Middle Eastern Headlines at 5:34 p.m. GMT

Associated Press
Updated

Israel orders Palestinians to flee Khan Younis, signaling likely new assault on southern Gaza city

  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next

Latest stories

  • US government employees who resigned over Gaza policy release joint statement for first time

    The US government employees who have publicly resigned in protest of the Biden administration’s Gaza policies released a joint statement on Tuesday for the first time, stating they “stand united in a shared belief that it is our collective responsibility to speak up” and outlining steps they believe the US government should take.

  • Israel to test Hamas-free ‘bubbles’ in Gaza

    Israel will create Hamas-free “bubbles” in Gaza as part of a pilot scheme for how the territory could be ruled after the terror group is defeated.

  • Hezbollah’s deputy leader says group would stop fighting with Israel after Gaza cease-fire

    The deputy leader of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah said Tuesday the only sure path to a cease-fire on the Lebanon-Israel border is a full cease-fire in Gaza. “If there is a cease-fire in Gaza, we will stop without any discussion,” Hezbollah’s deputy leader, Sheikh Naim Kassem, said in an interview with The Associated Press at the group’s political office in Beirut’s southern suburbs. Hezbollah's participation in the Israel-Hamas war has been as a “support front” for its ally, Hamas, Kassem said, and “if the war stops, this military support will no longer exist.”

  • Singapore charges activists over pro-Palestinian letters

    The letters addressed to the prime minister appealed to the government to end ties with Israel.

  • Israel orders Palestinians to leave southern Gaza area after rocket fire

    People have been fleeing in darkness after being told to leave areas east of Khan Younis.

  • ‘We will not enlist:’ Ultra-Orthodox in Israel vow to defy orders to serve in the military

    The protest highlighted the fault line in Israeli society between ultra-Orthodox Jews and other Israelis, many of whom believe that all Jewish citizens should serve in the military, especially during wartime.

  • Israel risking disastrous war against Hezbollah for political reasons, says former US official

    Harrison Mann, military expert who quit over Gaza, says ruinous war in Lebanon would pull US into regional conflict

  • Palestinian group Islamic Jihad fires rockets into Israel as tanks deepen incursions into Gaza

    Violence flared on Monday as the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad fired around 20 rockets into Israel, while Israeli tanks deepened incursions into eastern Gaza City, residents said. Meanwhile, efforts to achieve a ceasefire backed by the United States have stalled. The Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad fired a barrage of rockets into Israel on Monday as fighting raged in Gaza and Israeli tanks advanced deeper in parts of the enclave, residents and officials said.The armed wing of

  • Mother of Israeli hostage Noa Argamani dies less than a month after daughter’s rescue

    Liora Argamani’s daughter Noa was held hostage by Hamas in Gaza for more than eight months

  • Senior Gaza doctor alleges ‘severe torture’ following release from Israeli detention as politicians clash over decision

    The head of Gaza’s largest hospital has claimed he was repeatedly tortured during his seven months in Israeli detention, following his sudden release Monday, in a move that highlighted growing rifts in the Israeli establishment.

  • France's top court to examine arrest warrant for Syria's Assad

    Prosecutors have asked France's highest court to review the legality of a French arrest warrant for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad over deadly chemical attacks on Syrian soil in 2013. According to Syria's opposition, one attack on the rebel-held suburbs of Damascus in August 2013 killed around 1,400 people – including more than 400 children.Prosecutors said Tuesday they had made the request to the Paris Court of Cassation on judicial grounds on Friday – two days after another appeals court uph

  • Video appears to show gang-rape of Afghan woman in a Taliban jail

    Activist claims she was threatened with release of the footage in order to silence her, amid multiple reports of sexual violence inflicted upon imprisoned Afghan women

  • GOP-led House panel to question Psaki this month on failures of Afghanistan withdrawal

    Former White House press secretary Jen Psaki will appear before the House Foreign Affairs Committee for a transcribed interview about the Biden administration’s pullout from Afghanistan in August 2021, a spokesperson for the Republican majority of the committee confirmed to The Hill. Psaki, who now hosts an MSNBC show, is expected to sit for the…

  • Palestinians flee Khan Younis as Israeli forces strike south Gaza

    Patients have left a hospital and tent camps as Israel appears poised to launch another assault on the city.

