US President Donald Trump is again breaking diplomatic norms in backing Israel's capture of the Golan Heights, with experts warning that he risks justifying expansionism by other countries. Israel conquered the Golan from Syria in the Six-Day War of 1967 and annexed it in 1981, but until...

Two Palestinians were killed and dozens of others injured, including an Anadolu Agency photojournalist, during a Friday rally along the Gaza-Israel buffer zone, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. In a statement, ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra confirmed that two Palestinians -- aged 18...

Druze Arabs and Israeli settlers on opposite sides of the dispute over U.S. President Donald Trump’s support for Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights agree on one thing - it won’t change matters on the ground. The fertile hillsides of the Israeli-occupied Golan are scattered with...

The United Nations Human Rights Council on Friday condemned Israel’s “apparent intentional use of unlawful lethal and other excessive force” against civilian protesters in Gaza, and called for perpetrators of violations in the enclave to face justice. Protests at the border between Israel...

Lebanon’s parliament speaker told visiting U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday that U.S. sanctions on the Hezbollah group were having a “negative impact on Lebanon and the Lebanese”. U.S. efforts to put pressure on the heavily armed, Iran-backed Hezbollah are high on the agenda...

The capsizing of a Tigris river ferry packed with Iraqi families celebrating Kurdish New Year in Mosul left at least 100 people dead, mostly women and children, the interior ministry said Friday, as grief and anger swept the Iraqi city. Residents of the northern city, scarred by years of...

U.S. President Donald Trump's statement that it was time to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights has brought the region to the edge of a new crisis, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday. In a speech at a meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation,...

The Palestinian Authority faces a suffocating financial crisis after deep US aid cuts and an Israeli move to withhold tax transfers, sparking fears for the stability of the West Bank. The authority, headed by President Mahmud Abbas, announced a package of emergency measures on March 10,...

Israel said on Thursday a U.N. report critical of its use of lethal force during Palestinian protests on the Gaza border was biased and should have included a demand that the enclave’s dominant Hamas group take action to stop anti-Israeli violence. A U.N. Commission of Inquiry on the...

U.S. sanctions on Hezbollah are harming Lebanon as a whole, President Michel Aoun said on Thursday ahead of a visit to the country by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. The United States deems the heavily armed, Iran-backed Hezbollah group a terrorist organization and has been steadily...

At least 79 people died when an overloaded ferry carrying families on an outing sank in the Tigris river in Mosul in northern Iraq, medical sources told Reuters on Thursday. Most of the casualties on the ferry were women and children who could not swim, said the head of Mosul’s Civil...

Sudan summoned Egypt's ambassador to Khartoum on Thursday to protest Cairo's "illegal" call for oil and gas exploration bids in the Red Sea area of Halayeb, claimed by both countries. Egypt's control of the Halayeb triangle, which lies in a mineral-rich border region, has for decades been a...

Israeli authorities shut down a French cultural center in Jerusalem Thursday, alleging it was to host an event involving an association supported by the Palestinian Authority. In a rare move, police entered the center in Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem and ordered it closed until further...

A Palestinian was killed by Israeli gunfire in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian medics said, and the military announced on Thursday that a soldier had discharged his weapon and it was reviewing the incident. The Palestinian Red Crescent said one of its crews treated a man with two bullet...

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday hailed his country's close ties with Israel, saying the self-proclaimed Jewish state had “no better friend than the U.S.” At a meeting with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, Pompeo also said that Hamas and Hezbollah both continued to pose “a...

A Turkish humanitarian aid organization has sent food aid to blockaded Gaza Strip on Thursday. Istanbul-based Sadakatasi Association sent tomato, cucumber, potato, onion, paprika and chicken for 1,000 poverty-hit families in Gaza, the charity group said. Situation in the areas of food,...

Ten workers were killed Thursday when a tank full of ammonia exploded at a fertilizer factory in Egypt's northeastern Suez province. According to local media reports, the incident occurred in Egypt’s Ain Sukhna region. Five other workers were reportedly injured by the blast, two of whom...

 As Yeman’s war grinds into its fifth year with peace efforts stalling, ten-year-old Afaf’s father sees little hope he will be able to give his starving daughter the food or healthcare she needs. Across Yemen’s remote mountain villages, the country’s war-induced economic crisis has...

Iran's supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called the economic difficulties of Iranians the main and most urgent problem of the country in a message aired Thursday on state TV. Iran has faced increased economic hardship in the last 12 months which was aggravated after US President Donald...

Remaining U.S. troops in Iraq should stay as the part of the international coalition fight against the Daesh terror group, an American delegation said Wednesday. The U.S. delegation led by congressman John Garamendi met top Iraqi officials, including premier Adil Abdul-Mahdi, parliament...