Iran's foreign minister will visit Pakistan next week, the two countries said Monday, following unprecedented attacks on either side of the border last week that appeared to target Baluch militant groups with similar separatist goals.
The countries accuse each other of providing a haven to the groups in their respective territories.

Iran is "very directly involved" in ship attacks that Yemen's Houthi rebels have carried out during Israel's war against Hamas, the U.S. Navy's top Mideast commander told The Associated Press on Monday.
Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, the head of the Navy's 5th Fleet, stopped short of saying Tehran directed individual attacks by the Houthis in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

On Monday, dozens of family members of the hostages stormed into a Finance Committee meeting in Israel's Parliament, yelling: “You won’t sit here while they are dying there!”
Families of the hostages, as well as other protesters, have set up a tent camp outside Netanyahu's residence in Jerusalem and vowed to remain until a deal is reached to bring the rest of the hostages home. Other protests have called for new elections.

Hezbollah attacked overnight through Monday two Israeli forces near the Zar'it post and the Abu Djaj heights and another group of soldiers at the Raheb post as Israel hit several areas of southern Lebanon.
Israeli warplanes struck a two-story house in Shihine and the southern towns of Tayr Harfa, Merwahin and al-Taybeh.

Saudi Arabia's foreign minister says the kingdom will not normalize relations with Israel or contribute to Gaza's reconstruction without a credible pathway to a Palestinian state.
Prince Faisal bin Farhan's remarks in an interview with CNN broadcast late Sunday were some of the most direct yet from Saudi officials. It puts them at odds with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has rejected Palestinian statehood and described plans for open-ended military control over Gaza.

The Palestinian death toll in Gaza from over three months of war between Israel and the territory's Hamas rulers has soared past 25,000, the Gaza Health Ministry said Sunday.
At least 178 bodies were brought to Gaza's hospitals in 124 hours along with nearly 300 wounded people, according to Health Ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that he "will not compromise on full Israeli control" over Gaza and that "this is contrary to a Palestinian state," rejecting U.S. President Joe Biden's suggestion that creative solutions could bridge wide gaps between the leaders' views on Palestinian statehood.
In a sign of the pressures Netanyahu's government faces at home, thousands of Israelis protested in Tel Aviv calling for new elections, and others demonstrated outside the prime minister's house, joining families of the more than 100 remaining hostages held by Hamas and other militants. They fear that Israel's military activity further endangers hostages' lives.

Israeli police scuffled with relatives of captives held by Hamas after the group of family members blocked a major Tel Aviv highway, a sign of growing tensions over the government’s lack of visible progress in reaching a new deal to secure the captives' release.
Shahar Mor, whose nephew Avraham remains in Gaza, said he was one of seven protesters detained by police after the protest late Thursday. Footage showed demonstrators holding up signs reading “Deal Now” as they faced long lines of cars.

U.S. President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu finally spoke Friday after a glaring, nearly four-week gap in direct communication during which fundamental differences have come into focus over a possible pathway to Palestinian statehood once the fighting in Gaza ends.

Tens of thousands of public sector workers walked off the job across Northern Ireland on Thursday to protest political deadlock that has left them without pay increases, and the region without a functioning government.
Schools were closed, hospitals offered a skeleton service and authorities warned people not to travel unless it was essential as road-gritting crews joined the strike in the middle of a bitterly cold snap.
