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Cyprus says aims to get 'as many boats as possible' on aid route to Gaza

Cyprus hosted a meeting Thursday aimed at sending "as many boats as possible" carrying aid to the war-battered Gaza Strip along a maritime corridor, Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos said.

Representatives of 36 countries, United Nations agencies and humanitarian groups participated in the meeting in the Cypriot port of Larnaca, where a first aid vessel embarked earlier this month and a second ship was waiting to depart.

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A firework is lit, a boy is shot: Israel's use of deadly force against Palestinians

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.

A clip of Rami Halhouli's final moments last week has been circulating on social media for days. Human rights activists say it shines a light on the surge of Palestinians — including dozens of children — who have been killed without justification by Israeli forces since Oct. 7.

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Why is Israel so determined to launch offensive in Rafah?

Israel is determined to launch a ground offensive against Hamas in Rafah, Gaza's southernmost city, a plan that has raised global alarm because of the potential for harm to the hundreds of thousands of civilians sheltering there.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel can't achieve its goal of "total victory" against Hamas without going into Rafah.

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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 the Israelis' war with Hamas began in October, as relations between the two countries have soured dramatically in recent weeks.

The visit comes amid a flurry of calls, planned trips by U.S. and Israeli officials and public airings of severe disagreements over the state of the conflict — notably Israeli plans to mount a major military operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah and what will happen to Gaza after the war ends.

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Israeli West Bank operation kills four

The death toll rose to four on Thursday in an Israeli operation in the Nur Shams refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Red Crescent said.

"Palestine Red Crescent ambulance teams have just transported an 18-year-old young man who was killed by the Israeli occupation forces in Nur Shams camp," the group said on X, formerly Twitter, adding his death brought the toll to four.

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Gaza truce: US reveals draft resolution, Qatar talks 'a step backwards'

The United States has circulated a draft U.N. Security Council resolution calling for an "immediate ceasefire linked to the release of hostages" in the Gaza Strip, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.

The diplomat made his announcement whilst on a tour of the Middle East that will include a stop in Israel.

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Blinken lands in Saudi Arabia for Gaza talks

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken landed in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday to discuss efforts to secure a ceasefire in Gaza and ramp up aid deliveries to the Palestinian territory.

The US top diplomat touched down in Jeddah where he was to meet Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, said an AFP journalist on board, the first stop on Blinken's sixth Middle East tour since the Israel-Hamas war started on October 7.

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Trump's son-in-law praises 'very valuable' potential of Gaza's 'waterfront property'

Jared Kushner, Donald Trump's former White House adviser and his son-in-law, praised the "very valuable" potential of Gaza's "waterfront property," suggesting that Israel should remove civilians while it "cleans up" the area.

"Gaza's waterfront property, it could be very valuable, if people would focus on building up livelihoods," Kushner said in an interview dated Feb. 15, posted earlier this month on the YouTube channel of the Middle East Initiative, a program of Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, and reported first on Tuesday by The Guardian. "If you think about all the money that's gone into this tunnel network and into all the munitions, if that would have gone into education or innovation, what could have been done?"

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Heavy fighting rages around Gaza's biggest hospital as Israel raids it for a second day

Explosions and shootings shook the Gaza Strip's biggest hospital and surrounding neighborhoods as Israeli forces stormed through the facility for a second day Tuesday. The military said it had killed 50 Hamas militants in the hospital, but it could not be independently confirmed that the dead were combatants.

The raid was a new blow to the Shifa medical complex, which had only partially resumed operations after a destructive Israeli raid in November. Thousands of Palestinian patients, medical staff and displaced people were trapped inside the sprawling complex Tuesday as heavy fighting between troops and Hamas fighters raged in nearby districts.

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Turkish warplanes strike Kurdish positions in Iraq after attack kills soldier, wounds 4

Turkey carried out a new round of airstrikes targeting Kurdish militants in neighboring Iraq on Tuesday, Turkey's defense ministry said, hours after a Turkish soldier was killed and four others were wounded in an attack in the region.

Turkey often launches strikes against targets in Syria and Iraq it believes to be affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, a banned Kurdish separatist group that has waged an insurgency against Turkey since the 1980s.

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