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Iraq church gives hope for Christians after IS atrocities

With chants and ululations, Iraqi Christians celebrated the inauguration of a recently-restored Chaldean Catholic Church in Mosul on Friday, years after jihadists turned it into a religious police office.

Around 300 faithful attended the first mass in the 80-year-old church of Um al-Mauna -- "Our Lady of Perpetual Help" after it was fully renovated. They prayed and took photos on mobile phones.

"I've been waiting for this day," 74-year-old former school director Ilham Abdullah said.

Around 300 faithful attended mass in the church of Um al-Mauna -- 'Our Lady of Perpetual Help'

Hezbollah chief says Iran response 'inevitable' after consulate strike

The leader of Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah movement warned Friday that Iran would inevitably retaliate after a strike widely blamed on Israel destroyed its consulate in Damascus this week, killing two generals.

"Be certain that Iran's response to the targeting of its Damascus consulate is inevitable," Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised speech marking Quds (Jerusalem) Day -- an annual day of pro-Palestinian rallies held by Iran and its allies.

Hezbollah supporters watch their leader Hassan Nasrallah's speech on a big screen at a Quds (Jerusalem) Day gathering in Beirut's southern suburbs

Israel admits errors in Gaza aid worker killings, says believed was targeting Hamas

The Israeli army on Friday admitted a series of errors and violations of its rules in the killing of seven aid workers in Gaza, saying it had mistakenly believed it was "targeting armed Hamas operatives".

The two brigade officers who ordered the drone strikes, a colonel and a major, are being fired, the army said, and its Southern Command chief reprimanded.

People gather around a car used by US-based aid group World Central Kitchen that was hit by a strike in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip

Iran pays homage to Guards killed in Syria strike, vows revenge

Thousands of people chanted against Israel and the United States at Friday's funeral for seven Iranian Revolutionary Guards, two of them generals, who were killed in an air strike in Syria, which Iran blamed on Israel.

Guards chief General Hossein Salami warned that Israel "cannot escape the consequences" of Monday's strike, which levelled the five-storey consular annex of the Iranian embassy in Damascus.

Iranians attend the funeral in Tehran of the seven Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps members

Kuwait opposition keeps parliament majority after vote

Opposition lawmakers maintained a majority in Kuwait's parliament, results showed Friday, after the Gulf state's third parliamentary vote in as many years held just months into the new emir's reign.

Opposition candidates won 29 seats in the 50-member assembly, according to results carried by the official KUNA news agency, matching the outcome of last year's election.

The make-up of the new parliament is very similar to the outgoing one, with all but 11 lawmakers retaining their seats.

Supporters hail former parliament speaker Marzouq al-Ghanim after his election win

UN rights council demands halt of arms sales to Israel

The UN Human Rights Council on Friday demanded a halt in all arms sales to Israel, highlighting warnings of "genocide" in its war in Gaza, which has killed more than 33,000 people.

The resolution -- which passed with 28 of the council's 47 member states voting in favour, six opposed and 13 abstaining -- marked the first time the United Nations' top rights body has taken a position on the bloodiest-ever war in the besieged Palestinian territory.

An Israeli warplane flies near the Lebanese border on February 13

Their schools ruined, Gaza's children face long road to healing

Eight out of 10 schools in Gaza are damaged or destroyed, UNICEF says, but it is the psychological damage the war has done to the territory's nearly 1.2 million children that has experts really worried.

"To be able to learn, you need to be in a safe space. Most kids in Gaza at the moment have brains that are functioning under trauma," child psychiatrist Audrey McMahon of Doctors Without Borders told AFP.

Younger children could develop lifelong cognitive disabilities from malnutrition, while teenagers are likely to feel anger at the injustice they have suffered, she said.

A girl brushes the hair of her sibling at a Gaza school now housing displaced families

Peace feels further than ever at six months of Israel-Hamas war

The staggering suffering, death and destruction of six months of war since Hamas's October 7 attack has widened the gulf between Israelis and Palestinians, leaving both feeling that the prospect of peace is ever more elusive.

Israeli farmer Yarden Zemach, 38, said he felt safe when picking avocados with Palestinians on October 5 –- just two days before the attack.

But ever since the violence that claimed his brother's life in the devastated Beeri kibbutz some four kilometres (2.5 miles) from the Gaza border fence, he views Gazans as a threat.

Palestinian boys sit on building rubble following overnight Israeli bombardment in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip

Aid worker killed by Israel felt need to help, parents say

The father of US-Canadian citizen Jacob Flickinger, one of seven aid workers killed in an Israeli strike earlier this week, said Thursday his son was hesitant to go to Gaza but had felt a need to help.

Flickinger, 33, was among a group of World Central Kitchen staff who died on Monday when Israel bombed their vehicle convoy in what it called a "grave mistake," sparking outrage from world leaders.

An undated picture provided by World Central Kitchen on April 3, 2024, shows US-Canadian Jacob Flickinger, Relief Team member of the US-based aid group, at an undisclosed location

Almost impossible to deliver aid in Gaza, say top charities

Major international aid groups warned Thursday it was now almost impossible to work in Gaza, as one accused countries supplying arms to Israel of being complicit in what "amounts to genocide".

Isabelle Defourny, president of Doctors Without Borders NGO, spoke out about the risk of genocide as 13 major humanitarian groups blasted Israel for restricting aid getting into the Gaza Strip.

The killing of seven aid workers from the US-based World Central Kitchen (WCK) by Israeli air strikes Monday has sparked an outcry.

Children queue for food ahead of iftar meal to break the daily fast on Ramadan, in southern Gaza's Rafah