China will not isolate Taiwan by preventing U.S. officials from traveling there, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday in Tokyo, wrapping up her Asia tour highlighted by a visit to Taipei that infuriated China.

The Chinese have tried to isolate Taiwan, Pelosi said, including most recently by preventing the self-governing island from joining the World Health Organization.

The Israeli military has said it is sending additional forces to the area around the Gaza Strip as it braces for possible attacks after the arrest of a senior militant in the West Bank this week.

Authorities closed roads and other areas around Gaza after a raid Monday night, in which troops arrested a senior member of the Islamic Jihad militant group in the occupied West Bank town of Jenin. A Palestinian teenager, who Islamic Jihad claimed as a member, was killed during clashes with the Israeli forces.

Mourners have poured out onto the streets of Tehran to pay their respects to several Iranian officers killed in Syria, a testament to the human cost of Iran's involvement in the civil war and a public display of nationalist fervor as nuclear talks resume in Vienna.

The remains of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard members were recently recovered in Khan Tuman, a village 9 miles (about 15 kilometers) south of Aleppo, Syria's largest city that was for years the war's most important front line.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday that China's military exercises aimed at Taiwan including missiles fired into Japan's exclusive economic zone represent a "significant escalation."

China's military drills were launched following a visit earlier this week by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan that infuriated Beijing.

A large section of Beirut's giant port grain silos, shredded by a massive explosion two years ago, collapsed on Thursday as hundreds marched in Beirut to mark the second anniversary of the blast that killed scores.

The northern block of the silos consisting of four towers has been slowly tilting for days and collapsed causing a huge cloud of dust that covered the structure that shielded Beirut's western neighborhoods when the blast occurred on Aug. 4, 2020 killing nearly 220 people, injuring over 6,000 and causing damage worth billions of dollars.

A Syrian ship that Ukraine says is carrying stolen Ukrainian grain has left a Lebanese port after officials in Lebanon allowed it to sail following an investigation, Lebanon's transport minister tweeted on Thursday.

The Syrian-flagged Laodicea had been anchored at the port of Tripoli since it arrived last Thursday, carrying 10,000 tons of wheat flour and barley. Ukraine says the grain was stolen by Russia, a claim it denies.

After repeatedly rebuilding his home only to have it demolished by Israeli soldiers, Mohammed Abu Sabaha has a new plan to remain on the land — he is moving into a cave.

Abu Sabaha is among some 1,000 Palestinians at risk of expulsion from an arid region of the occupied West Bank that the Israeli military has designated as a live-fire training zone. Israel's Supreme Court upheld their expulsion in May after a two-decade legal battle.

The United Nations chief sharply criticized the "grotesque greed" of oil and gas companies on Wednesday for making record profits from the energy crisis on the back of the world's poorest people, "while destroying our only home."

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said it was "immoral" that the largest energy companies in the first quarter of the year made combined profits of close to $100 billion.

Ukraine's ambassador to Lebanon on Wednesday insisted a Syrian ship docked at a Lebanese port is carrying stolen Ukrainian grain and urged Lebanon to block the vessel from leaving.

The claim comes just days before the tiny cash-strapped country receives Ukraine's first grain shipment since Russia's invasion began over five months ago.

The United Nations said Yemen's warring parties have agreed to renew an existing truce for two more months after concerted international efforts.

The already 4-month-old cease-fire has been the longest nationwide ease in fighting since the war began in the Arab world's poorest country nearly eight years ago.