Middle East

Israel-Hamas War
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- Israel-Hamas War

Israeli soldiers move on the top of a tank near the Israeli-Gaza border, as seen from southern Israel, Thursday, March 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Blinken says an Israeli assault on Gaza’s Rafah would be a mistake and isn’t needed to defeat Hamas

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says that a major Israeli ground assault on the southern Gaza town of Rafah would be “a mistake” and unnecessary to defeating Hamas.

FILE- U.S. United Nations Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, center, addresses a meeting of the United Nations Security Council on the war in Gaza, on March 11, 2024, at U.N. headquarters. The United Nations Security Council is set to vote on a United States-sponsored resolution declaring that "an immediate and sustained cease-fire" in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza is "imperative" to protect civilians and enable humanitarian aid to be delivered to more than 2 million hungry Palestinians. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, File)

The UN will vote on a US resolution declaring that an immediate cease-fire in Gaza is imperative

From left, Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban, French President Emmanuel Macron and Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk during a round table meeting at an EU Summit in Brussels, Thursday, March 21, 2024. European Union leaders are gathering to consider new ways to help boost arms and ammunition production for Ukraine. Leaders will also discuss in Thursday's summit the war in Gaza amid deep concern about Israeli plans to launch a ground offensive in the city of Rafah. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

EU leaders mull ways to get more arms to outgunned Ukraine amid a new sense of urgency

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., and the House Republican leadership meet with reporters as lawmakers work to pass the final set of spending bills to avoid a partial government shutdown, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, March 20, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Speaker Johnson says he plans to invite Netanyahu to address the US Congress

A water truck worker fills a container outside the homes of residents who use it for drinking, cooking and cleaning, in the Pamplona Alta area in Lima, Peru, Friday, March 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)

Drought, heat and mismanagement make getting fresh water an increasingly tough task

Rawiya Halhouli holds a photo of her slain son Rami Halhouli, in their house in Shuafat refugee camp in east Jerusalem, Sunday, March 17, 2024. Halhouli, 12, was fatally by an Israeli police officer while launching a firework on March 12. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

A Palestinian boy is shot dead after he lit a firework. Israel’s use of deadly force is scrutinized

A 12-year-old boy in east Jerusalem lights the fuse of a long firework and hoists it in the air. Then, just before it explodes and illuminates the night sky with a burst of red, he is shot in the chest by Israeli police and falls to the ground.

This is a locator map for Sudan with its capital, Khartoum. (AP Photo)

US announces over $47 million in humanitarian aid for war-torn Sudan

The U.S. has announced more than $47 million in humanitarian aid for war-torn Sudan and two neighboring countries, to where at least a million people have fled the nearly 1-year-old conflict.

FILE - Algeria's President Abdelmajid Tebboune gives a press conference, in Algiers, Algeria, Sunday, 24, 2019. Algeria's presidential campaign is officially starting a week ago with five candidates vying to replace the longtime leader pushed out in April in an ongoing protest movement. Algeria has scheduled this year’s presidential elections for September 7, providing more than five months for first-term President Abdelmajid Tebboune to campaign for a second term to lead the oil-rich north African nation, his office said in a statement on Thursday, March 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Fateh Guidoum, File)

Algeria sets election for September. The military-backed president is expected to seek a 2nd term

Algeria will hold its next presidential election on Sept. 7, giving first-term President Abdelmajid Tebboune more than five months to campaign should he choose to seek a second term leading the oil-rich north African nation.

Senior Hezbollah security official makes rare visit to UAE to discuss detained Lebanese

A senior official with Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group has made a rare visit to the United Arab Emirates to discuss the case of a dozen Lebanese citizens detained in the oil-rich nation over alleged links to the Lebanese group.

Israeli soldiers move on the top of a tank near the Israeli-Gaza border, as seen from southern Israel, Thursday, March 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

US calls for vote Friday on UN resolution declaring that immediate Gaza cease-fire is `imperative’

The United States is calling for a vote Friday on a newly revised and tougher U.N. resolution declaring that “an immediate and sustained cease-fire” in the Israel-Hamas war is “imperative” to protect civilians and enable humanitarian aid to be delivered to more than 2 million hungry Palestinians.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Wednesday, March 20, 2024. (Evelyn Hockstein/Pool Photo via AP)

Blinken adds Israel stop to latest Mideast tour as tensions rise over Gaza war

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Israel this week as part of his sixth urgent mission to the Middle East since Israel’s war with Hamas began in October.

