting raged on unabated in Gaza.

Istanbul, Turkey - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will meet with US counterpart Joe Biden at the White House on May 9, a Turkish official told AFP on Friday. It would be the first White House meeting between the two leaders. The Biden administration in January approved $23 billion in F-16...

The International Court of Justice said in its order that Israel should "take all necessary and effective measures to ensure, without delay... the unhindered provision... of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance" in Gaza. This included food, water, electricity, fuel, shelter, clothing, hygiene and sanitation requirements.

"The tragic events of the past 36 hours have resulted in a significant loss of life and injuries in south Lebanon. Up to 11 civilians were killed in a single day, including 10 paramedics," said Imran Riza, the UN's humanitarian coordinator for Lebanon.

Israeli rescue teams searching a damaged building in the border town of Kiryat Shmona "found a 25-year-old who was unconscious, with no pulse and not breathing", and pronounced him dead at the scene, the Magen David Adom emergency service said.

Israel's prime minister cancelled the visit after the US abstained on the UNSC vote, allowing it to pass. But Israel backtracked, after the White House said it was "perplexed" by the move. The U-turn came after Israeli defense minister had "constructive discussions" with senior US officials in Washington.

Residents told AFP that Israeli forces entered Jenin and its adjacent refugee camp just after midnight (2200 GMT on Tuesday) and raided several houses. The area in the northern West Bank is a stronghold of Palestinian armed groups and the frequent target of Israeli military incursions.

Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the rights situation in the Palestinian territories, said this week there were reasonable grounds to believe Israel was "committing the crime of genocide against the Palestinians as a group in Gaza". She said she had received "nothing that so far I have considered...

Palestinian Territories - The children of Gaza have little to eat, have had to flee their homes and have survived nearly six months of terrifying Israeli bombardment. But for a few precious minutes children in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the center of the Gaza Strip laughed and yelped with...

Gaza has endured almost six months of war and a siege that has cut off most food, water, fuel and other supplies, and the UN has warned that its 2.4 million people are on the brink of a "man-made famine". The flow of aid trucks from Egypt has slowed amid...

Jerusalem--One of the Israeli hostages kidnapped during the October 7 Hamas attack has been killed and his body is being held in Gaza, two groups representing hostage families said Tuesday. Uriel Baruch, 35, a father of two, was taken from the Supernova music festival, where 364 people were killed during...

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor, an Iranian Revolutionary Guards adviser, his two Iranian security escorts, and four Syrian and nine Iraqi fighters with pro-Iran groups were killed in strikes on a villa in Deir Ezzor city and on the town of Albu Kamal on the Iraqi...

Doha, Qatar - Mediator Qatar said on Tuesday that talks between Hamas and Israel on a Gaza truce and hostage release are continuing, despite the warring parties trading blame over the lack of headway. Foreign ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari said the talks were "ongoing", adding there had not been "any development...

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant that civilian casualties in Gaza are "too high". A separate Israeli delegation was supposed to visit Washington to discuss US concerns over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plans to launch an assault Rafah, where much of Gaza's population has sought...

Gaza's health ministry said Israeli troops were shooting and firing "shells and (conducting) violent raids in its surroundings in preparation for its storming".

Haniyeh's visit comes after a resolution adopted by the UN Security Council on Monday called for an "immediate ceasefire" for the ongoing Muslim holy month of Ramadan, leading to a "lasting" truce. Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani described Monday's resolution as a "positive but insufficient step".

The resolution demanding an "immediate ceasefire" was adopted Monday after Israel's closest ally the United States abstained. Washington insisted that its abstention, which followed numerous vetoes, did not mark a shift in policy, although it has taken an increasingly tougher line with Israel in recent weeks.

According to a security source, who did not want to be identified, the target was Mohammad Assaf of Jamaa Islamiya, a Lebanese anti-Israel resistance group closely linked to Palestinian group Hamas. Assaf was travelling on the road that was struck at the time of the attack, said the source.

Former US president Donald Trump warned Israel in an interview that it was losing support over the war in Gaza. The comments from Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee to take on President Joe Biden in November's US election, came as Washington abstained at a UNSC vote calling for an immediate...

"The overwhelming nature and scale of Israel's assault on Gaza and the destructive conditions of life it has inflicted reveal an intent to physically destroy Palestinians as a group," Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the rights situation in the Palestinian territories, concluded in a report.

All 14 other members voted in favor of the resolution which "demands an immediate ceasefire" for Ramadan. The resolution calls for the truce to lead to a "lasting, sustainable ceasefire" and demands that Hamas and other groups free hostages.