GAZA: For days bodies filled the morgues. Only since guns fell silent have volunteers come to dig graves in the sand in Rafah, Gaza’s “town of martyrs,” devastated by Israeli bombardment. For three days the strategic southern town went through hell. “The tanks came,” says Mohammed Abu Luli, 50,

BEIJING: A city in China’s restive western region of Xinjiang has banned people with head scarves, veils and long beards from boarding buses, as the government battles unrest with a policy that critics said discriminates against Muslims. Xinjiang, home to the Muslim Uighur people who speak a Turkic

RAMALLAH: A month of fighting between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip will cost the Palestinian territory at least $4-6 billion in damages, deputy economy minister Taysir Amro said Tuesday. Amro told AFP the figure included only “direct damages” to the Gaza economy and warned it could climb fu

JERUSALEM: Israel and Hamas on Monday accepted an Egyptian ceasefire proposal meant to halt a monthlong war, signaling an end to the bloodiest round of fighting between the bitter enemies could finally be approaching. The sides said a preliminary 72-hour truce was to begin at 8am (0500 GMT) on Tu

NEW YORK: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned an attack that killed 10 people at a UN school in the Gaza Strip on Sunday as “a moral outrage and a criminal act.” In his most strongly worded statement yet on an attack against a UN facility in Gaza, Ban called it “yet another gross violation o

TUNIS: Hundreds of swimmers have been flocking to a mysterious new lake in the Gafsa region of southern Tunisia, but the sudden appearance of the water body in the drought-stricken area has raised concerns about its origin and quality. Hailed as a miracle by locals, authorities have warned the la

GAZA: The Israeli Army on Saturday gave a first indication it was ending operations in parts of Gaza, while continuing to bombard other areas ahead of fresh truce talks in Cairo. As a Palestinian delegation flew to Egypt in search of a cease-fire, the Israeli army messaged residents of part of nort

WASHINGTON: With no pause in Zionist barbarity against Gaza’s citizens, the US Senate unanimously passed legislation on Friday to provide $225 million in emergency funding for Israel’s “Iron Dome” missile defense system. An earlier version of the funding plan had failed on Thursday when Senate Re

Gaza City: A Gaza ceasefire crumbled only hours after it began on Friday, with at least 40 Palestinians killed by Israeli shelling and Israel accusing Hamas of violating the U.S.- and U.N.-brokered truce by firing rockets and mortars. The 72-hour break announced by U.S. Secretary of State John

Mohammed Ala'lia, 10, was admitted to Al Shifa hospital with burn injuries and a fractured arm Al Shifa Hospital, Gaza City:  Pressure to arrive at a ceasefire has been prompted by the very large number of children wounded or killed in the Gaza violence, more than at any time in the past. The vul

BEIJING: The head of a China’s largest mosque was murdered after conducting morning prayers, the local government in the far western region of Xinjiang said Thursday, amid intensifying violence in the turbulent region. Jume Tahir, the government-appointed imam of the 600-year-old Id Kah mosque in

LA PAZ: Bolivia on Wednesday renounced a visa exemption agreement with Israel in protest over its offensive in Gaza, and declared it a terrorist state. President Evo Morales announced the move during a talk with a group of educators in the city of Cochabamba. It “means, in other words, we are de

ANKARA: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday launched one of his strongest attacks yet on Israel over its offensive in the Gaza Strip, accusing the Jewish state of showing “Hitler-like fascism” against the Palestinians. Speaking at a mass rally in eastern Turkey to promote his

A Palestinian child, wounded in an Israeli strike on a compound housing a UN school in Gaza, is being treated at Kamal Edwan hospital in Beit Lahia. (AFP) SAN JOSE: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemned an Israeli strike on a Gaza school that killed 16 people as “unjustifiable” Wednesday, ca

GAZA CITY: Israel on Tuesday unleashed its heaviest bombardment in a 3-week-old war against Hamas, striking symbols of the group’s control in Gaza and firing tank shells that Palestinian officials said shut down the strip’s only power plant. The station’s shutdown further disrupted the supply of

WASHINGTON: A White House tweet wishing “Muslims in the US and around the world a blessed and joyous celebration” of Eid has sparked backlash over President Barack Obama's position on Gaza, where over 100 Palestinians, including several children, were killed in Israeli attacks in less 24 hours. E

Palestinian mourners cry at Gaza City's al-Shifa hospital after an explosion killed at least seven children in a public playground in the beachfront Shati refugee camp on Monday. (AFP) GAZA CITY: Caught in the fighting between Israel and Hamas, Gaza’s civilians are increasingly struggling to get

GAZA/JERUSALEM: Fighting subsided in Gaza on Sunday after the Hamas movement said they backed a 24-hour humanitarian truce and US President Barack Obama called for a cease-fire but there was no sign of any comprehensive deal to end fighting with Israel. Hamas said it had endorsed a call by the Un