Israel’s air assault on Gaza entered its ninth day on Wednesday, with a total of 220 people killed and 1,550 injured by the attacks so far. The latest Israeli strikes caused the deaths of four children in Gaza City, medics said. The four of them were on the beach when the shelling struck, emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said. Several …

The Libyan government on Tuesday said that it was considering asking for international help to restore security in the country, as fighting between rival militia near Tripoli airport has pushed the country towards a civil war. Liberal and hard-line militiamen have been locked in a lethal power struggle, and the country’s main airport, which was closed for security reasons on …

Sadly, racism and religious intolerance are growing in Israel—with targets ranging from Palestinian Muslims and Christians to Africans seeking political asylum to Bedouin tribesmen to non-Orthodox Jews. In response, American Jewish organizations have been silent. Israeli Jews who lament their country’s escalating intolerance have expressed dismay with this silence upon the part of their American counterparts. Daniel Blatman, a history …

On Tuesday, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency described the damage caused by the Israeli air campaign on Gaza as “immense” and said that over 500 homes were razed in the past week. “The level of human losses and destruction in Gaza is really immense. According to our latest figure, we are talking about 174 killed and well over …

Hundreds of Kurds have entered northern Syria from Turkey to battle militants besieging the city of Ain al-Arab, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Tuesday. “At least 800 Kurdish fighters crossed the Turkish-Syrian border to help their comrades in Ain al-Arab (Kobane in Kurdish), which is under total siege by Islamic State jihadists”, the Observatory’s director Rami Abdel Rahman …

On Tuesday, the sharply-divided Iraqi parliament elected its speaker and moved that much closer to forming a new government, which has already been delayed for a while. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq’s top Shi’ite cleric, and several world powers, had pressured Iraqi MPs to set their differences aside and work together as they face a militant offensive which has overrun …

US Secretary for State John Kerry is headed to the Middle East on Tuesday to try and bring a diplomatic end to the devastating conflict between Israel and Hamas. The punishing Israeli air campaign has taken the lives of 177 Palestinians so far, and shows no sign of stopping. Most Arab nations have demanded an immediate end to the campaign, …

On Monday, Palestinian movement Hamas said that no serious effort for a truce deal had been made, and that it will not agree a truce deal without concessions made by Israel. “Talk of a ceasefire requires real and serious efforts, which we haven’t seen so far”, Hamas legislative member Mushir al-Masri said. He added that Hamas will only negotiate if …

The ongoing Israeli air campaign against Gaza has till Monday caused the deaths of 177 Palestinians so far; a UN official reported that over a quarter of the deceased were children. The victims of the latest round of strikes included a 37-year-old man in the city of Khan Yunis; according to Ashraf al-Qudra, spokesman for emergency services, a missile had …

On Monday, the Arab League, ahead of a meeting of foreign minister of various countries, called on global leaders to end Israel’s air campaign on Gaza and protect Palestinians. It called on the international community for an end to the campaign in a report which will be submitted at the ministerial meeting, as the Israeli air campaign entered its seventh …