SYDNEY, Dec 16 (Reuters) - ​Australian police ​said on ⁠Tuesday that the two alleged gunmen behind ​the mass ‍shooting at ​Sydney's Bondi Beach travelled to the Philippines ⁠last month, and that the reasons for their trip were under investigation.

Police said ​initial investigations ⁠suggested ⁠the gunmen could have been inspired by the ideologies ‌of the ​Islamic State, adding they found two homemade Islamic ‍State flags in a vehicle ‌used by ‌one of the men.

(Reporting by Renju Jose in Sydney; ⁠Editing by Jamie Freed)

Despite the catastrophic state of the Palestinian economy, Faraj al-Atrash, operator of a quarry in the occupied West Bank, proudly points to an armada of machines busy eating away at sheer walls of dusty white rock that stretch into the distance.

"This here is considered the main source of revenue for the entire region", Atrash said at the site near the town of Beit Fajjar, close to the city of Hebron.

By Christine Chen and Renju Jose

SYDNEY, Dec 16 (Reuters) - Israel's ambassador to Australia has called for greater protection of Jewish people in Australia as dozens of people lined up ​on Tuesday at Sydney's Bondi Beach to pay tribute to the 15 victims and those ​wounded in the weekend's Hanukkah festival shootings.

The attack by two gunmen on Sunday was Australia's worst mass shooting in nearly 30 years, and is being investigated as an act of terrorism targeting the ⁠Jewish community.

DUBAI, Dec ​15 (Reuters) - ​Yemen's ⁠main separatist group, the ​Southern ‍Transitional ​Council, said they ⁠have launched a military operation ​in ⁠southern ⁠Abyan province.

The STC has ‌recently ​claimed broad control of ‍Southern Yemen.

(Reporting ‌by ‌Ahmed Elimam; Editing by ⁠Sharon Singleton)

With heavy hearts, Jews in Israel lit the year's first Hanukkah candles, mourning after gunmen opened fire on a Jewish gathering in Australia, killing 15 and reviving painful memories of the October 7, 2023 attack.

Sunday's attack in Bondi Beach was Australia's worst mass shooting in decades, and has been decried as antisemitic "terrorism" by Israeli authorities and many others around the world.

THE HAGUE, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Appeals judges at the ​International Criminal Court (ICC) on Monday ​rejected one in a series of legal challenges brought ⁠by Israel against the court's probe into its conduct of theGaza war.

On appeal, judges refused to overturn a ​lower court decision that the prosecution's investigation ‍into alleged crimes under its ​jurisdiction could include events following the deadly attack on Israel by militant Palestinian group Hamas on October 7, 2023.

Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi was taken to hospital twice after being violently arrested last week, her supporters said Monday, following a telephone call with the campaigner that raised concerns about her physical condition.

Mohammadi, who won the 2023 Nobel prize, was detained Friday after addressing a memorial ceremony in the eastern city of Mashhad for lawyer Khosrow Alikordi, who was found dead earlier this month.

GAZA, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Authorities in Gaza warned on Monday that more ​war-damaged buildings may collapse because of heavy ​rain in the devastated Palestinian enclave and said the weather was making it ⁠hard to recover bodies still under the rubble.

Two buildings collapsed in Gaza on Friday, killing at least 12 people according to local health authorities, amid ​a storm that has also washed away and flooded ‍tents, and led to deaths from ​exposure.

In Kadugli, a besieged city in Sudan's Kordofan region, escalating violence and worsening famine have left civilians trapped in a state of constant fear, according to testimonies gathered by AFP.

Two and a half years of war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have ravaged the South Kordofan state capital, with strikes intensifying in recent weeks.

The latest, a drone strike on a United Nations peacekeeping base on Saturday, killed six Bangladeshi troops.

Iranian Nobel winner Narges Mohammadi was taken to hospital twice after being violently arrested last week and appeared unwell in her first telephone contact since being detained, her supporters said Monday.

Mohammadi suffered "severe and repeated baton blows to the head and neck" during her arrest and in the call "her physical condition was not good, and she appeared unwell", her foundation said in a statement.