Spotlight
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Middle East US, Israel present united front on Gaza, Iran Top U.S. diplomat Marco Rubio and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented a united front Sunday against their common enemies, threa...
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Middle East Shipment of 'heavy' US bombs arrives in Israel Israel's defense ministry said Sunday that a shipment of "heavy" U.S.-made bombs arrived overnight in Israel, as Marco Rubio began his first vi... 1
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said Wednesday that the forced displacement of Gazans is an "injustice that we cannot take part in", after U.S. President Donald Trump floated a plan to move Palestinians from the territory to Egypt and Jordan.
"The constants of Egypt's historic position on the Palestinian cause can never be compromised," Sisi said during a news conference with Kenyan President William Ruto in Cairo.

Syria's new authorities on Wednesday urged Israel's withdrawal from Syrian territory it occupied in the Golan Heights after president Bashar al-Assad's ousting, during talks with U.N. peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix, state media reported.
During Lacroix's meeting with Syria's foreign and defense ministers, "it was confirmed that Syria is ready to fully cooperate with the U.N.", the SANA news agency said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been invited by U.S. President Donald Trump to a meeting at the White House on February 4, the Israeli premier's office said.

An idea floated by U.S. President Donald Trump to move Gazans to Egypt or Jordan faced a renewed backlash as hundreds of thousands of Gazans displaced by the Israel-Hamas war returned to their devastated neighborhoods.
A fragile ceasefire and hostage release deal took effect earlier this month, intended to end more than 15 months of war that began with Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

A high-level Russian delegation in Syria expressed support for the country's sovereignty and territorial integrity following the fall of Bashar al-Assad, Moscow's foreign ministry said Wednesday.

The Israeli military said it had "eliminated over 15 terrorists" and arrested 40 wanted people during a major raid that began last week in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin.
The raid began two days after a truce took hold in the Gaza Strip, seeking to put an end to more than 15 months of the Israel-Hamas war that ravaged the Palestinian coastal territory.

Egypt said Tuesday that President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi did not speak by phone with Donald Trump at the weekend, after the U.S. leader called for relocating Palestinians from Gaza to Egypt and Jordan.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Tuesday that Gaza had brought Israel "to its knees", in a reference to the recent ceasefire in the Palestinian territory.
The ceasefire and hostage-release deal between Iran's arch-enemy Israel and the Tehran-backed militant group Hamas went into effect just over a week ago, aiming to put an end to more than 15 months of war.

An explosion struck a Hong Kong-flagged container ship Tuesday traveling north through the Red Sea, sparking a major fire that forced its crew to abandon the vessel, shipping industry officials said.
The ship was drifting and ablaze some 225 kilometers (140 miles) off the coast of Hodeida, a port city in Yemen held by the country's Houthi rebels, said the Diaplous Group, a maritime firm.

BY Kelsey Norman, Rice University and Ana Martín Gil, Rice University
(THE CONVERSATION) For more than a decade, Syrians have been the world's largest refugee population.
