By Ebrahim Hajjaj , Dawoud Abu Alkas and Nidal al-Mughrabi
GAZA/CAIRO, July 30 (Reuters) - Standing on the roof of a war-damaged building overlooking the ruins of Gaza City, beekeeper Ibrahim al-Dabba gently lifts a honeycomb frame as bees buzz around him.
"Bees require trees, we are raising bees amongst rubble," he said.
Mediator Pakistan insisted Thursday that negotiations between Iran and the United States were ongoing, even as Washington carried out a "heavy wave of strikes" on its foe in retaliation for fresh attacks targeting Jordan.
The last two days have seen Saudi Arabia join the US in striking militant groups in Iraq, while Egypt has come under fire for the first time with a drone attack at a Mediterranean port, leading its president to warn that the Middle East conflict is facing a serious escalation.
By Jonathan Saul, Marwa Rashad and Mohamed Ezz
LONDON/CAIRO, July 29 (Reuters) - A drone caused the fire that engulfed two gas vessels at Egypt's Mediterranean port of Damietta, the Egyptian cabinet said on Thursday, confirming for the first time that the blaze which erupted a day earlier was the result of an attack rather than an accident.
No party has claimed responsibility, and authorities were continuing their investigations and taking necessary measures to protect Egypt's national security, the cabinet added.
By Gabriel Stargardter, Humeyra Pamuk, Gram Slattery and Andrea Shalal
PARIS/WASHINGTON July 29 (Reuters) - The United States is considering delaying, or even blocking, President Emmanuel Macron's choice for France's next ambassador to Washington following public French criticism of the country's human rights record, according to four sources.
By Marwa Rashad, Mohamed Ezz, Yasmine Ghania and Nandita Bose
LONDON/CAIRO/WASHINGTON, July 29 (Reuters) - The U.S. carried out fresh strikes in Iran on Wednesday, the U.S. military said, further intensifying a five-month-old war that was already expanding beyond its main fronts to embroil additional countries in the region.
"U.S. forces began launching strikes against Iran at 8:00 p.m. ET today (0000 GMT)," U.S. Central Command said in a statement.
"The strikes are a powerful response to yesterday's attempted Iranian attacks on U.S. forces based in the Middle East."
By Kanishka Singh and Jasper Ward
WASHINGTON, July 29 (Reuters) - The U.S. military said on Wednesday it completed its latest wave of strikes on Iran, which lasted two hours and hit dozens of targets, with Washington casting the strikes as a "powerful response" to Iranian missiles launched towards U.S. forces in the Middle East a day earlier.
The U.S. military said on Tuesday it intercepted multiple ballistic missiles launched by Iran towards U.S. forces in what Washington called "an attempted surprise attack" by Tehran. Iran confirmed it had fired on U.S. bases in Jordan.
A federal jury on Wednesday convicted novelist Salman Rushdie's assailant of "engaging in an act of terrorism" for the bloody August 2022 attack at a New York cultural center.
Hadi Matar, a 28-year-old Lebanese American, "chose to align his values with the terroristic values of the leaders of Iran," said US Attorney Michael DiGiacomo, adding the defendant spent months planning the stabbing that nearly killed Rushdie and left him blind in one eye.
MOSCOW, July 29 (Reuters) - Russia said on Wednesday it had charged Telegram founder Pavel Durov with facilitating terrorist activity, alleging that his hugely popular messaging app was being used by Ukrainian spies to organise attacks inside Russia.
In response, Telegram's official account on X posted an image of the Russian-born billionaire making an obscene gesture with his middle finger.
The charges, announced by the Federal Security Service (FSB), marked the culmination of a long investigation against Dubai-based Durov and Telegram.
WASHINGTON, July 29 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said on Wednesday the United States would hit Iran very hard after an attack on the U.S. military in Jordan.
"So it's our turn," Trump told reporters at the White House. He said Washington would see if there was an agreement at some point between the two nations to end their war, "but we're going to hit them very hard."
By Benjamin Raab
TEL AVIV, July 29 (Reuters) - A new Jewish-Arab political party is courting young voters ahead of Israel's October election. But critics say it risks weakening the bid by the already underrepresented Arab minority to unseat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his rightist government.
Israeli by citizenship and Palestinian by heritage, Israel's Arabs make up a fifth of the population but historically have voted at lower rates than Jewish Israelis.
