Benjamin Netanyahu traveled secretly to the United Arab Emirates over the weekend to ask its leader to deny reports heâd warned the Israeli prime minister about a looming Hamas threat ahead of the Palestinian militant groupâs Oct. 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel.
The meeting between Netanyahu and Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan took place on Sunday, two people who were briefed on the Israeli leaderâs trip confirmed on Monday.
Ceasefires have been announced, often to great fanfare, in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran. So why is there still so much fighting?
The drones that targeted the United Arab Emiratesâ Barakah nuclear power plant all came from Iraq, the countryâs Defense Ministry said on Tuesday, an indication that Iraqi Shiite militias backed by Iran were likely behind the assault.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack but Tehran and its militia proxies have launched drone attacks targeting Gulf Arab states since Israel and the United States began their war against Iran on Feb.
The holiday, also known as International Workersâ Day or Labor Day, marks the struggles and achievements of workers and the labor movement around the world. Thousands of people are expected to attend rallies and demonstrations calling for stronger protections for workers, higher wages, greater equality and more.
Pillars of flame rose above an oil storage facility in Tehran late on Saturday as Israel carried out further air strikes. It appeared to be the first time a civil industrial facility has been targeted in the war. (AP video by Mohsen Ganji)
(February 6, 2019)
Torture became widespread, as shown in the museumâs exhibits. Interrogators all wear ties, a nod to their Western connections. Portraits of the shah, Queen Farah and his son, Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, who now lives in exile in the U.S., hang above one torture scene
(…)
Sheikhi walked with Associated Press journalists through the prison that once held him, built in the 1930s by German engineers. Black-and-white photographs of its 8,500 prisoners from over the years line the walls. They include current Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the late President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.
Sheikhi, then 19, spent about three months in the prison and 11 months in another after being detained for distributing anti-shah statements from Khomeini, then in exile.
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The first strike hit the upper floor of the hospital, which was one of the largest medical facilities in Gaza prior to the war.
A second strike targeted the rescue team responding to the casualties from the initial bombing.
Four journalists were killed in the attack, including Mohamed Salama, a contributor to Middle East Eye who had produced numerous video reports since the start of the Israeli genocide in Gaza in October 2023.
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Salama also worked with Al Jazeera.
The other three reporters were identified as Hossam al-Masri, a Reuters cameraman; Mariam Abu Daqa, who contributed to Independent Arabia and AP; and Moath Abu Taha, who worked with NBC.
Mariam Dagga, 33, a visual journalist, freelanced for the AP since the Gaza war began, as well as other news outlets. The AP said in a statement that it was shocked and saddened to learn of Daggaâs death, along with several other journalists.
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Al Jazeera confirmed that its journalist Mohammed Salam was also among those who were killed in the Nasser strike. Reuters reported that its contractor cameraman Hussam al-Masri was killed and its contractor photographer Hatem Khaled wounded. It was not immediately clear who the fourth journalist killed was.
Jul 2, 2025
American contractors guarding aid distribution sites in Gaza are using live ammunition and stun grenades as hungry Palestinians scramble for food, according to accounts and videos obtained by The Associated Press. Two U.S. contractors, speaking to the AP on condition of anonymity because they were revealing their employersâ internal operations, said they were coming forward because they were disturbed by what they considered dangerous and irresponsible practices. (Production: Luke Garratt).
Some 170,000 metric tons of aid, including food, sits in trucks a few miles away, just inside Israel.
Nutritionist Rana Soboh says she has been pushed to her witsâ end after seeing two extreme malnutrition cases in Gaza, which is on the brink of famine due to Israelâs aid blockade.
The first was a woman who was rushed to an emergency room after fainting while she breastfed her newborn, who had not eaten for days, the humanitarian worker with MedGlobal told the Associated Press news agency.
Battles are so intense that some Ukrainian commanders canât evacuate the dead. Communication lags and poorly timed tactics have cost lives, and troops have little way to counterattack, seven front-line soldiers and commanders told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity so they could discuss sensitive operations.
Onlookers at the site Sunday clambered over large slabs of concrete, surrounded by high piles of twisted metal and wreckage. Several craters, likely used by rescuers to penetrate under the site of the explosion were visible, some of them apparently up to 30 meters (100 feet) deep.
A few Hezbollah workers were using a bulldozer to excavate around one of the craters, some of them apparently dug by rescuers to reach the dead. State security and investigators were nowhere to be seen.
Hereâs the latest:
PALESTINIANS WANT U.N. GENERAL ASSEMBLY TO RECONSIDER THEIR BID FOR FULL MEMBERSHIP (…)
Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian U.N. ambassador, told The Associated Press late Tuesday that the vote will take place on May 10.
