The latest escalation in the Middle East conflict served to unite the geographically fragmented Palestinian community in a way not seen in years, analysts say.

A mysterious air base is being built on a volcanic island off Yemen that sits in one of the world's crucial maritime chokepoints for both energy shipments and commercial cargo.

While no country has claimed the Mayun Island air base in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, shipping traffic associated with a prior attempt to build a massive runway across the 5.6-kilometer-long island years ago links back to the United Arab Emirates.

U.S. top diplomat Antony Blinken on Tuesday vowed support to help rebuild the battered Gaza Strip and shore up a truce between Hamas and Israel, but insisted the territory's Islamist militant rulers would not benefit from any aid.

Syria's foreign minister blamed Israel for mysterious attacks over more than a year targeting oil tankers heading to Syria, saying they violate international law and will not go unpunished.

Faisal Mekdad told Lebanon-based Al-Mayadeen TV in an interview aired late Sunday that oil tankers coming to Syria now move under Russian protection. He did not provide any evidence for how Israel was behind the attacks.

Israel's battle with Gaza militants and unprecedented inter-communal violence at home have further complicated efforts to form a government, raising the specter of yet another general election, experts say. 

A U.N. official in war-battered Gaza has called for a "genuine political process" to avert further bloodshed, after the military conflict between Israel and Islamist group Hamas that ravaged the Palestinian enclave.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian has warned of the risk of "long-lasting apartheid" in Israel in the event the Palestinians fail to obtain their own state.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaking ahead of a trip to the Middle East, has reaffirmed U.S. support for a two-state solution as the only way to provide hope to Israelis and Palestinians that they can live "with equal measures of security, of peace and dignity."

After a ceasefire with Israel, Hamas has claimed "victory" but the Palestinian Islamist group's success lies more in marginalizing its political rival Fatah than in battle, analysts say.

The return of calm to the Hamas-run enclave of Gaza, after 11 days of Israeli air strikes on the coastal strip -- and rocket fire sent in the other direction -- was celebrated Friday by large crowds waving Palestinian flags.

When an Israeli air strike targeted a security office near her home in Gaza this month, 10-year-old Zeina Dabous frantically scribbled a note and slipped it under her mother's pillow.