Activists aboard a Gaza-bound aid flotilla yesterday said Israeli warships surrounded several of its boats and that the interception of the main vessels was underway.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov yesterday accused Israel of seeking to “blow up” the whole Middle East as he criticised Israel’s attacks in Iran and Qatar and opposed calls to annex the West Bank.

Iran has recalled its envoys to the United Kingdom, France and Germany for consultations, according to state media, after the three European countries triggered a mechanism reinstating the United Nations’ sanctions on the Islamic Republic for the first time in a decade.

Sweeping UN sanctions look likely to return on Iran despite a last-ditch effort yesterday by China and Russia for a delay to allow further talks, diplomats say.

Israeli forces shot dead two Palestinians in the occupied West Bank village of Tammun on Thursday, the military said, accusing the men of preparing an attack.

Sheikh Abdulaziz bin Abdullah al-Sheikh, Saudi Arabia‘s grand mufti who served the kingdom’s top religious figure over a quarter century that saw the ultraconservative Muslim nation socially liberalise, died Tuesday. He was in his 80s.

Iran’s uranium-enrichment programme must be “completely dismantled”, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright told the UN nuclear watchdog’s annual General Conference yesterday.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio yesterday said that Washington was steadfast in its support for its ally Israel’s pursuit of the Gaza war and called for the eradication of Hamas.

Monday's emergency gathering of Arab and Islamic leaders will serve as a pointed show of unity among Gulf countries and seek to pile more pressure on Israel, which is already facing mounting calls to bring an end to the war and humanitarian crisis in Gaza

Meeting chaired by Qatari prime minister

Palestinian factions handed over weapons from Lebanon’s largest refugee camp on Saturday, a Palestinian official said, as part of a push by the government to disarm non-state groups.

Qatar yesterday said it will host a summit of Arab and Muslim leaders to denounce Israel’s attack on Hamas officials in Doha and to show solidarity with the Gulf state.

Israel yesterday warned its enemies they were not safe anywhere, a day after strikes targeting Hamas leaders in Qatar -- a US ally -- drew a rare rebuke from President Donald Trump.

Israeli forces conducted an airborne raid on a site near the Syrian capital after bombing it several times, Syrian state media reported.

Israel’s military said it intercepted a drone launched from Yemen yesterday, after sirens sounded in communities near the Gaza Strip.

An Israeli strike killed a man in southern Syria, state media reported Tuesday, a day after a new Israeli incursion in the area drew condemnation from Damascus.

The head of the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and two other senior officers are being removed, officials said Friday -- the latest in a series of military firings this year.

Iran will meet next week with Britain, France and Germany on its nuclear programme, the parties said yesterday, as the European powers warned Tehran to engage swiftly to avoid snapback sanctions.

The bus collided with a motorcycle and a truck carrying fuel, sparking a fire

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian yesterday headed to Armenia for talks on a planned corridor linking Azerbaijan with its exclave near the border with Iran, part of a peace deal signed at the White House.