At sunrise in Gaza, the strip's coastal path begins to fill up with pedestrians, as growing numbers of Palestinians have taken up walking to relieve stress trapped inside the Israel-blockaded enclave. Life in Gaza, controlled by the Islamist group Hamas since 2007, was mentally taxing even...

Turkey has registered 3,223 more COVID-19 patients over the past 24 hours, according to figures by the Health Ministry on Sunday.  The country's overall COVID-19 count now stands at 414,278 cases, the data showed. As many as 2,561 more patients also recovered during this period,...

Iranian opposition figure Mir Hossein Mousavi and his wife, under house arrest for nearly a decade, have tested positive for Covid-19, an opposition website reported on Sunday. Mousavi and his wife Zahra Rahnavard "were examined by a doctor at their home... and their general state of health...

Israel moved ahead on Sunday with a settler housing plan in a sensitive area near East Jerusalem, a step critics said was aimed at shoring up the project before U.S. President-elect Joe Biden takes office. On its website, the Israel Land Authority (ILA) invited contractor bids for building...

The Israeli military said it struck Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip early Sunday after militants fired two rockets from the Palestinian territory. In a statement, the military said fighter jets, attack helicopters and tanks hit Hamas underground infrastructure and military posts. It said...

Six months before the Iranian presidential election, Joe Biden’s victory in the US could influence the vote in Iran, where hopes to resume negotiations on the nuclear deal have prompted enthusiasm from moderates and even some hardliners. However, analysts expect that any future talks would be...

Iran on Saturday dismissed a US newspaper report that Al-Qaeda's second-in-command was killed in Tehran by Israeli agents as "made-up information" and denied the presence of any of the Sunni jihadist group's members in the Islamic republic. The New York Times said Abdullah Ahmad...

Palestinian prime minister and groups decried Friday US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s plan to visit the Golan Heights and an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank next week. “Pompeo's plan to visit Jewish settlements is a dangerous attempt. It is against international law and...

Turkey reported 3,045 more COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, according to the Health Ministry data released Friday. The country's overall tally now stands at 407,939, the ministry announced. A total of 2,010 more patients recovered over the past day, bringing the tally to 348,804,...

 Political turmoil over the resignation of Turkey’s once powerful finance minister has a silver lining for President Tayyip Erdogan, offering a chance to ease tensions in his ruling party over the influential and divisive figure. Berat Albayrak, Erdogan’s son-in-law, said he was...

Thousands of elderly women in Beirut whose lives were upended by a huge blast in August now face destitution, as Lebanon buckles under financial crisis and a COVID-19 lockdown, charities said. The United Nations (U.N.) and aid agencies said older women living alone made up almost one in 10...

Jordan's interior minister resigned on Thursday after a public outcry at gatherings and troubles in the aftermath of parliamentary elections that breached a five-day national lockdown aimed at curbing a surge in COVID-19 cases, state media said. Interior Minister Tawfiq al Halalmah said he...

Iran’s intelligence ministry has arrested an Iranian ethnic Arab separatist leader suspected of involvement in an attack on a military parade in 2018 in the Khuzestan province that killed dozens of people, Iranian state TV reported on Thursday. An Iranian ethnic Arab opposition movement...

Iran on Thursday passed the grim milestone of 40,000 coronavirus deaths, with the latest 10,000 added in less than a month, as the country struggles to contain its most widespread wave of infection yet. The Iranian health ministry announced 457 new fatalities on Thursday, along with 117,517...

Fouad Boulos returned to Beirut in 2007 from the United States having trained there in pathology and laboratory medicine. He was so confident that Lebanon was the right place to be that he gave up his American residence green card. Fourteen years later he is leaving his homeland with his...

Iraq has started closing camps housing tens of thousands of people, including many who fled their homes during the final battle against Islamic State, but aid groups warn this could create a second wave of displacement with dire consequences. Among those having to leave are 50-year-old Umm...

An Israeli soldier reported missing this week was found dead near Jerusalem on Thursday, the Israeli military said. The military said it was investigating the circumstances of the soldier's death in cooperation with the Israeli police. The soldier's body was found near a military...

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wooed sceptical investors Wednesday with a promise of painful reforms, throwing his full support behind a new economic team installed after his powerful son-in-law quit. In remarks that saw the Turkish lira gain more than three percent against the...

Iran continues to increase its stockpile of low-enriched uranium far beyond the limits set in a landmark nuclear deal with world powers and to enrich it to a greater purity than permitted, the U.N.’s atomic watchdog agency said Wednesday. The International Atomic Energy Agency reported in a...

Palestinians on Wednesday mourned their veteran negotiator Saeb Erekat, who died aged 65 of coronavirus complications, amid cautious hope the stalled peace process with Israel may be revived under Joe Biden's presidency. Erekat, who died Tuesday at Jerusalem's Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital,...