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

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.

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.

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.

An overwhelming majority of President Joe Biden’s fellow Democrats in the Senate on Wednesday backed a statement reiterating US support of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israel and Hamas have made some progress toward agreement on a 30-day ceasefire in Gaza when Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners would be released, sources told Reuters, as Israel pressed ahead with its assault on Khan Younis, the main city in southern Gaza, yesterday.

Saudi Arabia is preparing to open its first alcohol store in the capital Riyadh which will serve exclusively non-Muslim diplomats, according to a source familiar with the plans and a document.

Iraq accused the United States of contributing to a “reckless escalation” of violence in the region after American air strikes targeted Iran-backed groups in the country yesterday.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday said it was “unacceptable” for Israel’s government to reject a two-state solution to its conflict with the Palestinians, warning that the move would “embolden extremists everywhere.”

Saudi Arabia plans to allow the sale of alcohol to non-Muslim diplomats for the first time, two sources familiar with the plan told AFP today

Twenty-four Israeli soldiers were killed in Israel’s worst day of losses in Gaza, the military said yesterday, as it claimed to have encircled southern Gaza’s main city in a major ground assault.

Israel has proposed to Hamas via Qatari and Egyptian mediators a pause in fighting of up to two months as part of a deal to free all the hostages being held in Gaza, the US news site Axios reported Monday.

Israel’s plan to destroy Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza is not working and the European Union must pursue efforts to create a “two-state solution” despite Israeli opposition, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said yesterday.

At least nine bodies have washed ashore on Turkey’s southern coast in the past week, local media reported yesterday, with officials suspecting that most belonged to migrants who went missing in December.

Israeli tanks storming southern Gaza’s main city reached the gates of two hospitals yesterday, cutting residents off from trauma care as the bloodiest fighting of the new year tore through areas sheltering hundreds of thousands of displaced.