Iran is enriching uranium to close to weapons-grade at a steady pace while discussions aimed at improving its cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog are stalled, two confidential reports by the watchdog showed on Monday.

A Marshall Islands-flagged bulk carrier off the Yemeni coast took on water after being targeted with three missiles, maritime security and shipping sources said yesterday.

Direct flights from Syria to Saudi Arabia for pilgrims taking part in the annual hajj resumed today, ending 12 years of isolation since the civil war began, a Syrian official told AFP

An Israeli airstrike triggered a fire that killed 45 people in a tent camp in the Gazan city of Rafah, officials said yesterday, prompting an outcry from global leaders who urged the implementation of a World Court order to halt Israel’s assault.

Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said yesterday it had filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC) over Palestinian journalists killed or injured in Gaza.

Egypt's military said today a border guard was killed in a shooting in the Rafah border area with Gaza, where Israeli forces are deployed, adding that a probe had been launched

At least 70 organisations are calling on relevant authorities and international institutions to officially declare a famine in the Gaza Strip, where there is a rapid spread of famine, according to the Geneva-based Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor yesterday.

Israeli air strikes and artillery pounded Rafah on yesterday, despite the International Court of Justice ordering an immediate halt to its military offensive in the southern Gazan city.

A Paris court on Friday ordered life jail terms for three top Syrian security officials for complicity in crimes against humanity and war crimes in a landmark case

Iran’s army has so far found no evidence of criminal activity in a helicopter crash that killed the country’s president Ebrahim Raisi and seven others, state media reported.

Some of the food supplies waiting to enter the Gaza Strip from Egypt have begun to rot as the Rafah border crossing remains shut to aid deliveries for a third week and people inside the Palestinian enclave face worsening hunger.

A missile attack targeted a commercial vessel transiting southwest of Yemen’s port city of Hodeidah without causing any damage or casualties, maritime security firms said yesterday.

Israeli forces killed 35 Palestinians in aerial and ground bombardments across the Gaza Strip yesterday and battled in close combat with Hamas members in areas of the southern city of Rafah, health officials and Hamas media said.

Ireland, Spain and Norway yesterday announced that they would recognise a Palestinian state on May 28, saying they hoped other Western countries would follow suit, prompting Israel to recall its ambassadors.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei yesterday led prayers in Tehran at the funeral of the late president Ebrahim Raisi, as the clerical establishment hurried to organise an early election that could further erode its legitimacy amid growing public discontent.

Iran’s presidential chief of staff has revealed more details about a helicopter crash in northwest of the country over the weekend which led to the martyrdom of president Ebrahim Raisi, foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and two top local officials in the province of East Azerbaijan.

North Gaza’s last two functioning hospitals, Al-Awda and Kamal Adwan, are barely operational, doctors and the World Health Organization said Tuesday with the Israel’s offensive in Gaza now in its eighth month.

Food and medicine for Palestinians in Gaza are piling up in Egypt because the Rafah crossing remains closed and there has been no aid delivered to a UN warehouse from a US-built pier for two days, UN officials warned on Monday.

Tens of thousands of Iranians yesterday gathered to mourn the late president Ebrahim Raisi following his death in a helicopter crash, as authorities probe what caused the aircraft to smash into the side of a remote mountainside during foggy weather.

France, Belgium and Slovenia released statements supporting the world’s top war crimes court and its chief prosecutor’s request for arrest warrants for leaders of Israel and Hamas, after Israel and the United States both harshly condemned the effort.