Transport ministers from Turkey, Iraq, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates are meeting in Istanbul on Thursday to discuss a multibillion-dollar regional transportation project designed to ease the movement of goods from Asia to Europe through Iraq.

The proposed $20 billion Development Road Project is designed to facilitate the transport of goods from the Gulf to Europe via the Grand Faw Port in Basra in southern Iraq. The port would be linked to Turkey and subsequently to Europe through an extensive network of railways and highways.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Thursday he will urge the bloc's 27 member states Thursday to back sanctions on Israeli ministers over their remarks about the war in Gaza.

“Some Israeli ministers have been launching hateful messages, unacceptable hateful messages, against the Palestinians and proposing things that go clearly against international law and is an incitation to commit more crimes,” Borrell said.

The U.N. secretary-general is calling for an immediate halt to Israel's large-scale military operation in the West Bank.

Antonio Guterres also called on Israel’s government to comply with its obligations under international law and take measures to protect civilians, according to a written statement from his spokesman Stephane Dujarric late Thursday.

Ireland’s foreign minister said Thursday that Israel is targeting Palestinian people and not just Hamas with its military campaign in Gaza, and he wants the European Union to review its ties with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

“This is a war against Palestinians not just against Hamas. The level of civilian casualties and dead is unconscionable,” Micheál Martin said at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels. “It’s a war on the population. No point in trying to fudge this.”

Yemen's Houthi rebels have agreed to allow tugboats and rescue ships to assist a Greek-flagged oil tanker that remains ablaze in the Red Sea "in consideration of humanitarian and environmental concerns," Iran's mission to the United Nations claimed late Wednesday. However, the Houthis did not offer specific details and are believed to have blocked an earlier attempt to salvage the vessel and continue to attack shipping across the Red Sea.

Last week's attack on the Sounion marked the most serious assault in weeks by the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, who continue to target shipping through the Red Sea corridor over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. The attacks have disrupted the $1 trillion in trade that typically passes through the region, as well as halted some aid shipments to conflict-ravaged Sudan and Yemen.

French authorities handed preliminary charges to Telegram CEO Pavel Durov on Wednesday for allowing alleged criminal activity on his messaging app and barred him from leaving France pending further investigation.

Both free-speech advocates and authoritarian governments have spoken in Durov's defense since his weekend arrest. The case has also called attention to the challenges of policing illegal activity online, and to the Russia-born Durov's own unusual biography and multiple passports.

The Israeli military said it has killed five more militants in a large-scale operation in the occupied West Bank early Thursday, including a well-known local commander.

Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad confirmed the death of Mohammed Jaber, known as Abu Shujaa, a commander in the Islamic Jihad in the Nour Shams refugee camp on the outskirts of the city of Tulkarem.

The U.N. Security Council has demanded a halt to the increasing attacks between Hezbollah and Israeli forces and warned that further escalation "carries the high risk of leading to a widespread conflict."

Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah pulled back after an exchange of heavy fire across the U.N.-drawn boundary between Lebanon and Israel over the weekend. But their decades-old conflict is far from over and regional tensions linked to the war in Gaza are still high.

An Israeli hostage rescued from Gaza returned to a hero's welcome tinged with a bitter reality: Much of the small village he calls home – Khirbet Karkur -- is targeted for demolition.

Qaid Farhad Alkadi, 52, is one of Israel's roughly 300,000 Bedouin Arabs, a poor and traditionally nomadic minority that has a complicated relationship with the government and often faces discrimination. While they are Israeli citizens and some serve in the army, about a third of Bedouins, including Alkadi, live in villages the government considers illegal and wants to tear down.

The 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival is about to begin, with major Hollywood films and stars expected in Italy. The festival kicks off Wednesday with the world premiere of "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" before it opens in theaters worldwide next week.

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