Middle East & North Africa

BEIRUT, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah will on Friday make his first public comments since the Palestinian group Hamas and Israel went to war, a speech which will be closely watched for clues on how the group's role in the conflict might evolve.

A formidable military force backed by Iran, Hezbollah has been engaging Israeli forces along the border, where 50 of its fighters have been killed in the deadliest escalation since it fought a war with Israel in 2006.

ISTANBUL, Nov. 2 (Xinhua) -- Turkish authorities have arrested 37 people suspected of being part of an Australia-based international crime syndicate, Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on Thursday.

The gang, known as Comanchero, is involved in drug trafficking, murder, kidnapping, and other crimes, Yerlikaya said in a post on the social media platform X.

The minister said the gang tried to smuggle drugs from different countries and launder the money they made from illegal activities in Türkiye, without revealing when or where the arrests took place.

SANAA, Nov. 2 (Xinhua) -- Yemen's Houthi militia has launched new drone attacks against Israel, hitting several targets deep inside the Jewish state, according to the militia's military spokesman.

"We will continue our military operations against Israel until it stops its aggression on Gaza," Yahya Sarea said in a statement broadcast by Houthi-run al-Masirah TV on Wednesday evening.

The statement did not specify what targets were hit, or provide any evidence of the attacks. Israel has not confirmed or denied any new Houthi strikes on its territory.

JERUSALEM/GAZA, Nov. 2 (Xinhua) -- The death toll has exceeded 10,000 since the Israel-Hamas conflict broke out on Oct. 7, according to Palestinian and Israeli sources.

The number of Palestinian casualties in Gaza has now reached at least 8,796, including 3,648 children and 2,290 women, according to the Gaza-based Health Ministry, while more than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, said the Israeli Foreign Ministry.

RABAT, Morocco (AP) — Arab nations that have normalized or are considering improving relations with Israel are coming under growing public pressure to cut those ties because of Israel’s war with Hamas.

Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets of Rabat and other Moroccan cities in support of the Palestinians. In Bahrain — a country that almost never allows protest — police stood by as hundreds of people marched last month, waving flags and gathering in front of the Israeli Embassy in Manama.

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Hundreds of foreign passport-holders and dozens of other seriously wounded Palestinians desperate to escape Israel’s bombardment of Gaza crowded around the black metal gate on the Egyptian border Wednesday, hoping to pass through the enclave’s only portal to the outside world for the first time since the war began.

Restless children pressed their faces against the wire mesh as families with backpacks and carry-on suitcases pushed and jostled. The air was thick with apprehension.

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — More than 3,600 Palestinian children were killed in the first 25 days of the war between Israel and Hamas, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry. They were hit by airstrikes, smashed by misfired rockets, burned by blasts and crushed by buildings, and among them were newborns and toddlers, avid readers, aspiring journalists and boys who thought they’d be safe in a church.

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli troops advanced toward Gaza City on Thursday, as the Palestinian death toll rose above 9,000. With no end in sight after weeks of heavy fighting, U.S. and Arab mediators intensified efforts to ease Israel’s siege of the Hamas-ruled enclave and called for at least a brief halt to the hostilities in order to aid civilians.

AMMAN, Nov 1 (NNN-PETRA) – King Abdullah II of Jordan, yesterday, underlined the importance of a ceasefire and an immediate humanitarian truce in the Gaza Strip, during a phone call with U.S. President Joe Biden, according to a statement by Jordan’s Royal Hashemite Court.

During their discussion on the ongoing conflict in Gaza, the Jordanian king underlined the need to guarantee the uninterrupted delivery of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian enclave.

ANKARA, Nov 1 (Reuters) - The Turkish parliament's foreign affairs committee will discuss ratifying Sweden's NATO membership bid as part of its regular agenda as the issue was not so urgent for Ankara as for some other countries, its chair said on Wednesday.

President Tayyip Erdogan submitted the ratification bill for Sweden's NATO membership bid to parliament last month, a move welcomed by Stockholm as it would clear the way for it to join the Western defence alliance.