Varadkar has been one of Europe's most critical leaders over Israel's campaign in Gaza, which began when Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on the southern part of the country.

Israel has repeatedly threatened a ground offensive against Hamas in Rafah, where people shelter in tents crammed up against the Egyptian border. UN World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged against a military operation there, "in the name of humanity".

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...

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved the military's "plans for action in Rafah", according to a statement Friday, which gave no details or a timeline. The United Nations and the United States have also repeatedly warned against such a military operation in the Gaza Strip.

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...

Palestinian Territories - Displaced by Israeli bombardment, the Tabatibi family gathered in central Gaza to eat together during the first Friday night of Ramadan, a scene that soon turned into a bloodbath.An air strike hit the building where they were staying as women prepared the pre-fasting meal, killing 36 members...

Netanyahu "approved the plans for action in Rafah," his office said in a statement, without giving details or a timeline. Rafah is the last major population center yet to be subjected to a ground assault during Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza, which was triggered by the fighters' unprecedented attack...

The incident comes amid mounting concern about worsening humanitarian conditions in Gaza, where Israel has carried out relentless military operations since October. Gaza's dire food shortages after more than five months of war have resulted in 27 deaths from malnutrition and dehydration, most of them children.

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.

As the Muslim world welcomed Ramadan with the customary daytime fast, many Gazans awoke to bombardment that saw residents once more search through the rubble of destroyed homes for survivors and bodies.

With Gaza's humanitarian crisis growing more dire and Biden's left flank in uproar, the US president made contradictory remarks as to the question of a "red line" over Israel's threatened offensive on Rafah in southern Gaza. Netanyahu "has a right to defend Israel, a right to continue to pursue Hamas,"...

Palestinian Territories - Gaza's Hamas-run government media office said on Thursday that Israel had returned dozens of bodies that had been exhumed from graves in the besieged territory in recent weeks.Israeli forces have on several occasions taken bodies from Gaza to Israel for examinations as they look for hostages seized during...

A paramedic was among those killed and children were wounded in the blast close to the Emirati Maternity Hospital, ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said in a statement. Israeli troops have carried out multiple operations in and around hospitals in the Gaza Strip since they launched their offensive in the Palestinian...

Paris, France--France wants an independent inquiry into the deaths of scores of Palestinians during an aid delivery in the northern Gaza strip, Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne said Friday."We will ask for explanations, and there will have to be an independent probe to determine what happened,"  Sejourne told the France Inter broadcaster...

The negotiations come after a plan for a post-war Gaza unveiled by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu drew criticism from key ally the United States, and was rejected by Hamas and the Palestinian Authority in the occupied West Bank. They also come alongside deepening fears for Gaza's civilians.

"I fear we are on the edge of a monumental disaster with grave implications for regional peace, security and human rights," said Philippe Lazzarini, head of the main aid agency in Gaza, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA). In a letter to the United Nations General Assembly, he said...

Major powers trying to find a way to end the destructive Israel-Hamas war have so far failed, but a US envoy was in Israel Thursday in the latest attempt to secure a truce deal. International concern has spiraled over Gaza's escalating civilian death toll and the desperate humanitarian crisis sparked...

Jerusalem - Despite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's insistence the Gaza war will end with Israel achieving "absolute victory", a majority of Israelis do not think this is a likely outcome, a poll published Wednesday found.Netanyahu has repeatedly stated that Israel will continue its offensive in the Gaza Strip until Hamas...

The European Union has struggled for a united response on Israel's military operation following the October 7 attack by Hamas. But Borrell said foreign ministers from 26 states had agreed a statement calling for "an immediate humanitarian pause that would lead to a sustainable ceasefire".

Fearing the potential for mass casualties, foreign governments and aid organizations have repeatedly urged Israel to spare Rafah, the last major Gazan city not invaded by ground troops during the four-month-old war. Despite the mounting international pressure, including a direct appeal from US President Joe Biden, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin...

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.

Truce efforts intensified this week as Qatar and fellow mediators Egypt and the US scrambled to secure a ceasefire before Israeli troops enter Rafah, the last major population center in Gaza untouched by Israeli ground troops. Despite a direct appeal from US President Joe Biden earlier this week, Netanyahu insisted...

