For over 850 years, the leaning minaret of the Great Mosque of al-Nuri stood as an iconic landmark in the Iraqi city of Mosul until it was destroyed by the Islamic State group in 2017.

Nearly eight years after IS militants were driven out of the city, the minaret has been rebuilt as part of a massive internationally-funded reconstruction project in the historic city.

Dozens of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have protested President Donald Trump’s proposal to relocate most of the territory’s population.

Thursday’s protest outside a hospital in central Gaza was organized by a breakaway faction of the secular Fatah movement that is led by Mohammed Dahlan, who is closely allied with the United Arab Emirates.

President Donald Trump said “no soldiers by the U.S. would be needed” to carry out his proposal for the United States to take over the Gaza Strip and redevelop the war-torn territory.

“The Gaza Strip would be turned over to the United States by Israel at the conclusion of fighting,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform. He added that Palestinians would be “resettled in far safer and more beautiful communities, with new and modern homes, in the region.”

Gaza has long been a powder keg, and it exploded after Hamas fighters stormed southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing and abducting people, which sparked a crushing Israeli military operation that's only recently stopped under a tenuous ceasefire.

U.S. President Donald Trump's suggestion Tuesday that displaced Palestinians in Gaza be permanently resettled outside the war-torn territory and the U.S. take "ownership" of the land is triggering new tensions over the future of the enclave.

President Donald Trump promised voters an administration that wouldn't waste precious American lives and taxpayer treasure on far-off wars and nation building.

But just weeks into his second go-around in the White House, the Republican leader laid out plans to use American might to "take over" and reconstruct Gaza, threatened to reclaim U.S. control of the Panama Canal and floated the idea that the U.S. could buy Greenland from Denmark, which has shown no interest in parting with the island.

Two years have passed since a devastating earthquake shattered Turkey's southern region, but for Omer Aydin and many other of its survivors the memory and the suffering remain fresh.

While struggling with a third winter in the cold inside a shipping container-like temporary housing unit, the single father of three is grappling with a cost-of-living crisis that is affecting the whole country as well as still trying to heal the scars from the disaster.

Iran has inaugurated its first drone-carrier warship, saying the vessel is capable of operating in oceans far from its mainland, the official IRNA news agency reported Thursday.

The report said the vessel, manned by the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard's navy, can carry several squadrons of drones as well as helicopters and cruise missiles. Named Shahid Bagheri, it's capable of launching cruise missiles, IRNA said.

Israel said on Thursday it has begun preparations for the departure of large numbers of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip in line with President Donald Trump's plan for the territory. Officials meanwhile said Egypt has launched an diplomatic blitz behind the scenes to try and head off the plan.

The Palestinians and much of the international community have rejected Trump's proposal, fearing Israel will never allow the refugees to return and that it would destabilize the region. Egypt has warned that such a plan could undermine its peace treaty with Israel, a cornerstone of stability and American influence in the Middle East for decades.

Residents of the largest Arab American community in the U.S. had plenty to say during the 2024 presidential campaign about the roiling politics in the Middle East. But after President Donald Trump's stunning announcement on Tuesday that he wanted to remove Palestinians from Gaza and impose a U.S. takeover in the region, some leaders in Dearborn, Michigan, were treading far more cautiously.

"People are taking a deep breath. It's too early to render a judgment. But definitely the past two or three weeks feel unbelievable," said Imad Hamad, executive director of the Dearborn-based American Human Rights Council.

Saeed Abu Elaish's wife, two of his daughters and two dozen others from his extended family were killed by Israeli airstrikes over the past 15 months. His house in northern Gaza was destroyed. He and surviving family now live in a tent set up in the rubble of his home.

But he says he will not be driven out, after President Donald Trump called for transferring all Palestinians from Gaza so the United States could take over the devastated territory and rebuild it for others. Rights groups said his comments were tantamount to a call for "ethnic cleansing" and forcible expulsion.