Jordan's Queen Rania accused Western leaders of a "glaring double standard" for not condemning Israel's killing of Palestinian civilians in its bombardment of Gaza, in an interview aired Wednesday.
The royal, born to Palestinian parents in Kuwait, blasted Western nations for opposing a blanket ceasefire and said their silence gave the impression they were "complicit" in Israel's attacks on the Gaza Strip.
The foreign ministers of Turkey and Qatar accused the international community of "double standards" Wednesday in its reaction to the escalating conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
Qatar's top diplomat Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said the two governments -- both Western allies -- "reaffirm our complete rejection of responding to the crisis with double standards when it comes to human life".
"It is not permissible to condemn the killing of civilians in one context and justify it in another." Al-Thani, who also serves as Qatar's prime minister, said.
A dig in northern Iraq has unearthed a 2,700-year-old alabaster sculpture of the winged Assyrian deity Lamassu, which was found largely intact despite its large dimensions.
Only the head was missing and that was already in the collection of the Iraq Museum in Baghdad after being confiscated by customs officers from smugglers in the 1990s, the dig's French leader Pascal Butterlin said.
The flare-up in the Middle East sparked by the Hamas attack on Israel is rekindling deep tensions in France.
Its colonial history and dark World War II memories make debate over the war between Israel an Hamas often angry and occasionally venomous.
France is highly sensitive to the Middle East conflict, being home to around half a million Jews -- more than anywhere else outside of Israel and the United States -- many of whom keep in close touch with friends and family living in Israel.
Jawaher al-Aqraa says it will be a "miracle" if she survives the Gaza war but in the meantime she is singing to "block out" the roar of Israeli fighter jets over the Palestinian territory.
The 28-year-old English teacher is one of hundreds of thousands of Gazans who have fled or lost their homes as Israel's air raids have intensified since the October 7 Hamas attacks.
Now she is with her brother in the Deir al-Balah refugee camp where thousands of families live in fear of air strikes.
"I have survived wars and a million escalations," she said.
Israel said Thursday that a column of tanks and infantry had launched an overnight raid into Hamas-controlled Gaza, striking "numerous" targets before retreating to home soil.
The military announced the incursion into the north of the Palestinian territory hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared preparations for a ground war were underway.
The Israel Defense Forces described the operation as a "targeted raid" that hit "numerous terrorist cells, infrastructure and anti-tank missile launch posts".
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday he was cancelling plans to visit Israel because of its "inhumane" war against Hamas militants in Gaza.
"We had a project to go to Israel, but it was cancelled, we will not go," Erdogan told ruling party lawmakers in parliament, adding that he viewed Hamas as "liberators" fighting for their own land.
Ankara's relations with Israel froze over an Israeli raid on a Turkish ship carrying aid into Gaza, which killed 10 civilians in 2010.
Senior officials of Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad have held talks with Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah about achieving "real victory" in their war with Israel, the Lebanese group said Wednesday.
The Hezbollah statement did not specify when or where Nasrallah met with Hamas number two Saleh al-Aruri and Islamic Jihad leader Ziad Nakhaleh beyong saying that it was at a undisclosed location in Lebanon.
A "massive" Israeli ground incursion into Gaza would be "an error", French President Emmanuel Macron said Wednesday, warning it would harm civilians without ensuring Israel's long-term security.
The warning came as Macron held talks in Cairo with his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi who also urged efforts "to avoid a ground invasion" in Gaza, where Israel is locked in a deadly confrontation with Hamas militants.
The raging war between Israel and Hamas is already battering the economies of nearby countries, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund told a Saudi investor forum on Wednesday.
Israel's neighbours are feeling the effects, especially those that rely on tourism, Kristalina Georgieva said at the Future Investment Initiative (FII) in the Saudi capital Riyadh.
"You look at the neighbouring countries -– Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan –- there the channels of impact are already visible," Georgieva told an audience that included global banking elites.
