An armed assailant yesterday raided a plant owned by the US consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble near Istanbul and took an undisclosed number of people hostage, Turkish media reported.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) organisation said that an explosion was reported at a distance off a vessel’s starboard side west of Yemen’s Hodeidah. UKMTO said that the vessel and crew are safe.

The recent ruling by the International Court of Justice gave a sense of optimism for the Palestinians struggling for 75 long years for liberation, Palestinian Ambassador to Bangladesh Yousef SY Ramadan said yesterday.

Israeli forces pounded areas in northern and southern Gaza yesterday as UN agency chiefs said a bitter row over the main aid agency for Palestinians could “have catastrophic consequences for the people of Gaza”.

Iran will respond to any threat from the United States, Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ chief Hossein Salami said yesterday, as Washington weighs its response to the killing of American servicemen by Tehran-aligned militants.

US President Joe Biden said Tuesday he had decided on a response to a drone strike that killed three American troops in Jordan, while insisting he did not want a wider war in the Middle East

Israel said undercover commandos killed three Palestinians in a raid on a hospital in the occupied West Bank yesterday, a further sign that Israel’s offensive in Gaza is spreading to other fronts.

Israel launched an assault overnight on Gaza’s main northern city weeks after pulling back from there, residents said yesterday, while heavy fighting has continued around hospitals in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis.

Iran yesterday denied any links to a drone strike in Jordan that killed three US military personnel and said it was not seeking an “expansion” of conflict in the Middle East.

Israeli strikes in Syria yesterday killed seven people, including pro-Iran fighters, a war monitor said, in the latest such attack in the country against groups loyal to Tehran.

Iran executed four men at dawn on Monday after they were convicted of collaborating with the country's arch-foe Israel on a plan to sabotage an Iranian defense site, according to the judiciary

A drone attack on a base in Jordan killed three American troops and wounded more than 30 on Sunday, with President Joe Biden blaming Iran-backed militants and vowing to hold the perpetrators to account

UN officials implored countries to reconsider a pause in funding for the UN agency for Palestinians yesterday, vowing to punish anyone involved in Hamas’ attack on Israel and warning that aid for some two million people in Gaza was at stake.

The trial of a Swedish EU diplomat wrapped up in Tehran yesterday, with Iranian prosecutors seeking the maximum penalty for the man accused of spying for Iran’s arch-foe, Israel.

The head of the main UN aid agency in the Gaza Strip warned late Saturday that its work is collapsing after nine countries decided to cut funding over allegations that several agency employees had participated in the deadly Hamas attack against Israel four months ago.

Britain, Italy and Finland yesterday became the latest countries to pause funding for the United Nations' refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA), following allegations its staff were involved in the October 7 attacks on Israel.

Palestinians trapped in the grip of war were caught between feelings of pride and frustration on Friday following the UN’s top court saying Israel must prevent genocide in Gaza.

The top UN court yesterday ordered Israel to take action to prevent acts of genocide as the country wages offensive in the Gaza Strip.

In battered, hard-to-reach north Gaza, rare aid deliveries get mobbed by desperate, hungry Palestinians and aid workers report seeing people thin and visibly starving with sunken eyes.

Israeli tanks bombarded areas around two hospitals in Gaza’s main southern city Khan Younis yesterday, forcing displaced people into a new desperate scramble for safe shelter, residents said.