Middle East & North Africa

ANKARA, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Turkey rejects plans to establish a post-war buffer zone in Gaza because it would be disrespectful to Palestinians, President Tayyip Erdogan was quoted as saying on Wednesday.

Reuters reported last week that Israel had conveyed plans for the buffer zone to several Arab states and Turkey.

Speaking to reporters on a flight from Doha, Erdogan said Gaza's governance and future after the war would be decided by Palestinians alone.

DUBAI, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Yemen's Houthi group launched several ballistic missiles at military posts in the southern Israeli city of Eilat, the group's military spokesperson said in a statement on Wednesday.

Earlier Wednesday, the U.S. Navy shot down a drone that originated from a part of Yemen controlled by the Houthi group, a U.S. defense official told Reuters.

RIYADH, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin landed in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday and immediately began hastily arranged talks with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on oil, Gaza and Ukraine.

It was not immediately clear what Putin, who has rarely left Russia since the start of the Ukraine war, intended to raise specifically about oil or geopolitics in a meeting with the crown prince of the world's largest crude exporter.

RIYADH/DUBAI, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia has asked the United States to show restraint in responding to attacks by Yemen's Houthis against ships in the Red Sea, two sources familiar with Saudi thinking said, as Riyadh seeks to contain spillover from the Hamas-Israel war.

The Iran-aligned Houthis have waded into the conflict that has spread around the Middle East since war erupted on Oct. 7, attacking vessels in vital shipping lanes and firing drones and missiles at Israel itself.

GAZA, Dec. 6 (Xinhua) -- The only operating hospital in the conflict-ravaged northern Gaza Strip halted services on Wednesday due to fuel shortages and heavy Israeli strikes, according to a Palestinian health official.

"Kamal Odwan Hospital was out of service due to repeated Israeli targeting and the exhaustion of fuel needed to operate the generators," Munir Al-Bursh, director-general of the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza, said at a press conference.

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli forces battled Hamas militants across Gaza on Wednesday in intense fighting that has prevented the distribution of vital aid in much of the territory and brought some of the devastation and mass displacement seen in the north to the south.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran said Wednesday it sent a capsule into orbit capable of carrying animals as it prepares for human missions in coming years.

A report by the official IRNA news agency quoted Telecommunications Minister Isa Zarepour as saying the capsule was launched 130 kilometers (80 miles) into orbit.

Zarepour said the launch of the 500-kilogram (1,000-pound) capsule is aimed at sending Iranian astronauts to space in coming years. He did not say if any animals were in the capsule.

5 December 2023; MEMO: The former chief of Israel’s Shin Bet security service, on Monday, called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to step down immediately, Anadolu Agency reports.

In an article published by Israeli Channel 12, Yuval Diskin said Netanyahu’s behaviour since 7 October “explains well why he must go home now.”

5 December 2023; MEMO: Hamas, on Monday, dismissed Israeli rape accusations against its fighters as a “desperate attempt” to distort the group’s humane treatment of Israeli hostages, Anadolu Agency reports.

"We reject the Israeli lies about raping, which aim to distort the Resistance and tarnish our humanity and moral treatment of captives" Hamas said in a statement.

5 December 2023; MEMO: The Palestinian telecommunications company (PalTel), on Monday, said that all communication and internet services in the Gaza Strip have been completely cut off, Anadolu  Agency reports.

In a statement, the company said the telecom service was cut due to the disconnection of the main elements of the network in light of the ongoing Israeli shelling across Gaza.