UN human rights chief Volker Turk said yesterday he was “very disturbed” after comments by senior Israeli officials calling for Palestinians to leave Gaza.

The Islamic State jihadist group yesterday said that it carried out the twin bombings which killed at least 84 people at a memorial ceremony in Iran.

At least 103 people were killed in Iran yesterday as two bombs in quick succession struck a crowd commemorating slain general Qasem Soleimani on the anniversary of his killing, state media reported.

Israeli forces intensified their bombing of the Gaza Strip yesterday and told civilians to leave a refugee camp in the north of the Palestinian enclave after the offensive stretched into Lebanon with the killing in Beirut of the Hamas deputy leader.

Turkey said yesterday it had detained 56 high-priority suspects wanted by 18 countries for crimes ranging from drug dealing and money laundering to murder, counterfeiting and assault.

Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels fired two missiles late Tuesday toward merchant ships travelling in the Red Sea near the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the US military said following a report by the British maritime security agency UKMTO.

Turkey yesterday announced the detention of 33 people suspected of planning abductions and spying on behalf of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service.

Saudi state TV said yesterday that the kingdom had officially joined the BRICS bloc of countries.

An armed drone was shot down over Erbil airport in northern Iraq yesterday, where US and other international forces are stationed, two security sources said.

Israel launched pre-dawn air strikes near the Syrian capital yesterday, state media said citing a military source, at a time of heightened regional tensions over the Gaza war.

Israel killed Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri in a drone strike in Lebanon’s capital Beirut yesterday, Lebanese and Palestinian security sources said, as its forces kept pummelling parts of Gaza, vowing further “high-intensity” warfare against Hamas in the enclave.

Turkey on Tuesday announced the detention of 33 people suspected of planning abductions and spying on behalf of Israel's Mossad intelligence service

Israeli tanks pulled out of some Gaza City districts yesterday while remaining in others, residents said, ahead of a planned troop reduction in the offensive, but fighting raged elsewhere in the Palestinian enclave along with intense bombardment.

Saudi Arabia executed 170 people in 2023, including four on New Year’s Eve -- an increase on the previous year, according to an AFP tally based on announcements by Saudi authorities.

Israeli settlers killed at least 10 Palestinians and torched dozens of homes in the occupied West Bank in 2023, making it the “most violent” year on record for settler attacks, an Israeli watchdog said yesterday.

The White House said Sunday it is not seeking a wider conflict in the Middle East after US forces sank three boats of Yemen's Houthi rebels in the Red Sea

The health ministry in Gaza Strip said yesterday at least 150 people have been killed in 24 hours in the Palestinian territory as Israeli jets intensified attacks, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to retake control of the enclave’s border with Egypt.

More than 4,360 people, including combatants and civilians, were killed in Syria’s civil war in 2023, in the thirteenth year since fighting began, a war monitor said yesterday.

Israeli tanks pushed deeper into central and southern Gaza yesterday under heavy air and artillery fire, residents said, pressing a deadly offensive that has razed much of the enclave and that Israel has said may last months more.

World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Friday he was “very concerned” about the growing threat of infectious diseases in the Gaza Strip.