The United Arab Emirates has accepted the credentials of an ambassador from Afghanistan's Taliban government, officials said, becoming just the second country after China to do so.
The oil-rich Gulf state said it was committed to "building bridges" to help the Afghan people, after the Kabul foreign ministry announced on social media that new ambassador Mawlawi Badruddin Haqqani had been received in a ceremony in Abu Dhabi.
The United States said Friday that progress had been made at the latest round of Gaza truce talks, after the presence of Israeli troops on the Egyptian border emerged as a major sticking point.
The White House said CIA chief William Burns was among US officials taking part in the discussions in Cairo, joining the heads of Israel's spy agency and security service.
"There has been progress made. We need now for both sides to come together and work towards implementation," US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.
The Israeli military has issued so many evacuation orders in 10 months of war that many Gaza civilians no longer heed them, despairing of finding space or safety in the shrinking "humanitarian" zones.
Over the first three weeks of August, the Israeli army sent out 11 evacuation orders via flyers dropped from planes, text messages or social media.
They called on 250,000 Gazans, almost all of whom had been displaced at least once already, to leave their place of shelter.
As their first birthday approaches, the triplets Gaza-native Hanane Bayouk gave birth to in Jerusalem before the war have seen their mother just once, and she fears she will "die without them".
The 26-year-old had to return to the Palestinian territory alone after giving birth to Najoua, Nour and Najmeh on August 24, 2023, because her Israeli travel permit had expired.
Bayouk received a permit to exit Gaza and give birth in annexed east Jerusalem's Al-Maqased hospital after seven years of painful IVF procedures.
Hezbollah has provided a glimpse of its secret tunnels housing weapons -- a move experts say is a warning to Israel as the underground facilities could prove vital to the group should wider war erupt.
The Iran-backed movement has exchanged regular fire with Israel in support of its ally Hamas since the Palestinian militant group's October 7 attack on Israel sparked the Gaza war.
An oil tanker's crew has been rescued after an attack in the Red Sea off Yemen but the stricken ship now poses an "environmental hazard", an EU naval mission said Thursday.
Several projectiles hit the Greek-flagged Sounion off the rebel-held Yemeni port of Hodeida on Wednesday, causing a fire and cutting engine power, according to the UKMTO maritime agency which is run by Britain's Royal Navy.
The attack was claimed by Yemen's Iran-backed Huthi rebels, who have waged a campaign against international shipping that they say is in support of Gaza during the Israel-Hamas war.
Israeli negotiators were taking part Thursday in talks on Gaza in Cairo, a government spokesman said, as fighting raged on the ground despite US pressure on Israel and Hamas to reach an agreement.
Hopes for a deal have dwindled though as Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas have traded blame for failing to reach a deal after more than 10 months of war in the Gaza Strip.
A main sticking point remains Hamas's longstanding demand for a "complete" Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has opposed.
The Israeli police and internal security service said Thursday they arrested four suspects for "terrorist" acts against Palestinians during a deadly settler attack last week on an occupied West Bank village.
Settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank have soared since war began in the Gaza Strip last October, according to the United Nations.
"Overnight, the (Shin Bet security service) and Israeli Police arrested four individuals, three adults and a minor, suspected in several acts of terrorism against Palestinians," the security agencies said in a statement.
Iraqi security forces fired shots in the air during a clash among themselves Thursday in the holy Shiite Muslim city of Karbala ahead of one of the world's biggest religious gatherings, security officials said.
The incident involved the Iraqi army and members of the Hashed al-Shaabi, mainly pro-Iran Shiite former paramilitaries integrated into the Iraqi security forces, an interior ministry official told AFP under cover of anonymity due to the issue's sensitivity.
The Gaza Strip's first recorded polio case in 25 years has health workers and aid agencies grappling with the steep obstacles to conducting mass vaccination in the war-torn Palestinian territory.
Unrelenting air strikes by Israel more than 10 months into its war against Gaza rulers Hamas, restrictions of aid entering the besieged territory and hot summer temperatures all threaten the viability of a life-saving inoculation drive.
Still, equipment to support the extensive campaign -- which UN agencies say could start on August 31 -- has already arrived in the region.
