Israeli police have opened fire at a pair of suspected attackers who rammed their car into a West Bank checkpoint, fatally shooting a young Palestinian girl in an adjacent vehicle, according to police and medical officials.
The two suspects were also shot, while a young police officer was lightly hurt. The Sunday evening incident came hours after nine people were killed in other unrest in the occupied territory, which has experienced a surge of violence since Israel's war against Hamas erupted on Oct. 7.

Missiles, rockets and drones struck targets around the Middle East this week as the United States, Israel and others clashed with Iran-allied militant groups — with attacks hitting in vital Red Sea shipping lanes, along Israeli-Lebanon borders emptied by fleeing residents and around the region's crowded capitals and U.S. military installations.
Together, Israel and its U.S. allies were facing two realities they knew all too well going into the war in Gaza: The Gaza-based Hamas militant group is far from alone as it battles for its survival. And by launching an all-out campaign to eliminate Hamas as a fighting force, Israeli and American leaders also are confronting simultaneous attacks from a strengthening defensive alliance of other armed militant groups linked with Hamas and Iran.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has urged Israel to ease its military campaign in Gaza and do more to protect civilians in the besieged Palestinian territory.
Germany has been one of Israel's most steadfast supporters since the start of the conflict with Hamas, but Baerbock warned that Israel's security also depended on limiting civilian deaths.

An Al Jazeera journalist is the fifth member of his family killed by Israeli strikes on Gaza.
An apparent Israeli airstrike killed two Palestinian journalists in southern Gaza on Sunday, including an Al Jazeera journalist who lost four close relatives earlier in the war.

On another urgent diplomatic mission to the Middle East, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Arab partners to press for their help in tamping down resurgent fears that Israel's three-month war against Hamas in Gaza could spread.
In discussions with Qatar's emir and Jordan's king, Blinken spoke of the need for Israel to adjust its military operations to reduce civilian casualties and significantly boost the amount of humanitarian aid reaching Gaza, while stressing the importance of preparing detailed plans for the post-conflict future of the Palestinian territory, which has been decimated by Israeli bombardments.

In the last week alone, Israel has killed a senior Hamas militant in an airstrike in Beirut, Hezbollah has fired barrages of rockets into Israel, the U.S. has killed a militia commander in Baghdad and Iran-backed rebels in Yemen have traded fire with the American Navy.
Each strike and counterstrike increases the risk of the already catastrophic war in Gaza spilling across the region. And in the decades-old standoff pitting the U.S. and Israel against Iran and allied militant groups, any one party could choose all-out war over a loss of face.

An early morning strike by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank killed six Palestinians, while an Israeli police officer died when a roadside bomb hit her vehicle Sunday, sources on both sides said.
Violence in the West Bank since the start of Israel's war with Gaza-based Hamas militants has surged to levels unseen in nearly two decades. Israeli forces carry out regular raids in the occupied territory, especially in the militant stronghold of Jenin and its adjacent refugee camp.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Saturday that Turkey is committed to playing "a positive, productive" role for postwar Gaza and prepared to use its influence in the region to prevent the Israel-Hamas conflict from broadening even more.
The latest Mideast mission by America's top diplomat opened with talks in Turkey and Greece before shifting to the region for "not necessarily easy conversations" with allies and partners about what they are willing to do "to build durable peace and security."

Israel said it had "dismantled" Hamas' military leadership in northern Gaza as its war against the Palestinian group entered a fourth month Sunday, with fears mounting that the conflict could spread into neighboring Lebanon.
Israel carried out air strikes in Gaza's main southern city of Khan Yunis early Sunday.

Israel bombed southern Gaza early Saturday as the U.N. warned the besieged Palestinian territory has been rendered "uninhabitable" by three months of war.
The fighting, triggered by the October 7 attacks on southern Israel by Hamas militants, has sent tensions soaring across the region, and shows no signs of abating as the conflict slides into its fourth month on Sunday.
