TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday called on Israel to take greater steps to protect civilians, allow more aid into Gaza and work with moderate Palestinian leaders, saying regional countries would only invest in the reconstruction of Gaza if there is a “pathway to a Palestinian state.”
TEHRAN, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said on Monday that many of the insecurities, instabilities and tensions in West Asia have roots in the U.S. military presence and interventions in the region.
He made the remarks at a weekly press conference in the Iranian capital Tehran, while commenting on the recent tensions between U.S. forces and resistance groups in Iraq and other regional states.
GAZA, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- The Palestinian death toll from the ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip exceeded 23,000, the Gaza-based Health Ministry said on Monday.
The ministry said in a press statement that the Israeli army killed 249 Palestinians and wounded 510 others during the past 24 hours.
This brings the total number of deaths to 23,084 and injuries to 58,926 since the Israel-Hamas conflict broke out on Oct. 7, 2023, it noted.
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has opened his third day of meetings on an urgent Mideast diplomatic mission to prevent Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza from exploding into a broader regional conflict.
Blinken was meeting Monday with United Arab Emirates leader Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed before traveling to Saudi Arabia for talks with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman aimed at enlisting the key Arab leaders in a push to not only keep the war contained but also prepare for post-conflict Gaza’s future.
BEIRUT (AP) — The elite Hezbollah commander who was killed in an Israeli airstrike Monday in southern Lebanon fought for the group for decades and took part in some of its biggest battles.
Wissam al-Tawil, a commander in Hezbollah’s secretive Radwan Force deployed along the border with Israel, was killed when the strike hit his SUV in his hometown of Khirbet Silem. The strike was about 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the border, beyond the villages and towns that have witnessed the two sides exchange fire over the past three months.
JERUSALEM. (AP) —In the last week alone, an Israeli airstrike has killed a Hezbollah commander in Lebanon, Hezbollah struck a sensitive Israeli base with rockets and Israel killed a senior Hamas militant with an airstrike in Beirut.
Each strike and counterstrike increases the risk of the catastrophic war in Gaza spilling across the region.
DOHA, Qatar (AP) — On another urgent diplomatic mission to the Middle East, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Sunday with Arab partners to press for their help in tamping down resurgent fears that Israel’s three-month war against Hamas in Gaza could spread.
ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday named several of his party’s candidates for March’s nationwide election.
The ruling party will try to recover cities lost to the opposition’s Republican People’s Party, or CHP, five years ago — including the country’s largest city, Istanbul, and the capital, Ankara.
JERUSALEM (AP) — A man driving a car with Israeli license plates was fatally shot at a busy intersection in the West Bank on Sunday, hours after a violent confrontation elsewhere in the Israeli-occupied territory left seven Palestinians and a member of Israel’s paramilitary border police dead.
JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli military signaled that it has wrapped up major combat in northern Gaza, saying it has completed dismantling Hamas’ military infrastructure there, as the war against the militant group entered its fourth month Sunday.
The military did not address troop deployments in northern Gaza going forward. Its spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said late Saturday that forces would “continue to deepen the achievement” there, strengthen defenses along the Israel-Gaza border fence and focus on the central and southern parts of the territory.
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