FILE - Defendant Jennifer W. arrives in a courtroom for her trial in Munich, Germany, Oct. 25, 2021. A German federal court said Wednesday it has rejected the woman's appeal against her 14-year sentence for allowing a 5-year-old Yazidi girl she and her husband kept as a slave when they were members of the Islamic State group in Iraq to die of thirst in the sun. (Sven Hoppe/dpa via AP, File)

German woman loses appeal of 14-year sentence for letting enslaved Yazidi girl die in Iraq

A German federal court has rejected a woman’s appeal of her 14-year sentence for allowing a Yazidi girl she and her husband enslaved when they were members of the Islamic State group in Iraq to die of thirst.

FILE - People walk past the Nasdaq MarketSite, July 13, 2022, in New York. A Dubai sovereign wealth fund that's the single-largest shareholder in the Nasdaq stock index plans to sell a third of its shares in the exchange, a deal potentially worth some $1.6 billion that saw the value of the firm fall in aftermarket trading Wednesday, March 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson, File)

Borse Dubai plans to sell part of stake in the Nasdaq in a deal potentially worth some $1.6 billion

A Dubai sovereign wealth fund that’s the single-largest shareholder in the Nasdaq stock index plans to sell a third of its shares in the exchange.

This is a locator map for Yemen with its capital, Sanaa. (AP Photo)

Houthis in Yemen blow up a resident’s house, killing at least 9 from the same family, residents say

Officials and residents of a town southeast of Yemen’s capital say nine members of one family were killed when Iranian-backed Houthi rebels blew up a house.

FILE - Iraqi Defense Minister Najah al-Shammari speaks to journalists after his meeting with U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper, in Baghdad, Iraq, on Oct. 23, 2019. Iraq’s former defense minister, who holds dual Iraqi-Swedish citizenship, has been arrested in Sweden, suspected of illegally receiving benefits in the Scandinavian country. Prosecutor Jens Nilsson told Swedish broadcasters on Tuesday that Najah al-Shammari was arrested Monday at the Stockholm airport upon arrival to Sweden and that he was wanted by Swedish authorities. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban, File)

Iraq’s former defense minister wanted in Sweden for fraud is arrested at the Stockholm airport

Authorities say that Iraq’s former defense minister, who holds dual Iraqi-Swedish citizenship, has been arrested in Sweden.

FILE - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas meets with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Amman, Jordan, Tuesday Oct. 17, 2023. The Palestinian Authority's prime minister announced his government's resignation on Monday, seen as the first step in a reform process demanded by the United States as part of its latest ambitious plans to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool, File)

Incoming Palestinian prime minister lays out plans for reform but faces major obstacles

The incoming Palestinian prime minister says he will appoint a technocratic government and establish an independent trust fund to oversee Gaza’s reconstruction.

In this photo provided by Egypt's presidency media office, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, right, meets European Commission president Ursula Von der Leyen, at the Presidential Palace in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, March 17, 2024. (Egyptian Presidency Media Office via AP)

The European Union announces an $8 billion aid package for Egypt as concerns mount over migration

The European Union has announced a 7.4 billion-euro or $8 billion aid package for cash-strapped Egypt as concerns mount that economic pressure and conflicts in neighboring countries could drive more migrants to European shores.

FILE - A woman and her children walk past a wall with photographs of hostages who were kidnapped during the Oct. 7 Hamas cross-border attack in Israel in Jerusalem, Monday, Feb. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa, File)

How should Israel bring to justice the perpetrators behind the worst attack in its history?

Israel is holding hundreds of Palestinians from Gaza who allegedly took part in the Oct. 7 attack that sparked its war with Hamas.

This is a locator map for Yemen with its capital, Sanaa. (AP Photo)

A suspected attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels has targeted a ship in the Gulf of Aden

A suspected attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels saw an explosion detonated near a ship in the Gulf of Aden, potentially marking their latest assault on shipping through the crucial waterway leading to the Red Sea.

This is a locator map for Syria with its capital, Damascus. (AP Photo)

Israel strikes several sites in Syria, wounding a soldier, Syrian military says

Syrian state media say Israeli airstrikes have hit several sites in southern Syria wounding a soldier.

This photograph shared by Indian navy on the X platform shows people on board the hijacked ship ex-MV Ruen, Saturday, March 16, 2024. Indian navy says that it has intercepted the ship and has demanded that the pirates surrender and release all civilians held hostage on the ship. (Indian Navy on X via AP)

India’s navy takes control of bulk carrier hijacked by Somali pirates and evacuates crew

The Indian navy says it has taken control of a bulk carrier that was hijacked by Somali pirates and evacuated the 17 crew members on the vessel.

