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Israel detains the director of one of northern Gaza's last functioning hospitals during a raid

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  • Mysterious airstrip appears on a Yemeni island as Houthi rebel attacks threaten region

    DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A mysterious airstrip being built on a remote island in Yemen is nearing completion, satellite photos analyzed by The Associated Press show, one of several built in a nation mired in a stalemated war threatening to reignite.

  • Middle East latest: Netanyahu says deal to return hostages from Gaza reached after last snags

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday that a deal to return hostages held in the Gaza Strip has been reached. The announcement came a day after Netanyahu’s office said there were last minute snags in talks to free hostages in return for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of Palestinian prisoners.

  • North Korea stands to lose all 12,000 of its troops in Kursk by mid-April if its casualty rate holds, analysts say

    A South Korean lawmaker said Seoul's intelligence showed some 3,000 North Korean troops have been wounded or killed in Kursk.

  • Satellite photos show Gaza Strip before and after devastation caused by Israel-Hamas war

    Satellite images provide one way to get a sense of the devastating impact of the war on the Gaza Strip. Research released in the U.S. on Thursday estimates 59.8% of all buildings in the territory Gaza likely have been damaged in the war.

  • Blinken defends US policy on Gaza as his final State Department briefing is interrupted by protests

    Outgoing Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday defended Biden administration policies on Israel’s war with Hamas after a ceasefire agreement in Gaza was reached, facing protests that interrupted his final news conference at the State Department. “It’s going to take tremendous effort, political courage, compromise to realize that possibility, to try to ensure that the gains that have been achieved over the past 15 months at enormous, excruciating cost are actually enduring,” Blinken said.

  • Israel's security Cabinet recommends approval of ceasefire in Gaza; deal is now with full Cabinet

    JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s security Cabinet recommended approval Friday of a Gaza ceasefire deal after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed an agreement had been reached that would pause the 15-month war with Hamas and release dozens of hostages held by militants there.

  • Ceasefire between Israel, Hamas could be first step in long-term resolution, MUN prof says

    Supporters of Israeli hostages who were kidnapped during the deadly October 2023 attack led by Hamas react to news of a ceasefire deal in Tel Aviv, Israel on Wednesday. (Ronen Zvulun/Reuters)As millions around the world celebrate news of a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, a Newfoundland and Labrador associate professor hopes it can be the starting point on a path to long-term resolution in the region."I was always hopeful, but the signs [and] the winds were not shifting in that dire

  • Syria’s new administration condemns Israeli incursions after strike in southern Syria killed three

    GHADIR AL-BUSTAN, Syria (AP) — Officials in Syria’s new de facto government hardened their tone Thursday against Israel's incursions into Syrian territory after an Israeli strike killed three people and wounded five others in the south of the country.

  • Gaza is in ruins, and it's unclear how it will be rebuilt

    Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are eager to leave miserable tent camps and return to their homes if a long-awaited ceasefire agreement halts the Israel-Hamas war, but many will find there is nothing left and no way to rebuild.

  • Explainer-How many Palestinians has Israel's Gaza offensive killed?

    Palestinian health authorities say Israel's ground and air campaign in Gaza killed more than 46,600 people, with just over half of identified victims being women, children or older people. Israel and Hamas agreed to a deal to halt the fighting in Gaza and exchange Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, an official briefed on the deal told Reuters on Wednesday, opening the way to a possible end to a 15-month war that has inflamed the Middle East. The latest round of Israeli-Palestinian conflict began on Oct. 7, 2023 when Hamas militants stormed across the border into Israeli communities.

  • A Gaza Ceasefire Is Here. Why Did It Take So Long?

    It takes two to agree to any deal, but it was mainly Netanyahu who kept moving the goal posts, writes Kenneth Roth.

  • Separated Gaza family awaits reunion as ceasefire deal emerges

    STORY: Taghreed Al Dakour hopes she will soon be reunited with the children she's been separated from for over a year.She arrived in Khan Younis from Gaza City with her husband and some of her children in October 2023 as war erupted between Israel and Hamas.But as a ceasefire and hostage release deal was announced on Wednesday, Al Dakour started packing.“This is the bag that I came with from Gaza City. I have prepared it, so when they tell me that there will be a ceasefire, I will take it and leave, even if I have to go by foot. I can’t wait, I really miss seeing my children, my family and my siblings.”The truce is set to start on Sunday (January 19), after 15 months of bloodshed that devastated the coastal territory and inflamed the Middle East. In Gaza City, around 15 miles from where Al Dakour is packing her bags, her son Yousef sits in the rubble of their destroyed home.He had also been waiting for news of a ceasefire.“I see photos of my family on the internet, on social media, it is as though we do not know each other, due to the change of features and the emaciation of (their) bodies. The situation was very difficult.”Seeing his family again, he says, will be a "beautiful feeling of happiness and joy".The deal announced on Wednesday outlines a six-week initial ceasefire with the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip.Hostages taken by Hamas would be freed in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.If successful, it will end the fighting that has killed tens of thousands, according to Gaza health authorities, left much of the Palestinian enclave in ruins and displaced most of its population.But Al Dakour says this is a war that will not be forgotten.It is a "painful memory", she says, that will "stay with us our whole lives... It is all sadness and extermination.”

  • Trump credited for ceasefire breakthrough as US officials who resigned over Gaza war slam Biden’s inaction

    Officials said breakthrough came when Trump applied pressure on Israeli government, something Biden was unwilling to do

  • Israeli security cabinet approves Hamas hostage release cease-fire deal

    Israel's security cabinet has now approved a cease-fire deal with Hamas that will see the release of all hostages held by Palestinian group.

  • Israel's security cabinet convenes to approve deal to release hostages and pause the 15-month war

    JERUSALEM, Israel (AP) — Israel’s security cabinet convened Friday to decide whether to approve a deal that would release dozens of hostages held by militants in Gaza and pause the 15-month-war.

  • Colombia suspends peace talks with ELN rebel group again after violence in northeastern region

    BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombia on Friday suspended for second time in less than a year peace talks with the National Liberation Army, or ELN, after blaming the rebel group of the violence that has been affecting a northeastern region of the country in recent days.

  • Gaza: seven big issues affecting the delivery of humanitarian aid

    US president Joe Biden called for a ‘surge’ of humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza.

  • 2 Cambodian experts were killed as they attempted to remove an anti-tank mine from a rice field

    PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Two Cambodian deminers were killed Thursday as they attempted to remove an anti-tank mine left over from the country's nearly three decades of war and disorder, authorities said.

  • Blinken interrupted by shouting journalists in State Department briefing room

    WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Antony Blinken was giving his final comments from his department’s press briefing room, touting the Biden administration’s help brokering a ceasefire deal in Gaza, when he was interrupted by two journalists.

  • Satellite photos show the Gaza Strip before and after the devastation of the Israel-Hamas war

    DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The Israel-Hamas war, now nearing a potential ceasefire, has devastated the Gaza Strip. Satellite photos offer some sense of the destruction in the territory, which has been largely sealed off to journalists and others.