The Palestinian militants' chief negotiator spoke out after civil defence rescuers in Gaza said new Israeli air strikes killed at least 40 people, most of them in camps for displaced civilians, as Israel pressed its offensive in the Palestinian territory.

US President Donald Trump "fully supports" Israel's renewed Gaza operations, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters when asked if he was trying to get a Gaza ceasefire back on track.

Hamas has not responded militarily so far, and in a statement urged friendly countries to "pressure" the United States to bring to an end the strikes by its ally Israel.

Hamas has said it would postpone the release citing Israeli violations, and hours later, Trump warned that "hell" would break loose if the Palestinian militant failed to release "all" hostages by Saturday.

The January 19 truce halted 15 months of Gaza fighting, freeing Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, but tensions rose after Trump’s proposal to take over Gaza and displace its inhabitants.

Hamas accuses Israel of stalling the truce with new demands on troop withdrawal and prisoner release, while Netanyahu’s office counters, accusing Hamas of lying and creating obstacles in ongoing ceasefire negotiations.

Deir el-Balah, Palestinian Territories - Traditional clay pottery is seeing a resurgence in the Gaza Strip, where Palestinians are forced to find solutions for a shortage of plates and other crockery to eat from in the territory ravaged by more than a year of war. "There is an unprecedented demand for...

Palestinian Territories -- With Gaza largely in ruins after more than 10 months of war, the Hamas-run territory's health ministry has struggled to count the death toll, which on Thursday surpassed 40,000. Israel has repeatedly questioned the credibility of the daily figures put out by the ministry and US President...

Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for the civil defence agency, said 11 children and six women were among the 93 who died at the school shelter, "and there are many unidentified body parts". "They dropped a missile on them while they were just praying," said one woman, mourning over a dead child...

A prospective cessation of hostilities also involving the release of hostages held in Gaza and scaled-up aid deliveries has centred around a phased deal beginning with an initial truce. Recent discussions have focused on a framework outlined by US President Joe Biden in late May which he said had been...

The health ministry said a strike on a fuel station in Al-Mawasi in southern Gaza killed 17 people, and the Palestinian Red Crescent said a separate strike at almost simultaneously hit the UN-run Al-Razi School in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, killing five people.

Beitunia, Palestinian Territories - Every morning Palestinian boxer Waseem Abu Sal checks texts from his Cairo-based coach -- a Gazan who cannot travel to him in the occupied West Bank -- to see his daily Olympics training schedule as he prepares to make history. The 20-year-old will be the first Palestinian...

Other parts of the Gaza Strip were reeling from continued fighting nearly nine months into the devastating conflict. Witnesses and the civil defence agency reported Israeli air strikes in the southern Rafah area and in the central Nuseirat refugee camp.

Palestinian Territories - The Israeli army on Tuesday said plans for an offensive in Lebanon were "approved and validated" amid escalating cross-border clashes with Hizbollah and a relative lull in Gaza fighting. The war in Gaza has heightened tensions across the region, with Israeli forces and Lebanon's Iran-backed Hizbollah, a...

In a new diplomatic push, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit Israel and key regional partners Egypt, Jordan and Qatar from Monday on his eighth Middle East trip since the war began, the State Department said.

Palestinian Territories - Israel launched devastating air strikes on Gaza Thursday, while also expressing readiness to resume stalled talks on a truce and hostage release deal with Hamas to pause the war raging since October 7. The Gaza Strip's civil defence agency said two pre-dawn air strikes had killed 26...

The agreement signed with Khaldoon Al Mubarak, managing director of the Abu Dhabi government-controlled fund Mubadala, opens "a new era of economic cooperation" in the burgeoning sector, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said. "France has chosen to be the leading country in Europe on AI, and for that, we...

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.

Israeli government spokesman David Mencer said Israel's war cabinet was meeting Thursday "to discuss how to destroy the last battalions of Hamas". Several Israeli media outlets, citing unnamed officials, said the cabinet discussed a new plan for a truce and hostage release, ahead of a visit planned for Friday by...

The latest bombardments in Gaza came after Israel said it had strengthened air defences and paused leave for combat units, following a deadly April 1 air strike that destroyed Iran's consulate building in Damascus. Iran blamed its arch foe Israel, which has stepped up strikes against Iran-linked targets in Syria...

The strike came as talks in Cairo aimed at a ceasefire and a hostage release deal dragged on without signs of a breakthrough. Speaking to Al Jazeera, Haniyeh, who is based in Qatar, suggested the strike was an attempt to shift Hamas's negotiating stance, but insisted it would not work.

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...

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.

PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES – The Palestinian Red Crescent said on Sunday that Israeli forces were besieging two hospitals in southern Gaza, days after the army began targeting Hamas in and around the territory's biggest medical center. Israel has mounted several raids at and near hospitals in Gaza since the war began...

Israel plans to send troops into Gaza's Rafah even without US support, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Antony Blinken, as Washington failed to pass a UN resolution on an "immediate" ceasefire. Almost six months of Israeli bombardment since Hamas's October 7 attack has brought Gaza to its knees with many...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to send ground forces into Gaza's southern Rafah city. The right-wing premier, whose security and war cabinets were also due to discuss latest international efforts towards a truce deal, stressed that "no amount of international pressure will stop us from realizing all the goals...

Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels discussed "expanding confrontations and encircling" Israel in a meeting in Lebanon with Hamas and other Palestinian factions, a Houthi official told AFP. Houthi attacks on Red Sea ships since the start of the Israel-Hamas war have disrupted global trade, actions the rebels say are in solidarity...

According to sources from Hamas and Islamic Jihad, leaders from the two Palestinian groups, as well as the Marxist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, held an "important meeting" with Houthi representatives last week.

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...

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 boat laden with food for Palestinians in war-ravaged Gaza was "ready" to set sail from Cyprus, an NGO said, as fighting raged between Israeli troops and Hamas ahead of Ramadan. The sea route aims to counter aid access restrictions, which humanitarians and foreign governments have blamed on Israel.

UN rights chief warned Volker Turk said there had been a drastic acceleration in Israeli illegal settlement building in the occupied West Bank as it wages a relentless war in the Palestinian territory of Gaza. He said creating and expanding settlements amounted to the transfer by Israel of its own...

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...

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.

Israel's top ally the United States said it began air-dropping aid into war-ravaged Gaza, as the Hamas-ruled territory's health ministry reported over a dozen child malnutrition deaths. The start of the US relief operation came hours after President Joe Biden, who has pushed Israel to allow more aid in, announced...

Hamas said that seven more hostages seized during its unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7 had died because of Israeli military operations in Gaza. Meanwhile, four more children have died of "malnutrition and dehydration" in war-torn Gaza, the Hamas-ruled territory's health ministry said, the latest such reported deaths...

The latest overall toll for Palestinians killed in the war came after at least 79 people died overnight across the war-torn Gaza Strip, the health ministry said Thursday. Meanwhile, negotiators are hoping a truce can begin by the start of Ramadan, the holy Muslim month that kicks off March 10...

BIRZEIT, PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES – At a museum in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Gazan works on display are proclaimed to be an "ongoing artistic demonstration" in solidarity with the war-ravaged Palestinian territory. "This is not an exhibition", reads the sign at the entrance to the Palestinian Museum in Birzeit, near Ramallah, showcasing...

Heavy fighting rocked besieged Gaza as aid agencies warned of looming famine and new talks were held in Cairo towards an Israel-Hamas ceasefire and hostage release deal. The White House sent Middle East envoy Brett McGurk for renewed talks, a day after a UNSC resolution calling for a ceasefire was...

Mediator Qatar acknowledged that separate ceasefire talks had also hit an impasse after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected some Hamas demands as "ludicrous". Israel has concentrated its military operations in Khan Yunis, the hometown of Hamas's Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar, whom it accuses of masterminding the October 7 attack.

Two Palestinian men, including one member of an armed group, were killed in an Israeli raid, in the latest surge in violence in the occupied West Bank. The Palestinian health ministry said the two, aged 19 and 36, were pronounced dead from gunshot wounds after the raid in the Tulkarm...

Palestinian Territories - Israel faced renewed calls from key ally the United States on Friday against launching a large-scale attack on Gaza's southern city of Rafah, where nearly 1.5 million Palestinians are trapped. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted he would push ahead with a "powerful" operation in the...

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.

As Qatari and Egyptian-led mediation efforts intensified, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was due in Cairo on Thursday to discuss a truce proposal thrashed out in Paris last weekend with CIA chief William Burns. Israel's withering air, land and sea offensive has killed at least 26,900 people in Gaza, most of...

Gazans lamented the suspension of funding to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees by several donor countries after Israel charged that some UNRWA staff took part in Hamas's October 7 attack. The agency has fired several staff over Israel's accusations and has promised a thorough investigation into these claims, which...

Heavy fighting raged in Gaza amid a row over the UN agency for Palestinian refugees that has called its future into question. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on donor states to guarantee aid to Gaza after several halted funding to UNRWA, over Israeli claims that some of its staff participated...

Kampala, Saudi Arabia - Saudi Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Eng. Waleed Al-Khereiji stressed on Sunday the imperative to halt military operations in the Palestinian territories in a way that ensures the protection of civilians in line with international laws and humanitarian principles. Speaking on behalf of Custodian of the...

Netanyahu has said Israel expects the war to continue for months, but his comments on Thursday rejecting a so-called two-state solution suggested a rift with key backer the United States. Biden said after Friday's call with Netanyahu, with whom he has had a complicated relationship over some 40 years, it...

Palestinians held funerals and assessed the damage of a days-long Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank, where violence has surged since war erupted in Gaza. Israeli forces withdrew on Friday after raiding the Tulkarem area for almost two days, during which the military said troops killed "at least eight...

RAMALLAH, PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES / JERUSALEM – Israeli forces carried out Sunday a series of raids in several towns in the West Bank early on Sunday. The forces raided the homes of Palestinian citizens in several towns in Ramallah Governorate and Al-Bireh and carried out extensive arrests, the Palestinian News Agency...