Iran’s deputy foreign minister yesterday dismissed US accusations that Tehran was involved in attacks by Yemeni rebels on commercial ships, saying the group was acting on its own.

An Israel-affiliated merchant vessel was struck by an uncrewed aerial vehicle off India’s west coast, British maritime security firm Ambrey said on Saturday, in the first such known attack so far away from the Red Sea since the Gaza war.

Iranian police on Friday closed a major bookshop in the centre of the capital Tehran for allowing unveiled women to enter the premises without a compulsory headscarf, a newspaper reported.

An Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander said the Mediterranean Sea could be closed if the United States and its allies continued to commit “crimes” in Gaza, Iranian media reported yesterday, without explaining how that would happen.

Israel kept pounding Gaza yesterday as the UN Security Council approved a much-delayed resolution to boost aid to the besieged Palestinian territory where civilians are struggling to find food.

The first 10 weeks of the Israel-Gaza war have been the deadliest recorded for journalists, with the most journalists killed in a single year in one location, the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said on Thursday.

Experts liken intensity of bombing campaign in the enclave to WWII; US intel says 40-45pc of munitions used there are 'dumb bombs'

The United Nations human rights office said it had received reports that Israeli troops “summarily killed” at least 11 unarmed Palestinians in a possible war crime in Gaza.

Hopes rose of a ceasefire in Gaza diplomacy gathered pace ahead of a UN Security Council vote as death toll in the Palestinian enclave from the Israeli bombardment crossed 20,000.

Iran yesterday hanged a woman convicted of murdering her husband, whom she married while still a child, defying an international campaign for clemency, rights groups said.

The children displaced to south Gaza were craving chicken, but all their mother had left to feed the family for the day was a tin of peas donated by a man who took pity on her when he saw her crying.

The humanitarian crisis in Gaza is a “moral failure” of the international community, the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross said yesterday, as the UN Security Council was due to vote on another ceasefire demand.  

Around 41 percent of eligible voters cast ballots in Iraq’s first local elections in a decade on Monday, state media said, in a vote where the ruling Shi’ite Muslim alliance is expected to extend its hold on power amid a boycott by their main political rival.

Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has swept to a third, six-year term as Egypt’s president, winning 89.6 percent of votes in an election in which he faced no serious challengers, the National Election Authority announced yesterday.

A global rights group yesterday accused Israel of committing a war crime by starving people in the Gaza Strip who continued to face relentless attacks in the war with Hamas.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said yesterday that at least 110 Palestinians had been killed since Sunday in Israeli strikes on a northern part of the territory.

Iran’s Oil Minister Javad Owji yesterday confirmed that ongoing nationwide disruption to petrol stations was caused by a cyberattack.

Iraqis voted Monday in the first provincial council elections in a decade, which are expected to strengthen powerful Shiite pro-Iran groups

Dozens more Palestinians were killed yesterday as Israel stepped up deadly strikes on the besieged Gaza Strip despite growing international calls for a ceasefire.

Lebanon yesterday rescued more than 50 people, mostly Syrians, from a sinking migrant boat off the country’s north coast, the army said.