Around 41 percent of eligible voters cast ballots in Iraq’s first local elections in a decade on Monday, state media said, in a vote where the ruling Shi’ite Muslim alliance is expected to extend its hold on power amid a boycott by their main political rival.

The humanitarian crisis in Gaza is a “moral failure” of the international community, the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross said yesterday, as the UN Security Council was due to vote on another ceasefire demand.  

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said yesterday that at least 110 Palestinians had been killed since Sunday in Israeli strikes on a northern part of the territory.

Iran’s Oil Minister Javad Owji yesterday confirmed that ongoing nationwide disruption to petrol stations was caused by a cyberattack.

Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has swept to a third, six-year term as Egypt’s president, winning 89.6 percent of votes in an election in which he faced no serious challengers, the National Election Authority announced yesterday.

A global rights group yesterday accused Israel of committing a war crime by starving people in the Gaza Strip who continued to face relentless attacks in the war with Hamas.

Iraqis voted Monday in the first provincial council elections in a decade, which are expected to strengthen powerful Shiite pro-Iran groups

Dozens more Palestinians were killed yesterday as Israel stepped up deadly strikes on the besieged Gaza Strip despite growing international calls for a ceasefire.

Lebanon yesterday rescued more than 50 people, mostly Syrians, from a sinking migrant boat off the country’s north coast, the army said.

Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces battled the army outside the central city of Wad Madani on Saturday, pressing an attack that has opened a new front in the eight-month-old war and forced thousands to flee, witnesses said.

A Christian mother and daughter were shot dead by an Israeli soldier on grounds of a Catholic church in Gaza City on Saturday, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said.

Sixty-one migrants, including women and children, drowned following a shipwreck off Libya, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Libya said.

The Israeli army’s death toll in Gaza is already almost twice as high as during a ground offensive in 2014, a reflection of how far it has pushed into the enclave and of Hamas’ effective use of guerrilla tactics and an expanded arsenal.

Kuwait's late emir Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad Al-Sabah was laid to rest on Sunday at a private funeral attended by select relatives, a day after he passed away

Kuwait's Emir Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad al-Sabah died on Saturday, aged 86, according to the royal court, just over three years after assuming power in the US-allied Gulf oil producer

The Israeli army said yesterday that three hostages mistakenly killed by soldiers carried a white flag and cried for help in Hebrew.

A succession of top US officials have travelled to the West Bank in recent weeks to meet with Mahmoud Abbas in the hope the 88-year-old – a spectator in the war between Israel and Hamas – can overhaul his unpopular Palestinian Authority enough to run Gaza after the conflict.

Kuwait’s Emir Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad al-Sabah died yesterday, aged 86, according to the royal court, just over three years after assuming power in the US-allied Gulf oil producer.

The emir of oil-rich Kuwait, Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, died on Saturday, the royal court said, after three years in power

Israeli forces and Hamas fought fierce battles throughout Gaza yesterday, witnesses said, suggesting Israel’s ground offensive was meeting stiffer resistance as the US nudged its ally to change a strategy that has inflicted a huge civilian death toll.