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Gaza's health ministry said two patients at a hospital in the territory's north died during a siege by Israeli forces around the facility on Saturday, while Israel's military reported its troops were operating in the area. Since dawn, Israeli forces had surrounded and shelled the Indonesian Hospital in the northern town of Beit Lahia, Gaza health officials said. "Israeli tanks have completely surrounded the hospital, cut off electricity and shelled the hospital, targeting the second and third floors with artillery," the facility's director Marwan Sultan said. "There are serious risks to medical staff and patients." Later on Saturday, the health ministry of the Hamas-run territory said two patients in the hospital had died, blaming the Israeli military siege. It said the military operation caused "the death of two patients inside the Indonesian Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip, as a result of the hospital's siege and the power outage

Lebanon's caretaker prime minister on Friday made a rare rebuke to Iran and said Tehran's envoy should be summoned over reported comments by a senior Iranian official that it would be ready to help "negotiate" to implement a UN resolution on Lebanon. Lebanese PM Najib Mikati said in a statement the comments amounted to "a blatant interference in Lebanese affairs". Criticism of Iran by top Lebanese officials is unusual, particularly given Tehran's sponsorship of the powerful Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, which is currently locked in battles against Israeli troops along Lebanon's southern border. In an interview published in France's Le Figaro on Thursday, Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf was quoted as saying his country would be ready to "negotiate" with France to implement United Nations Resolution 1701. That resolution, which ended the last round of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006, calls for southe

Israel said on Thursday that Yahya Sinwar, the overall leader of Hamas and the architect of the Palestinian group's October 7, 2023 attacks on Israeli soil, had been killed. Here are some of the other leaders and commanders in Hamas. MARWAN ISSA In March, Israel said it had killed Marwan Issa, the deputy of Hamas' then military leader Mohammed Deif, but Hamas has not confirmed his death. Deif was killed in an Israeli airstrike in July. Issa, nicknamed the "shadow man" by fellow Palestinians for his ability to stay off the enemy's radar, had risen to No. 3 within the Islamist operator group. He and the other two top Hamas leaders formed a secretive three-man military council that made strategic decisions. KHALED MESHAAL Meshaal, 68, previously led Hamas between 2004 and 2017. He became known around the world in 1997 when Israeli agents injected him with a poison in the Jordanian capital Amman in a botched assassination mission. He is now based in Qatar with s

Former US President Jimmy Carter, who recently turned a hundred, announced that he is voting for Kamala Harris and that is what he really cares about, dismissing his age-related milestone moment as "just another birthday". "He said he didn't care about that. It's just a birthday. He said he cared about voting for Kamala Harris." James Earl "Chip" Carter III said in an interview to The Washington Post. That is 100-year-old Jimmy Carter, the oldest ex-president who served in office from 1977 to 1981, during the Cold War era. Chip Carter also added that his father spent his days watching speeches from the Democratic National Convention. "He thought Michelle Obama was the best, and he thought Kamala was great, too," he said. 'I'm only trying to make it to vote for Kamala Harris,' Carter told his son Chip, his grandson Jason Carter told the Atlanta-Journal Constitution. Donald Trump has always been of the opinion that Jimmy Car

India exercised its right of reply against Pakistan at the Joint General Debate on decolonization at the United Nations on Monday. Counsellor Eldos Mathew Punnoose from India condemned Pakistan's "unsubstantiated allegations" regarding the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. He emphasised the need for Pakistan to cease its ongoing human rights violations in Pakistan-occupied Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh. Targeting Pakistan, he said, "Unsubstantiated allegations by Pakistan largely pertain to the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. India would like to reiterate that Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh are, were and will be an integral and inalienable part of India. Clearly, Pakistan does not merit a response on the internal affairs of India." He further said, "At this juncture, we also advise Pakistan to stop the grave and ongoing human rights violations in Pakistan-occupied Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh (PoJKL). The world is witness to th

S Jaishankar, who is in Pakistan for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation or SCO Summit being hosted by Islamabad, had a brief interaction with Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif today at an official dinner held for all the summit attendees. The two leaders shook hands and exchanged a courtesy greeting as Mr Sharif welcomed Mr Jaishankar for the official dinner for SCO leaders. Few worlds were spoken during the interaction that lasted less than twenty seconds. Ties between India and Pakistan have nearly been non-existent in the last decade since Pak-based terrorists targeted Indian military establishments in a series of terror attacks in 2015 and 2016. India, which has for long aimed for peace and stability in the region, has made it amply clear to Pakistan that "terror and talks cannot go hand-in-hand", and that "dialogue and diplomacy can only move forward in an environment free of terrorism." NEARLY A DECADE OF NO DIALOGUE Mr Jaishankar's visit

Afghanistan's Taliban morality ministry pledged Monday to implement a law banning news media from publishing images of all living things, with journalists told the rule will be gradually enforced. It comes after the Taliban government recently announced legislation formalising their strict interpretations of Islamic law that have been imposed since they swept to power in 2021. "The law applies to all Afghanistan... and it will be implemented gradually," the spokesman for the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (PVPV) Saiful Islam Khyber told AFP, adding that officials would work to persuade people that images of living things are against Islamic law. "Coercion has no place in the implementation of the law," he said. "It's only advice, and convincing people these things are really contrary to sharia (law) and must be avoided." The new law detailed several rules for news media, including banning the publication of i