State of Palestine

Jordan's King Abdullah II appealed for a full ceasefire to end the Gaza war after talks with Joe Biden, striking a discordant note with the U.S. president who is seeking a shorter six-week pause to give Israel time to defeat Hamas.

Israeli air strikes pummelled densely crowded Rafah on Saturday after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered his troops to "prepare to operate" in the southern border city that has become a last holdout for displaced Palestinians.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Wednesday to push for a ceasefire as the Gaza war enters its fifth month.

Russia and China accused the United States during a U.N. Security Council meeting on Monday of stoking already high tensions in the Middle East with its recent retaliatory strikes on Iran-backed groups in Iraq and Syria.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Egypt on Tuesday as part of his latest Middle East crisis tour, seeking a new ceasefire and "an enduring end" to the Israel-Hamas war.

Türkiye's head of the intelligence agency, İbrahim Kalın, held talks with the head of the political wing of Hamas, İsmai Haniyye, in Doha amid efforts to reach a ceasefire in the Gaza war that killed more than 25,000 civilians at the hands of the Israeli army.

Scores were reported killed in overnight strikes across the Gaza Strip on Sunday, after Hamas said it needed more time to consider a proposal that would halt its war with Israel in the besieged Palestinian territory.

Yemeni Huthi rebels claimed on Friday they had launched a barrage of missiles toward Israel, after the Israeli army said it had intercepted a missile over the Red Sea.

Police have rescued seven hostages held at gunpoint for hours at a factory owned by US company Procter & Gamble in northwest Turkey, local officials said early Friday.

A gunman had sparked the standoff at the P&G facility in Gebze, Kocaeli province, in protest of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, Governor Seddar Yavuz was quoted as saying by state-run Anadolu news agency.

Fears that the Biden administration's bearish embrace of embattled Israel could "swallow" Israel alive have dramatically intensified this week, JNS writes.
On Wednesday, US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the administration is "actively pursuing the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with real security guarantees for Israel."