An airplane from U.S. Air force airdrops humanitarian aid over Gaza Strip, Thursday, March 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

AP reporters aboard a US military plane watch small batches of aid airdropped on a destroyed Gaza

Two Associated Press journalists aboard an American aid flight to Gaza observed the wreckage to the strip’s north as the plane delivered much-needed food aid to Palestinians below.

The rescue personnel of the SOS Mediteranee's humanitarian ship Ocean Viking attend migrants rescued from a deflating rubber dinghy in the Central Mediterranean Sea, Wednesday, March 13, 2024. Survivors reported that some 50 people who departed Libya with them a week ago had perished during the journey. (Johanna de Tessieres/ SOS Mediteranee via AP, HO)

European charity ship rescues 135 migrants but is assigned to distant port in Italy with 359 aboard

The European charity ship Ocean Viking says it has rescued another 135 migrants, including a pregnant woman and eight children, from a double-decker boat in Maltese search-and-rescue waters.

Palestinian women wait to cross the Israeli military Qalandia checkpoint near the West Bank city of Ramallah to Jerusalem, to participate in Friday prayers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan on Friday, March 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

Ramadan prayers in Jerusalem pass without the violence feared amid the Gaza war

The first Friday prayers of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan passed without violence at the revered Al-Aqsa mosque under tight Israeli restrictions.

Destroyed buildings are seen through the window of an airplane from the U.S. Air Force overflying the Gaza Strip, Thursday, March 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Proposed US resolution would back global efforts for an immediate and sustained cease-fire in Gaza

The U.S. circulated the final draft of a UN Security Council resolution late Thursday. No time has been set for a vote, and the draft, obtained by the AP, could still be changed.

This is a locator map for Yemen with its capital, Sanaa. (AP Photo)

Attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels targets a ship in the Red Sea, though its crew is reportedly safe

The Houthis did not immediately claim the attack, though it typically takes the rebels hours to acknowledge their assaults.

FILE - Demonstrators shut down the San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge in conjunction with the APEC Summit taking place Thursday, Nov. 16, 2023, in San Francisco. Seventy-eight protesters were ordered Thursday, March 14, 2024, do five hours of community service and pay restitution to avoid criminal proceedings for allegedly blocking traffic on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge for hours in November to demand a cease-fire in Gaza, prosecutors said. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, File)

San Francisco protesters who blocked bridge to demand cease-fire will avoid criminal proceedings

Seventy-eight protesters have been ordered to do five hours of community service and pay restitution to avoid criminal proceedings for allegedly blocking traffic on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge for hours in November to demand a cease-fire in Gaza.

FILE - This black-and-white image released by the U.S. military's Central Command shows the fire aboard the bulk carrier True Confidence after a missile attack by Yemen's Houthi rebels in the Gulf of Aden on Wednesday, March 6, 2024. The longer the war in Gaza goes on and Yemen’s Houthi rebels keep attacking ships in the Red Sea the greater the risk that Yemen could be propelled back into war, the U.N. special envoy for the poorest Arab nation warned Thursday, March 14, 2024. (U.S. Central Command via AP, File)

UN envoy warns Gaza war and Red Sea attacks by Houthi rebels risk propelling Yemen back into war

The longer the war in Gaza goes on and Yemen’s Houthi rebels keep attacking ships in the Red Sea the greater the risk that Yemen could be propelled back into war, the U.N. special envoy for the Arab world’s poorest country is warning.

FILE - President Joe Biden speaks at en event March 13, 2024, in Milwaukee. A major deadline under the half-century-old War Powers Resolution came this week for Biden to obtain Congress' approval to keep waging his military campaign against Yemen's Houthis. But it was met with public silence, even from Senate Democrats frustrated by the Biden administration's blowing past some of the checkpoints that would give Congress more of a say in the United States' deepening military engagement in the Middle East conflicts. (AP Photo/Morry Gash, File)

Middle East conflicts revive clash between the president and Congress over war powers

A major deadline under the half-century-old War Powers Resolution came this week for President Joe Biden to obtain Congress’ approval to keep waging his military campaign against Yemen’s Houthis.

FILE - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas meets with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Amman, Jordan, Tuesday Oct. 17, 2023. The Palestinian Authority's prime minister announced his government's resignation on Monday, seen as the first step in a reform process demanded by the United States as part of its latest ambitious plans to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool, File)

Palestinian leader appoints longtime adviser as prime minister in the face of calls for reform

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has appointed his longtime economic adviser to be the next prime minister.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Fouad Hussein, right, shakes hands with visiting Turkish Foreign Affairs Minister Hakan Fidan in Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, March 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

Turkey’s top diplomat visits Iraq and seeks support against Kurdish militant group

Turkey’s foreign minister is visiting Baghdad for high-level meetings, ahead of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit next month and a potential Turkish offensive against an outlawed Kurdish militant group that Ankara says maintains bases in Iraq.