(today)
The path to the April 1 attack started months ago, as aid groups desperately looked for ways to feed millions cut off from regular food deliveries. Gaza was sealed off by Israeli forces within hours of the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas militants that ignited the war. Since then, more than 33,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 80% of the enclaveâs 2.3 million people displaced.
Hunger has become commonplace. Famine, U.N. officials warn, has become increasingly likely in war-ravaged northern Gaza.
(02.04.2024)
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) â An Israeli airstrike that demolished Iranâs consulate in Syria on Monday killed two Iranian generals and five officers, according to Iranian officials. The strike appeared to signify an escalation of Israelâs targeting of military officials from Iran, which supports militant groups fighting Israel in Gaza, and along its border with Lebanon.
Israeli jets on Sunday launched several strikes near the Shifa Hospital, which largely stopped functioning following the November raid. After claiming that Hamas maintained an elaborate command center there, Israeli forces months ago exposed a single tunnel leading to a few underground rooms.
Hardly any aid has been delivered in recent weeks to northern Gaza and Gaza City, where Shifa is located.
(today)
Both the strikes in Iraq and Yemen targeted sites that the U.S. has said are involved in the attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria and were threatening U.S. military and commercial vessels in the Red Sea.
Israelis were left stunned and speechless when three hostages held by Hamas were killed by Israeli forces in the middle of an active war zone after they waved a white flag and screamed out in Hebrew to show they did not pose a threat.
For some, the incident was a shocking example of the ugliness of war, where a complex and dangerous battlefield is safe for no one. But for critics, the incident underscores what they say is the excessively violent conduct of Israelâs security apparatus against Palestinians.
(01.12.2023)
The attack was planned in plain sight. A month before the assault, Hamas posted a video to social media showing fighters using explosives to blast through a replica of the border gate, sweep in on pickup trucks and then move building by building through a full-scale reconstruction of an Israeli town, firing automatic weapons at human-silhouetted paper targets.
In the video, the militants destroyed mock-ups of the wallâs concrete towers and a communications antenna, just as they would do for real on Oct. 7.
The United Nations and other international institutions and experts, as well as Palestinian authorities in the West Bank â rivals of Hamas â say the Gaza ministry has long made a good-faith effort to account for the dead under the most difficult conditions.
âThe numbers may not be perfectly accurate on a minute-to-minute basis,â said Michael Ryan, of the World Health Organizationâs Health Emergencies Program. âBut they largely reflect the level of death and injury.â
(September 28, 2023)
Since the countryâs first coup in January 2022, the number of people killed by Islamic extremists has nearly tripled compared with the 18 months before, according to a recent report by the Africa Center for Strategic Studies.
On Thursday, the bloc ordered the deployment of a âstandbyâ force to restore constitutional rule in Niger, with Nigeria, Benin, Senegal and Ivory Coast saying they would contribute troops.
But itâs unclear when, how or if the troops will deploy. The move could take weeks or months to set into motion, and while the bloc decides what to do the junta is gaining power, some observers say.
Iran did not provide a reason for launching the drill, though such snap exercises have happened in the past.
Thousands of Marines backed by advanced U.S. fighter jets and warships are slowly building up a presence in the Persian Gulf. Itâs a sign that while Americaâs wars in the region may be finished, its conflict with Iran over its advancing nuclear program continues to worsen, with no solutions in sight.
The dispatch of the troop-and-aircraft-carrying USS Bataan to the Gulf, alongside stealth F-35 fighters and other warplanes, comes as America wants to focus on China and Russia.
That assessment and Bidenâs comments at the Group of 20 summit in Indonesia contradict information earlier Tuesday from a senior U.S. intelligence official who told the AP that Russian missiles crossed into Poland.
According to a report released by the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights (ESOHR), during the first half of 2022, Saudi Arabia executed 120 people, a number higher than that of 2020 and 2021 combined. The kingdom is on its way to surpassing the record of 186 executions set in 2019.
Most of the executions carried out this year took place on 12 March, when Saudi officials killed 81 detainees on charges of âterrorism-related activities.â
A letter from Ukraineâs U.N. Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and members of the U.N. Security Council was obtained by The Associated Press ahead of a closed council meeting late Wednesday requested by Britain, France and the United States on Iranâs sale of hundreds of drones to Russia.
The three Western countries strongly back Ukraineâs contention that the drones were transferred to Russia and violate a 2015 U.N. Security Council resolution that endorsed the nuclear deal between Iran and six key nations — the U.S., Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany — aimed at curbing Tehranâs nuclear activities and preventing the country from developing a nuclear weapon.
(May 26, 2022)
By now itâs as predictable as the calls for thoughts and prayers: A mass shooting leaves many dead, and wild conspiracy theories and misinformation about the carnage soon follow.