Speaking at a televised news conference, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that critics exhorting Israel not to lauch offensive in Rafah were telling the Jewish country to "lose the war" against Hamas. He suggested that troops would go in regardless of whether a hostage release is reached.

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 overcrowded...

In a telephone call that saw Macron toughen his tone, the French leader expressed France's "firm opposition" to an Israeli offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, saying it "could only lead to a humanitarian disaster of a new magnitude" and create a new risk of regional escalation, according...

CIA Director William Burns had joined Tuesday's talks with David Barnea, head of Israel's Mossad intelligence service, which Egyptian media said had been mostly "positive". US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby described the negotiations as "constructive and moving in the right direction".

The UN and many governments across the world have expressed alarm about the possible civilian toll of an Israeli assault against the southern city of Rafah. The negotiations, which also involved Qatar's prime minister and Egyptian officials, were part of an intensifying effort to secure a ceasefire.

Reporter Ismail Abu Omar's life is at risk and cameraman Ahmad Matar was severely wounded when the pair were hit in Gaza's southern city of Rafah. The network said the strike was a "fully fledged crime which adds to Israel's crime against journalists" and was aimed at preventing reporters covering...

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.

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.

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...

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.

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...

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...

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken left Israel without securing a pause in fighting, wrapping up his fifth crisis tour of the Middle East since the war started. In fact, Israeli PM said he has ordered troops to 'prepare to operate' in Rafah.

In Beirut, a senior Hamas official responded, saying Netanyahu's "insistence on continuing the aggression totally confirms that the goal... is genocide against the Palestinian people". The official, Osama Hamdan, urged "all resistance factions... to continue the fight" and to be cautious of Israeli "treachery during the final quarter-hour of this...

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...

French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne was in Egypt and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken expected in the region in the coming days to push for a ceasefire and hostage release. The health ministry in the territory, most of which has been left uninhabitable by Israeli bombardments, said at least...

Hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians have fled south to Rafah since the outbreak of the war, with the former city of 200,000 now housing more than half of Gaza's two million-plus population, a WHO representative said Friday. The United Nations' humanitarian agency OCHA said it was deeply concerned about...

The deadly incident came after the Israeli army said it had encircled the city, where footage released by the military showed soldiers engaged in urban combat amid ruined buildings. Hamas's press office also reported fierce clashes in the center and west of Khan Yunis, while its health ministry counted multiple...

"Heavy fighting is reported in proximity to hospitals in Khan Yunis, including Al-Aqsa, Nasser and Al-Amal, with reports of Palestinians trying to flee to the southern town of Rafah," the UN humanitarian agency OCHA said. "No-one can enter or exit (Nasser Hospital) due to ongoing bombardments," OCHA said citing medics...

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,...

Scenes of Dahdouh mourning his family and fleeing on foot from Gaza City have been broadcast globally over the weeks since war erupted between Hamas fighters and Israel on October 7. Speaking to an AFP journalist in southern Gaza, the 53-year-old said he had crossed the Rafah border post with...

Rafah, Palestinian Territories - Surrounded by family and friends, clapping and cheering, Gaza woman Afnan Jibril beams a brilliant smile on her wedding day, determined to celebrate even as war rages."We are a people that love life, despite death, murders and destruction," said her father, Mohamed Jibril.Relatives were gathered on Friday...

Rafah, Palestinian Territories--Hunger is everywhere at Rafah zoo, in Gaza's far south, as internally displaced Palestinians seek shelter from the war between cages and animals die of starvation."The situation is very tragic, there's no food, water, medicine, or anything," its owner Ahmed Jumaa said, a parrot perched on his shoulder.The World...

The Hamas-run health ministry here said that at least 21,672 people have been killed in the territory since the war with Israel erupted on October 7. A ministry statement said 165 Gazans were killed over the past 24 hours, while 56,165 others have been wounded in the fighting.

In recent weeks, the army has faced international criticism after viral footage of detainees stripped down to their underwear and blindfolded with their hands tied behind the backs.

The United Nation says children make up half of the 1.9 million displaced Palestinians and a sizable number have been killed in Israeli strikes.

Filippo Grandi, head of the UN refugee agency, warned Wednesday that pushing Gazans across the frontier would be "extremely destabilizing for Egypt". "It's very important to insist that this evacuation of people beyond (the border) must not be promoted, must not be advanced, forced," the UNHCR chief told journalists in...