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Palestinian shot during settler march through West Bank towns

One Palestinian was shot and wounded during an Israeli settler march through several West Bank Palestinian towns Friday that sparked clashes with locals, first responders, the army and an AFP journalist said.

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Hamas agrees to disarm if Israel ends hostilities, withdraws from Gaza

Hamas said Frsay that it reached an agreement to disarm, a significant move that could help end the war in Gaza — but one that will face many hurdles and could take a long time to achieve, if at all.

The group agreed to a road map as long as Israel also makes concessions, including ending hostilities and withdrawing its troops from the Palestinian territory, a Hamas official and a regional official told The Associated Press. Senior Hamas official Bassem Naim confirmed in a post on X that the group agreed to the deal.

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Kuwait shoots down Iranian drones targeting military sites

Kuwaiti forces destroyed Iranian drones targeting "vital and military facilities", the defense ministry said on Friday.

"The hostile targets were engaged and destroyed. This resulted in material damage due to falling shrapnel, without any human casualties being recorded," it said in a statement.

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Iran says struck two tankers under US 'air escort' trying to pass Hormuz

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said Friday that they had struck two tankers attempting to pass though the strategic Strait of Hormuz under the "air escort" of the U.S. military.

The IRGC said the "non-compliant oil tankers... were struck and brought to a halt, while four other oil tankers quickly changed course and returned to their previous positions".

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Iran receives bodies of Guards killed in US-Saudi strikes in Iraq

Iranian state media said on Friday that the bodies of five members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) killed in joint U.S.-Saudi strikes in Iraq this week had been returned.

"The bodies of five IRGC members killed in the recent US-Saudi attacks on Iraq were brought into the country through the Mehran border crossing," in western Ilam province, the IRNA state news agency reported.

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Trump announces deal for Hamas to disarm in Gaza, but many hurdles remain

President Donald Trump said Thursday that a deal has been reached for Hamas to disarm and Israel to withdraw its forces from Gaza, but many hurdles, conditions and long timelines remained to wind down the war in the Palestinian territory.

The White House announcement comes nine months after a U.S.-brokered ceasefire was signed. Negotiations between Israel and Hamas had largely deadlocked over the implementation of its second phase, including the disarmament of Hamas and the reconstruction of Gaza.

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Here's why new fronts seem to be opening up across the Middle East

Houthi rebels in Yemen said they attacked Saudi oil facilities. The Saudis blamed militias in Iraq and joined the United States in bombing them. Iran fired missiles at Jordan. Drones set ships ablaze in Egypt.

But it's not actually as complicated as it sounds, and it's all related to the broader war between the United States and Iran, currently focused on the Strait of Hormuz.

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Palestinian shepherds endure life alongside Israeli settler outposts

The blue-and-white Israeli flags flutter from hilltops and line the roads of the occupied West Bank, signaling the growing presence of Israeli settlements and the outposts they're building on Palestinian land.

For shepherds in the Jordan Valley, as well as in Masafer Yatta, a cluster of villages in the southern West Bank, the flags and expanding settlements have become inescapable features of the landscape, reminders of how daily life has narrowed.

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Iran's Guards say three members killed in US attack on northwest

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Thursday that three of its members were killed in an attack by the United States on the northwestern province of Zanjan.

"In the brutal attack carried out by the terrorist regime of the criminal United States on 30 July 2026, three brave and devoted members of the Ansar al-Mahdi IRGC in Zanjan province... attained martyrdom," the Guards' provincial branch said in a statement, according to Tasnim news agency.

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Iraq's balancing act gets harder as war between US and Iran widens

Strikes launched by the U.S. and Saudi Arabia against Iran-allied fighters in Iraq have put Iraq's government in a delicate position — and not for the first time.

Since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, Iraq has walked a tightrope between Washington and Tehran, seeking to avoid becoming a battleground for rival powers. The balancing act has only grown more fraught since the U.S. and Israel went to war with Iran in February.

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