Houthi supporters attend a rally against the U.S. airstrikes on Yemen and the Israeli offensive against the Palestinians in Gaza SAtrip, in Sanaa, Yemen, Friday, March 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman)

Yemen’s Houthis reported to have a hypersonic missile, possibly raising stakes in Red Sea crisis

Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal. That’s according to a Russian state media report Thursday.

Nissan Kalderon poses with a photo of his only brother, Ofer, a hostage held in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant group, in Ramat Gan, Israel, Wednesday, March 13, 2024. With each passing day, the relatives of hostages in Gaza face a deepening despair. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Families of hostages held in Gaza despair as Ramadan cease-fire deadline passes

With each passing day, the relatives of hostages held in Gaza since Oct. 7 face a deepening despair.

A Lebanese army officer stands next to a destroyed car in the southern outskirts of Tyre, Lebanon, Wednesday, March 13, 2024. An Israeli drone strike Wednesday targeting a car in southern Lebanon near the coastal city of Tyre killed a member of Hamas and at least one other person. (AP Photo/Mohammad Zaatari)

An Israeli drone strikes a car in southern Lebanon and kills a member of Hamas’ military wing

An Israeli drone strike targeting a car in southern Lebanon near the coastal city of Tyre has killed a member of the Palestinian militant Hamas group and another person.

Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, center, speaks during a conference announcing a French reconstruction plan for the Beirut Port, in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, March 13, 2024. Three and a half years after hundreds of tons of improperly stored ammonium nitrate ignited at the Beirut port, setting off one of the world's biggest non-nuclear explosions, Lebanese and French officials put forward a plan for reconstruction and reorganization of the port Wednesday. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Lebanese, French officials float a plan to rebuild Beirut port nearly 4 years after huge explosion

Three and a half years after hundreds of tons of improperly stored ammonium nitrate ignited at the Beirut port, setting off one of the world’s biggest non-nuclear explosions, Lebanese and French officials have put forward a plan for reconstruction and reorganization of the port.

The Saint Mark the Apostle and Saint Samuel the Confessor Monastery in Cullinan, a town east of Pretoria, South Africa, Wednesday, March 13, 2024. Three Egyptian monks belonging to the Coptic Orthodox Church were fatally stabbed in an attack at a monastery in South Africa and a suspect has been arrested, police said Wednesday. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

3 Egyptian Coptic church monks are killed in an attack at a monastery in South Africa

Police say three Egyptian monks belonging to the Coptic Orthodox Church were fatally stabbed in an attack at a monastery in South Africa, and a suspect has been arrested.

FILE- Rabbi Abraham Cooper, center, of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, speaks in front of civic and faith leaders outside City Hall, Thursday, May 20, 2021, in Los Angeles. A U.S. Congress-mandated group cut short a fact-finding mission to Saudi Arabia over officials in the kingdom ordering a Jewish rabbi to remove his kippah in public, highlighting the religious tensions still present in the wider Middle East. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)

US-mandated religious freedom group ends Saudi trip early after rabbi ordered to remove his kippah

A U.S. Congress-mandated group cut short a fact-finding mission to Saudi Arabia after officials in the kingdom ordered a Jewish rabbi to remove his kippah in public.

FILE - U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, center left, accompanied by Mongolian Prime Minister Sukhbaatar Batbold, center right, tries out archery during a tour in Ulan Bator, Mongolia, Aug. 22, 2011. The release of a transcript of Biden's interview with prosecutors investigating his handling of classified documents offers a rare window into the day-to-day life for the president. One question morphed into a well-worn tale of that one time he "embarrassed the hell" out of the leader of Mongolia. (AP Photo/Andy Wong, File)

Hur transcript reveals Biden presidency’s profound and mundane moments

The release of a transcript of President Joe Biden’s interview with prosecutors investigating his handling of classified documents is not likely to alter preconceived notions about Biden.

Civil defence workers and firefighters gather near a destroyed warehouse which was attacked by Israeli airstrikes, on the Hezbollah stronghold town of Safri, near Baalbek town, east Lebanon, Tuesday, March 12, 2024. A Lebanese security official and an official from the militant Hezbollah group say two Israeli airstrikes over northeastern Lebanon have killed at least two people and destroyed a warehouse. (AP Photo)

A pair of Israeli airstrikes deep into northeastern Lebanon kills at least two people, officials say

A Lebanese security official and an official from the militant Hezbollah group say two Israeli airstrikes over northeastern Lebanon have killed at least two people and destroyed a warehouse.