  • Israeli military orders large-scale evacuation from Khan Younis

    UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres criticised the evacuation order on Monday, saying there is now no safe place for Palestinians to flee.View on euronews

  • Biden, Netanyahu expected to meet in Washington during Israeli PM's July visit

    U.S. President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are expected to meet in Washington in late July when the Israeli leader comes to address the U.S. Congress about his country's war in Gaza, a White House official said on Tuesday. Netanyahu is due to address the U.S. Congress on July 24 during a visit to Washington.

  • Mother of rescued Israeli hostage Noa Argamani dies

    Liora Argamani succumbs to brain cancer three weeks after her daughter was freed from captivity in Gaza.

  • Kenya police and protesters clash at rallies in capital

    Protesters clashed with police in Kenya's capital Nairobi Tuesday and some were arrested, AFP reporters saw, as calls for peaceful anti-government rallies descended into scattered incidents of violence and looting following last month's deadly demonstrations.Activists have stepped up their campaign against President William Ruto despite his decision last week to withdraw a controversial finance bill that triggered what he has branded "treasonous" protests by young Gen-Z Kenyans.The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) said on Monday that 39 people had been killed and 361 injured during two weeks of demonstrations -- with the worst violence occurring last Tuesday -- and condemned the use of force against protesters as "excessive and disproportionate".By Tuesday afternoon, Nairobi's central business district -- the focus of previous rallies -- saw scattered confrontations between police lobbing tear gas and small groups of stone-throwing men on deserted roads."Goons have infiltrated," prominent Gen-Z protester Hanifa Adan posted on X, with a string of broken heart emojis.Several coffins, some covered with the national flag, were also placed on roads by protesters, Kenyan television showed, before they were removed by officers.Earlier, local politician John Kwenya told AFP that business owners shuttering their shops were "scared" of "goons"."This is economic sabotage," Kwenya, a member of the Nairobi city county assembly, said.Elsewhere in the country, local TV broadcast images of larger crowds marching in the coastal opposition stronghold Mombasa, as well as gatherings in Kisumu and Nakuru.At a peaceful march in Kisumu, demonstrator Allan Odhiambo, 26, told AFP he had lost hope in Ruto."We promised a peaceful protest and that is what we have done, but Ruto must go," he said, citing a slogan that has become a popular hashtag."Let him just pack (up) and go."- '#RutoMustGo' -Largely peaceful rallies against a raft of tax increases -- mostly led by young Kenyans on social media -- descended into deadly chaos on Tuesday last week when lawmakers passed the deeply unpopular legislation.After the announcement of the vote, crowds ransacked the partly ablaze parliament complex in central Nairobi as police fired live bullets at protesters.Ruto said in a television interview on Sunday that 19 people had died, but defended his decision to call in the armed forces to tackle the unrest and insisted he did not have "blood on my hands". In Nakuru, protesters marched peacefully on Tuesday, with some carrying pictures of three killed during last week's demonstrations."We want justice for innocent Kenyans killed by police during the protests that were peaceful," Mary Lynn Wangui told AFP."Ruto has not offered an apology," said the 24-year-old, as she waved a placard declaring: "RutoMustGo".It is the most serious crisis to confront the president since he took office in September 2022 following a deeply divisive election in a nation often considered a beacon of stability in a turbulent region. Ruto's appeal for dialogue and his decision to scrap the tax legislation has appeared not to have appeased his critics.One leaflet widely shared online declared both Tuesday and Thursday public holidays for an "OccupyEverywhere" movement and urged all Kenyans to stage sit-down protests on major roads in the country on those days.- 'Unwarranted violence' -The state-funded KNCHR said Monday that in the previous protests there had also been 32 cases of "enforced or involuntary disappearances" and 627 arrests of protesters. "The Commission continues to condemn in the strongest terms possible the unwarranted violence and force that was inflicted on protesters, medical personnel, lawyers, journalists and on safe spaces such as churches, medical emergency centres and ambulances," the KNCHR said.Kenya's cash-strapped government said previously that the tax increases were necessary to fill its coffers and service a public debt of some 10 trillion shillings ($78 billion), or about 70 percent of GDP.In Sunday's interview, Ruto warned that the government would have to borrow another $7.7 billion because of the decision to drop the finance bill.bur-rbu/amu/kjm

  • New Poll Finds 1 Democrat Absolutely Trouncing Trump

    Just one problem: This person doesn't seem interested in running, should the opportunity arise.

  • Vivian Chow reunites with Sharla Cheung after 30 years

    The singer was elated to see her former co-star coming to see her perform in Wenzhou