Palestinian residents said Sunday that Israeli settlers torched buildings and cars in attacks on several villages in the occupied West Bank, with Israel's army condemning "violence of any kind" after the fact.
The reported arson late Saturday came in the midst of a spate of killings of Palestinians by Israeli settlers in the West Bank since the start of the Middle East war.
In the suffocating darkness of a sealed shipping container, every thud signalled to Ibrahim Noureldin that one more detainee had died in the crush as Sudanese paramilitary fighters kept forcing more men inside.
Thousands of people are estimated to have been detained in the Rapid Support Forces' (RSF) October takeover of North Darfur's El-Fasher, a battle that a UN investigation found bore the "hallmarks of genocide".
"When people died of thirst and hunger, we were beaten and forced to bury them outside," 42-year-old Noureldin said.
The Israeli military announced Sunday it was expanding its ground campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon, warning of a lengthy operation, after Beirut condemned what it called Israel's flagrant violations of Lebanese sovereignty.
Israeli forces were ordered earlier Sunday to destroy bridges they said were used by the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah to cross the Litani River, and Lebanese official media reported Israeli raids in the south.
An AFP correspondent saw smoke billowing from a bridge that was hit outside the city of Tyre.
DUBAI, March 22 (Reuters) - The Strait of Hormuz remains open to all shipping except vessels linked to "Iran's enemies", Iran's representative to the U.N. maritime agency said on Sunday, after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to target Iranian power plants if the waterway was not "fully open" within 48 hours.
The threat of Iranian attacks during the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran has kept most ships from getting through the narrow strait, the conduit for around a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas supplies, threatening a global energy shock.
Here are the latest developments in the Middle East war:
- 92% of Iran missiles intercepted: Israel -
Israel's military said that Iran had fired more than 400 ballistic missiles at Israel since the start of the Middle East war, with around 92 percent of them intercepted.
- Qatar chopper crash kills 6 -
Three Turkish nationals including a serviceman were killed after a helicopter crashed in Qatar's territorial waters, alongside three Qatari servicemen, the Gulf country's defence ministry said.
By Jonathan Landay, M.B. Pell and Travis Hartman
March 22 (Reuters) - An American-operated Patriot air defense battery likely fired the interceptor missile involved in a pre-dawn explosion that injured dozens of civilians and tore through homes in U.S.-ally Bahrain 10 days into the war on Iran, according to an analysis by academic researchers examined by Reuters.
Israel launched a fresh wave of strikes on Monday at Iran, which threatened retaliation against vital infrastructure across the Middle East in a war that has plunged the world into its worst energy crisis in decades.
Explosions rang out in Tehran, Iranian media reported, while Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates said they were intercepting missiles and drones.
Belgium on Sunday marked 10 years since 2016 jihadist bombings in Brussels, a trauma that still scars the country and that authorities say sharpened focus on intelligence and counterterrorism.
The March 22, 2016 attacks claimed by the Islamic State group left 32 people dead and more than 300 wounded -- Belgium's worst peacetime massacre.
"Our country will never forget," King Phillipe told hundreds gathered around a monument to the victims. "We did not give in to fear, we did not give in to division."
Sheltering from an Iranian missile attack on his town in southern Israel on Saturday, 17-year-old Ido Franky heard "terrifying" blasts like nothing he had experienced before.
An Iranian missile hit Franky's town of Arad, hours after another struck Dimona -- home to a nuclear facility -- wounding dozens and leaving entire apartment blocks with heavy damage.
Franky rushed to shelter with his family as air raid sirens sounded, warning of an incoming attack.
TOKYO, March 22 (Reuters) - Japan could consider deploying its military for minesweeping in the Strait of Hormuz, a vital artery for global oil supplies, if a ceasefire is reached in the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said on Sunday.
"If there were to be a complete ceasefire, hypothetically speaking, then things like minesweeping could come up," Motegi said during a Fuji TV programme. "This is purely hypothetical, but if a ceasefire were established and naval mines were creating an obstacle, then I think that would be something to consider."
