Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz yesterday threatened to annex parts of the Gaza Strip unless Hamas released the remaining Israeli hostages held in the war-battered Palestinian territory.

Hamas has called on Arab and Muslim nations to take urgent action to halt Israel’s renewed offensive on Gaza, saying they had a “direct moral and political responsibility” to “end the genocide”.

Iran’s supreme leader yesterday said that US threats against his country “will get them nowhere” after President Donald Trump warned of possible military action against the Islamic Republic.

After two months of relative calm, Gazans were again fleeing for their lives after Israel effectively abandoned a ceasefire

At least 183 children among the dead; thousands flee after new evacuation order.

Yemen’s Huthis yesterday said they carried out their third attack on American warships in 48 hours, after US President Donald Trump declared he will hold Iran directly responsible for any future attacks by the Tehran-backed rebels.

Israeli airstrikes yesterday killed more than 400 people in Gaza, shattering a fragile ceasefire and drawing global condemnation.

The Israeli military said it launched air strikes in central and southern Gaza on Monday targeting militants attempting to plant explosives near Israeli forces stationed in the territory.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said Monday that his country was “committed” to cooperating with the UN’s nuclear agency after meeting with its chief, Rafael Grossi.

Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthis yesterday vowed to meet “escalation with escalation” after a wave of deadly US air strikes, with witnesses to the bombing saying they were taken aback by its intensity, even after years of war.

Gaza’s civil defence agency said nine people including journalists were killed in Israeli strikes in the north yesterday, an attack Hamas denounced as a “blatant violation” of the fragile ceasefire.

Iraqi security forces have killed a senior Islamic State (IS) group leader responsible for foreign operations, according to the country’s prime minister, with US President Donald Trump saying later Friday his “miserable life was terminated”.

Hamas yesterday said it was ready to free an Israeli-American hostage and the remains of four others after the Palestinian militants and Israel resumed indirect Gaza ceasefire negotiations.

A United Nations investigation yesterday concluded that Israel carried out “genocidal acts” in Gaza through the destruction of its main IVF clinic, maternity facilities and other reproductive healthcare facilities.

An Israeli air strike hit Gaza City yesterday, with the civil defence agency reporting four men killed and the military saying it had targeted “terrorists” posing a threat to troops.

Iran has summoned the Swedish ambassador to protest against “interventionist accusations” made by his country’s education minister, the foreign ministry in Tehran announced yesterday.

Britain, France, Germany and Italy yesterday backed a proposal by Muslim-majority nations to rebuild Gaza as a “realistic path”.

Syrian security forces deployed heavily in the Alawite heartland on the Mediterranean coast yesterday, after a war monitor reported that government and allied forces killed more than 500 civilians from the religious minority in recent days.

The foreign ministers of France, Germany, Italy and Britain said on Saturday they supported an Arab-backed plan for the reconstruction of Gaza that would cost $53 billion and avoid displacing Palestinians from the enclave

A major Israeli offensive which over several weeks has displaced tens of thousands of Palestinians and ravaged refugee camps increasingly appears to be aligned with the “vision of annexation” of the West Bank, a UN official told AFP.