MIDDLE EAST

Several children were among those killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza on Monday, bringing the Palestinian death toll due to Israel’s military operation in the Palestinian enclave over the past 21 days to 1,060. Three children and seven others were killed by Israeli raids across the Gaza Strip, emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said. The children, and two others, were …

The Iraqi army raided several insurgent targets on Monday in the town of Jurf al-Sakhr, some 60 kilometers to the southwest of Baghdad, on Monday, killing 17 people, including 3 civilians, during the raids. According to local tribal sources, the raid targeted that Fadhiyya district at 01:00 a.m. local time, and a child and two women were among those killed …

US President Barack Obama’s call for an “immediate, unconditional” humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza has strained Israeli-US ties and put Israeli Prime Minister in a spot of bother among hardliners in his government. According to analysts, Obama’s call for a ceasefire on Sunday was seen as an ultimatum to Netanyahu, as the death toll due to the Israeli violence in Gaza …

On Monday, several thousands of Palestinians gathered at that Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem to pray and stand in support of Gaza as the Muslim holiday of Eid ul-Fitr began. Police reports suggest that over 45,000 people were at the mosque, with many dressed in black T-shirts with “Gaza, supporting you is our Eid” and “We are all Gaza” written …

Rock star Peter Gabriel, from the band Genesis, and filmmaker Ken Loach, director of films like Cathy Come Home, The Navigators, Riff-Raff, The Wind That Shakes the Barley and Kes, and 34,000 others are all signatories in an open letter to British Prime Minister David Cameron demanding an immediate interruption of trade between Israel and the UK. The letter was …

Security forces in Israel were on high alert on Friday after many Palestinians were shot and killed during a massive protest in West Bank against Israel’s military assault on Gaza. According to security and medical sources, five Palestinians were killed on Friday in West Bank in two different incidents involving Israeli settlers and Israeli troops. Three Palestinian men participating in …

On Friday, US Secretary of State John Kerry said the a ceasefire deal for the conflict in Gaza has not been reached yet as he and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged for a week-long halt to the violence which has already caused the death of 848 Palestinians in 18 days . At a joint conference with Ban in Cairo, …

The ongoing Israeli assault on Gaza has flooded the internet with often disturbing images of Palestinian victims of Israeli attacks. Although such pictures succeed in shocking you, they fundamentally can’t evoke empathy. Humanize Palestine “attempts to restore the humanity that is often stripped away when Palestinians are reduced to calculative deaths, forgettable names, and burned and mutilated bodies, rather than …

On Friday, the World Health Organization appealed for the formation of a “humanitarian corridor” in Gaza to allow for evacuation of people wounded by the conflict in the region. “WHO is calling for the creation of a humanitarian corridor … to reach various crossings and to help in the evacuation of the large number of injured people.There’s a daily increase …

On Friday, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu flew into Qatar amid mounting calls from the US for the two allies to use their influence with Hamas to end the violence. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who has led Western efforts to end the conflict, has repeatedly called Turkish and Qatari leaders to try and negotiate a truce. On his …