Israel targeted Hamas in strikes on Gaza early Saturday after rockets were fired towards it from the Palestinian enclave, the army said, two days after a fragile ceasefire began.  Hamas, the Islamist movement that has de facto control over the Gaza Strip, has so far kept its distance...

Sporadic protests erupted in cities across Iran, state news agency IRNA said on Saturday, a day after the government announced a surprise decision to ration petrol and hike its price. The demonstrations on Friday night were "severe" in Sirjan in central Iran as "people attacked a fuel...

Four close relatives of dead Daesh/ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi have been remanded in this central Anatolian province Saturday. Kirsehir chief public prosecutor’s office said 25 close relatives al-Baghdadi have been arrested in Kirsehir-based operations in four provinces. The four...

Lebanese protesters who have been demanding radical reform reacted with anger Friday to the reported designation of a new prime minister they regard as emblematic of a failed political system. According to senior officials speaking on condition of anonymity and Lebanese press reports,...

  Iraq will never be the same after weeks of demonstrations demanding sweeping reform, its top Shiite cleric said on Friday in his most emphatic endorsement yet of the protest movement. Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani said authorities must respond quickly to the demands of the...

Iran imposed petrol rationing and raised pump prices by 50 percent or more on Friday, in a new move to cut costly subsidies that have fuelled high consumption and rampant smuggling. The Islamic republic provides some of the most heavily subsidised petrol in the world, with the pump price...

Hundreds of Palestinians carrying black Islamic Jihad flags gathered at Al-Mujahideen Mosque in central Gaza on Thursday to attend funeral prayers for eight members of the Abu Malhous family. The eight family members were killed by Israeli air raids in the early hours of Thursday in...

Lebanon’s Defense Minister said on Thursday the country was in a “very dangerous situation” and compared street unrest of recent days to the start of 1975-90 civil war. One month after the start of nationwide protests, Lebanon is in serious political and economic trouble with no indication...

Turkey’s president Tayyip Erdogan said Washington was not right to propose that Ankara get rid of the Russian S-400 missile defenses it purchased, calling it an infringement of sovereign rights, according to Turkish media. In a meeting at the White House on Wednesday, U.S. President Donald...

At least 530 houses in the Gaza Strip were damaged by the recent Israeli aggression on the coastal enclave, Palestine's Public Works Ministry said on Thursday.  "In Israeli airstrikes against Gaza, 30 houses were completely destroyed and 500 houses were partially damaged," the ministry...

 Israel will follow suit if Palestinian fighters in the Gaza Strip stop cross-border attacks, an Israeli official said on Thursday, denying that Israel had changed open-fire policy as demanded by the Islamic Jihad militant group for a truce. “Quiet will be answered with quiet,” Foreign...

Security forces killed two protesters and wounded 35 others in Baghdad on Thursday, police and medical sources said, as thousands of Iraqis continued a wave of anti-government protests. One protester died immediately after a tear gas canister hit his head and another died in hospital from...

Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad said it was holding fire from the Gaza Strip on Thursday after Israel agreed to an Egyptian-mediated truce, calming the worst surge in fighting in months. The truce was declared from 0330 GMT, the group’s spokesman, Musab Al-Braim, said, marking...

President Michel Aoun said on Wednesday economic conditions in Lebanon were deteriorating further as a result of the situation in the country but the start of oil and gas exploration would help to gradually improve things. His comments were posted on the Lebanese presidency’s Twitter...

President Donald Trump on Wednesday lauded the U.S. relationship with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan as the leaders started a meeting to overcome mounting differences between the two NATO allies ranging from Syria policy to Turkey’s purchase of a Russian missile defense system. Trump’s...

Exchanges of fire triggered by Israel's targeted killing of a top militant in Gaza raged for a second day Wednesday and showed little sign of easing as the Palestinian death toll surged to 23. Fresh rocket barrages were fired at Israel, which responded with strikes on what it said were...

Iraqi officials must ramp up their response to mass demonstrations demanding an overhaul of the political system, the United Nations' representative in Baghdad told AFP in an exclusive interview Wednesday. Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, who heads the UN's Iraq mission (UNAMI), said the...

rotesters barricaded main roads across Lebanon on Wednesday after President Michel Aoun enraged demonstrators by urging them to end their revolt against corruption and cronyism in the political establishment. His remarks in a television interview late on Tuesday ignited demonstrations...

The president of Iraqi Kurdistan travelled to Baghdad on Wednesday for talks with senior officials just hours ahead of a special parliament session to discuss weeks of deadly anti-government demonstrations. The head of the United Nations' mission in Iraq (UNAMI) was expected to attend the...

Schools in Tehran were ordered to be closed on Wednesday after the Iranian capital was cloaked in dangerously high levels of air pollution, authorities said. Governor Anoushiravan Mohseni-Bandpey said kindergartens, preschools and primary schools would be shut in the city and the counties...