Israel launched air strikes on Gaza in return for rocket fire from the Palestinian enclave yesterday, a day after the deadliest Israeli

Hours earlier, rockets fired from Gaza lit up the night sky and triggered sirens in the Israeli cities of Sderot and Ashkelon, Al Jazeera said adding there were no reports of casualties at the time

Israeli troops killed ten Palestinians, including at least three gunmen and three civilians, and wounded over 100 others during a raid on a flashpoint city in the occupied West Bank yesterday, witnesses and medical officials said.

Iran imposed sanctions Tuesday on 36 individuals and entities from the European Union and Britain in reaction to similar measures against Tehran over its response to months-long protests.

Turkey has launched a temporary wage support scheme and banned layoffs in 10 cities yesterday to protect workers

The Israeli army said the raid targeted militant suspects "in a hideout apartment" accused of shootings in the West Bank, and that its troops came under live fire but suffered no casualties

Six people were killed in the latest earthquake to strike the border region of Turkey and Syria, authorities said yesterday, two weeks after a massive quake killed more than 47,000 people and damaged or destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said yesterday it was up to Iran to engage to resolve a deadlock over its nuclear programme, and accused it of enabling Russian aggression in Ukraine.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Turkey yesterday the United States will help “for as long as it takes” after deadly earthquakes two weeks ago, as Turkish authorities carried out wide-scale demolition of damaged buildings.

Israel will not authorise new settlements in the occupied West Bank in the coming months, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said yesterday.

A 6.4-magnitude earthquake was recorded yesterday in Turkey’s southern province of Hatay, the hardest hit by a February 6 tremor which left more than 41,000 dead in the country, the disaster response agency AFAD said.

Rescue efforts in earthquake-hit Turkey were winding down yesterday, nearly two weeks after the country’s deadliest disaster in the modern era, with many praying only for bodies to mourn.

The IS official, identified as Batar, was "involved in planning attacks on... detention centres and manufacturing improvised explosive devices," the US military's Central Command said

Turkish rescuers yesterday pulled three people alive from the rubble 13 days after a massive quake killed tens of thousands, but one, a 12-year-old, later died.

The death toll from an attack blamed on the Islamic State group in Syria has risen to 68, a war monitor said yesterday, the deadliest attack in over a year.

Political analysts say the United States’ criticism of Israeli settlement expansion plans is meaningless, pointing to Washington’s apparent refusal to support a UN Security Council resolution calling on Israel to halt settlements.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack

"The targeted ISIS senior leader, Hamza al-Homsi, was killed," CENTCOM said in a statement without providing further details

International aid agencies are stepping up efforts to help millions of homeless people, many sleeping in tents, mosques, schools or cars, 11 days after a massive earthquake hit Turkey and Syria killing more than 43,000.

An Iranian court has sentenced influential sociology professor Saeed Madani Ghahfarokhi to eight years in prison, his lawyer told AFP yesterday.