Mideast negotiator and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner was meeting Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu days after the premier rejected the 15-point, U.S.-backed road map to move the ceasefire deal forward in Gaza.

The meeting, which had stretched to about three hours as of Monday afternoon, follows Kushner's two-hour meeting with the Hamas leader in Egypt, as the U.S. presses for Israel's approval of the road map. There is a lot at stake, including the lives of some 2 million Palestinians in Gaza, reconstruction of the war-demolished enclave and future control over it.

Yemen's years-long civil conflict killed tens of thousands of people, uprooted millions and drove the country to the brink of famine before a 2022 truce restored relative calm. Now, renewed hostilities between the Houthi rebels and the government have many fearing the return of all-out war.

Hodeida native Anwar, a father of two, recalls fleeing the advance of the Iran-backed Houthis, seeking refuge in the city of Mokha.

Iran accused Qatar on Sunday of thwarting efforts to work out what happened to three pilots Tehran says were captured during the Middle East war, though the Gulf state has denied detaining them.

The Islamic republic had previously reported one pilot killed and others missing after a sortie to Qatar in March, but had not claimed at the time that any of them had been captured.

United Arab Emirates' state-owned oil giant ADNOC said Saturday one of its vessels came under attack in the Hormuz strait, the latest incident in the waterway at the centre of the US-Iran conflict.

Iran on Saturday fired back at U.S. President Donald Trump's claim that he would soon declare the Strait of Hormuz part of U.S. territory, saying the crucial energy waterway it has blockaded "will remain Iranian".

France on Friday called on Israel to arrest and prosecute rogue settlers blockading Palestinian homes at Qusra in the occupied West Bank and to protect the civilian population.

"France strongly condemns the occupation of several Palestinian homes in the village of Qusra in the West Bank by Israeli settlers, as well as the acts of violence committed against Palestinian civilians," the foreign ministry said.

The top U.S. priority now in the Iran war is no longer its nuclear program but to bring gasoline prices down for American consumers, the vice president said Thursday, with the treasury secretary adding that new economic punishment to wear down Tehran is imminent.

The comments by Vice President JD Vance and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent illustrate the powerful leverage Tehran has gained by shutting down the Strait of Hormuz.

The United Arab Emirates on Friday blamed Iran for attacks on two vessels linked to its state-owned oil company as they passed through the Strait of Hormuz a day earlier.

Iran has imposed an effective blockade of the strait, frequently attacking commercial ships, and wants to charge users for passage, which the U.S. fiercely opposes.

A British company said Thursday it has been hired to salvage a grounded Russian shadow fleet tanker off Oman's coast and stop an oil spill that is threatening wildlife as it reaches the country's shoreline following its dramatic spread in recent weeks.

Satellite images have shown that oil from the tanker Caroline Bezengi has exponentially spread over hundreds of square kilometers during stormy weather, endangering a marine protected area. The region's "Khareef" monsoon season peaks in July and August.

Crew members of a Yemeni commercial ship who survived a deadly attack by Houthi rebels earlier this week said a second missile struck the vessel just as rescue efforts from the initial strike were underway, causing even more chaos and casualties.

In all, three ballistic missiles fired by the Iran-backed Houthis struck the ship in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, just off Yemen's coast, as it was coming into port, killing six people and injuring at least nine others, according to Yemeni authorities.