UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told AFP Friday that the world should not be "intimidated" by Israel as it presses its devastating Gaza war and pursues a "creeping" West Bank occupation.
Israel has reportedly threatened to annex the West Bank if Western nations press ahead with recognizing a Palestinian state at next week's UN high-level gathering in New York.
LISBON (Reuters) - Portugal will recognize a Palestinian state on Sunday, the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Friday.
The Official Declaration of Recognition will take place even before next week's High-Level Conference, it added.
Foreign Minister Paulo Rangel already said this week that the country was considering the recognisition of a Palestinian state during a visit to the UK.
(Reuters) -The U.S. will terminate deportation protections for Syrian migrants, the Department of Homeland Security said on Friday, part of President Donald Trump's broad effort to strip legal status from migrants.
The action will terminate temporary protected status for more than 6,000 Syrians who have had access to the legal status since 2012, according to a Federal Register notice posted Friday.
By Mike Stone and Humeyra Pamuk
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The Trump administration is seeking congressional approval to sell Israel $6.4 billion in support equipment and weapons including attack helicopters and troop carriers, people familiar with the matter said on Friday.
Israel's military said it had expanded operations in Gaza City on Friday and bombarded Hamas infrastructure, while displaced Palestinians traumatized by the advance said they had no means to flee.
British trip-hop pioneers Massive Attack have joined other bands and musicians in seeking to block their tracks being streamed in Israel as part of a cultural boycott campaign over the war in Gaza.
The Bristol natives said they had joined "No Music for Genocide", a new collective of musicians modelled on the "Film Workers for Palestine" group.
From the music, film to publishing industries, growing numbers of Western artists are calling for a cultural boycott of Israel over the Gaza war, hoping to emulate the success of the apartheid-era blockade of South Africa.
With most Western governments resistant to major economic sanctions, musicians, celebrities and writers are hoping to build public pressure for more action.
GAZA (Reuters) - Israel's military said it had expanded operations in Gaza City on Friday and bombarded Hamas infrastructure, while displaced Palestinians traumatised by the advance said they had no means to flee.
"The situation is really bad. All night long, the tank was firing shells," said Palestinian Toufic Abu Mouawad, who left a camp for the displaced with nowhere else to go.
MUMBAI (Reuters) - India said on Friday it hoped Saudi Arabia would keep in mind mutual interests and sensitivities between the two countries, two days after Riyadh signed a mutual defence pact with New Delhi's old foe Pakistan.
Saudi Arabia and nuclear-armed Pakistan signed the pact on Wednesday, and although few details have been made public, analysts said it could mean Riyadh will have a de facto nuclear shield under the agreement.
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan does not plan to recognise a Palestinian state at U.N. meetings this month, Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya said on Friday.
But he also said that for Tokyo, which supports a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians, it is not a matter of whether to recognise a Palestinian state, but when to recognise it.
"I'm aware voices calling for the recognition as a state are getting louder in the international community as well as in Japan," Iwaya told a press conference.
By Thomas Escritt
BERLIN (Reuters) - A 30 million euro one-time payment to the Palestinian Authority that Germany was hoping to announce next week to coincide with European allies' formal recognition of a Palestinian state has been held up by sceptical legislators, Bild newspaper reported.
