Middle East
Latest stories
At least 6 Palestinians killed in latest fighting with Israel

Israeli military operations in the occupied West Bank and unrest in the Gaza Strip have killed six Palestinians, Palestinian health officials said Wednesday, the latest spike in a wave of violence that has roiled the region for more than a year.

The death toll from the most recent flare-up stood at four late Tuesday. But on Wednesday the Palestinian Health Ministry raised it, saying an Israeli raid into the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank killed four people and wounded some 30 others, while a raid in a separate refugee camp killed another Palestinian. A sixth Palestinian was killed by Israeli fire in unrest in the Gaza Strip, officials said.

W140 Full Story
Netanyahu, Musk discuss antisemitism on X, artificial intelligence

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu kicked off a U.S. trip in California to talk to billionaire businessman Elon Musk about antisemitism on his social media platform X — while Musk asked him to address his judicial overhaul in Israel. The two also discussed artificial intelligence in a sparsely attended livestream event.

Netanyahu's high-profile visit to the San Francisco Bay Area comes at a time when Musk is facing accusations of tolerating antisemitic messages on his social media platform, while Netanyahu is confronting political opposition at home and abroad. Protesters gathered early Monday outside the Fremont, California, factory where Tesla makes its cars.

W140 Full Story
German ambassador's attendance at Israeli court hearing ignites diplomatic spat

The Israeli government has complained to Germany after the German ambassador attended a high-profile Supreme Court hearing last week looking at the legality of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's judicial overhaul, an Israeli diplomatic official said Monday.

The complaint, sent at the order of Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, sparked a rare diplomatic spat between the two allies, with German leaders defending their ambassador against the criticism.

W140 Full Story
Most Americans view Israel as partner, but fewer see it as sharing US values

As President Joe Biden prepares to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week in New York, a new poll finds that while Americans generally view Israel as a partner or ally, many question whether his far-right government shares American values.

The poll results from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and the meeting come during a new period of tension between the Biden administration and Israel. Those tensions are caused by Netanyahu's proposed judicial overhaul that has sparked mass protests in major Israeli cities, ongoing disagreements over how to deal with Iran and how to approach the Palestinians, and comments from Netanyahu political allies that have irked U.S. officials.

W140 Full Story
Airstrike on military airport in Iraq's Kurdish region kills 3 people

An airstrike on a military airport in northern Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region killed three people Monday, local officials said.

The region's counter-terrorism service said in a statement that the attack on the Arbat Airport, 28 kilometers southeast of the city of Suleimaniyah killed three of its personnel and injured three members of the Kurdish Peshmerga forces.

W140 Full Story
14 fighters dead in north Syria attack by Kurdish group

A Syrian Kurdish armed group attacked an area controlled by pro-Turkish fighters in rebel-held northern Syria on Monday, killing at least 14, a war monitor and a factional leader said.

The Kurdish Afrin Liberation Forces took advantage of factional fighting that broke out after midnight on the outskirts of Al-Bab in Aleppo province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

W140 Full Story
UN warns of disease threat in flood-ravaged east Libya

The U.N. on Monday warned that disease outbreaks could bring "a second devastating crisis" to Libya a week after a massive flash flood devastated the coastal city of Derna, sweeping thousands to their deaths.

Local officials, aid agencies and the World Health Organization "are concerned about the risk of disease outbreak, particularly from contaminated water and the lack of sanitation", the United Nations said.

W140 Full Story
In corrupt Libya, longtime warnings of Derna dams collapse went unheeded

The warnings were clear but went unheeded.

Experts had long said that floods posed a significant danger to two dams meant to protect nearly 90,000 people in the northeast of Libya. They repeatedly called for immediate maintenance to the two structures, located just uphill from the coastal city of Derna. But successive governments in the chaos-stricken North African nation did not react.

W140 Full Story
Israel criticizes UN vote to list prehistoric ruins as World Heritage Site in Palestine

A U.N. committee voted Sunday to list prehistoric ruins near the ancient West Bank city of Jericho as a World Heritage Site in Palestine, a decision that angered Israel, which controls the territory and does not recognize a Palestinian state.

Jericho is one of the oldest continually inhabited cities on earth, and is in a part of the Israeli-occupied West Bank that is administered by the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority. The listing refers to the Tell es-Sultan archaeological site nearby, which contains prehistoric ruins dating back to the ninth millennium B.C. and is outside the ancient city itself.

W140 Full Story
Libya probes collapse of 2 dams after flooding devastates city, kills over 11,000

Libya's top prosecutor said he has opened an investigation into the collapse of two dams that caused a devastating flood in a coastal city as rescue teams searched for bodies, nearly a week after the deluge killed more than 11,000 people.

Heavy rains caused by Mediterranean storm Daniel caused deadly flooding across eastern Libya last weekend. The floods overwhelmed two dams, sending a wall of water several meters (yards) high through the center of Derna, destroying entire neighborhoods and sweeping people out to sea.

W140 Full Story