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Syria says no dialogue with Turkey before it announces plans to withdraw troops

Syria's foreign minister said Tuesday that any dialogue between Syria and Turkey should follow Ankara's announcement that it will withdraw its troops from all Syrian territories it controls.

Faisal Mekdad's comments during a joint news conference with Iran's acting foreign minister, Ali Bagheri Kani, came after Turkey threatened in recent days to act against Kurdish-led authorities in Syria's northeast as they prepare to hold municipal elections next week.

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US-linked restaurants attacked in Baghdad

Dozens of men have attacked two restaurants in Baghdad including a KFC, security officials said, as calls grow to boycott U.S. brands over Israel's war in Gaza.

The incident is the latest in a series of attacks targeting Western-linked brands in Iraq that started last week.

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Netanyahu says Biden plan 'partial', truce hasn't been agreed yet

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu views a plan outlined by U.S. President Joe Biden for a truce in Gaza and hostage release deal as "partial", a government spokesman said Monday.

Biden on Friday presented what he labelled an Israeli three-phase plan that would eventually end the fighting, free all hostages held by Palestinian militants and lead to the reconstruction of the devastated Gaza Strip without Hamas in power.

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Proposed Gaza cease-fire puts Netanyahu at crossroads

The cease-fire proposal announced by President Joe Biden has placed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a crossroads, with either path likely to shape the legacy of Israel's longest-serving and deeply divisive leader.

The proposal offers the possibility of ending Israel's war against Hamas, returning scores of hostages held by the Islamic militant group, quieting the northern border with Lebanon and potentially advancing a historic agreement to normalize ties with Saudi Arabia.

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Iranian adviser among several killed in Israel airstrikes near Aleppo

Israeli airstrikes around the Syrian city of Aleppo killed several people early on Monday, including an Iranian military adviser, the Syrian state media and Iranian news outlets reported.

Israel did not immediately acknowledge the strikes.

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Israel army 'stretched' as fighting rages on multiple fronts

On the same scorching day last month, Israeli troops fought street battles with Hamas militants in Gaza, its fighter jets struck Hezbollah targets in Lebanon and soldiers exchanged fire with Palestinian militants in the occupied West Bank.

As the war in the Gaza Strip nears its ninth month, Israel's military is getting pulled deeper into conflicts on multiple fronts and risks becoming overstretched, analysts told AFP.

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Iran acting FM slams US-proposed Gaza ceasefire deal in Lebanon visit

Iran's acting foreign minister dismissed a Gaza cease-fire deal proposed by U.S. President Joe Biden and warned Israel against launching an all-out war on Lebanon during a visit to Beirut Monday, his first official diplomatic visit since his predecessor died last month.

Ali Bagheri Kani replaced Hossein Amirabdollahian, a hard-liner close to the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, who died in a helicopter crash on May 19 in a mountainous area near Iran's border with Azerbaijan, along with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and a delegation of other officials.

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Israeli strikes kill 11 in Gaza

Palestinian health officials said Israeli strikes killed 11 people overnight into Monday, including a woman and three children, in central Gaza.

A strike on a home in the built-up Bureij refugee camp late Sunday killed four people, including the three children. The second strike, early Monday, killed seven people, including a woman, in the Nuseirat refugee camp.

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Israeli army investigating itself: Where do those investigations stand?

Throughout its grinding seven-month war with Hamas, Israel has pledged to investigate a series of deadly events in which its military forces are suspected of wrongdoing. The commitment comes in the face of mounting claims — from human rights groups and the International Criminal Court 's chief prosecutor — that the country's leaders are committing war crimes in Hamas-ruled Gaza.

In one of the highest-profile cases, an attack on a World Central Kitchen convoy that killed six foreign aid workers and their Palestinian driver, the Israeli army promptly published its findings, acknowledged misconduct by its forces and dismissed two soldiers. But other investigations remain open, and admissions of guilt are rare.

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Gaza detainees handcuffed and blindfolded in Israel shadowy desert hospital

Patients lying shackled and blindfolded on more than a dozen beds inside a white tent in the desert. Surgeries performed without adequate painkillers. Doctors who remain anonymous.

These are some of the conditions at Israel's only hospital dedicated to treating Palestinians detained by the military in the Gaza Strip, three people who have worked there told The Associated Press, confirming similar accounts from human rights groups.

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