Middle East & North Africa

Nov 12 (Reuters) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel had offered fuel to Gaza's Al Shifa hospital, which suspended operations after running out of fuel, but that the militants had refused to receive it.

Netanyahu was asked by NBC News whether Israeli allegations that Hamas had a command post under Gaza's main hospital justified jeopardizing the lives of sick people and babies.

GAZA, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Development Programme has reported that its headquarters in Gaza was subjected to Israeli airstrikes last night, which led to casualties among Palestinian refugees taking shelter there.

In a statement published Saturday on its website, the UN agency expressed deep concern over deaths and injuries among those who were seeking refuge in its premises.

The statement highlighted the imperative to protect civilians and civil infrastructure and always uphold the sanctity of the UN facilities.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — As Israel unleashes one of the most-intense aerial bombing campaigns the Middle East has ever seen, leaders from the world’s top air forces met Sunday in the United Arab Emirates to talk about almost anything that wasn’t an airstrike.

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli strikes pounded Gaza City overnight and into Sunday as ground forces battled Hamas militants near the territory’s largest hospital, where health officials say thousands of medics, patients and displaced people are trapped with no electricity and dwindling supplies.

GAZA, Nov 11 (NNN-WAFA) – At least 50 displaced Palestinians were killed, in an Israeli attack on a school-turned-shelter in Gaza City, the health ministry said in a press statement, yesterday.

The ministry said, the attack on Al-Buraq School was “a disgrace to the forehead of humanity.”

In a press statement, Hamas condemned the Israeli attacks on the Palestinians, accusing the United States of supporting Israel in all of its “crimes” in Gaza.

ANKARA, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that an international peace conference should be convened to find a permanent solution to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

Erdogan was addressing a joint Islamic-Arab summit in Saudi Arabia's capital Riyadh, where leaders gathered to urge Israel to end hostilities in Gaza.

Nov 11 (Reuters) - Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said on Saturday that the time had come for action over the conflict in Gaza rather than talk as he headed to Saudi Arabia to attend a summit on the war between Israel and Hamas militants.

"Gaza is not an arena for words. It should be for action," Raisi said at Tehran airport before departing for the summit of Arab and Islamic nations in the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh.

"Today, the unity of the Islamic countries is very important," he added.

BEIRUT, Nov 11 (Reuters) - The head of Lebanon's powerful Hezbollah said on Saturday that his armed group had used new types of weapons and struck new targets in Israel in recent days, and pledged that the front in the south against its sworn enemy would remain active.

It was Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's second speech since the war between Israel and Hamas began in October. In his first address earlier this month he said there was a possibility of fighting on the Lebanese front turning into a full-fledged war.

ABU DHABI, Nov 11 (Reuters) - The United Arab Emirates plans to maintain diplomatic ties with Israel despite international outcry over the mounting toll of the war in Gaza and hopes to have some moderating influence over the Israeli campaign while safeguarding its own interests, according to four sources familiar with UAE government policy.

RIYADH, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries called on Saturday for an immediate end to military operations in Gaza, rejecting Israel's justification of its actions against Palestinians as self-defence.

The extraordinary joint Islamic-Arab summit in Riyadh urged the International Criminal Court to investigate "war crimes and crimes against humanity that Israel is committing" in the Palestinian territories, according to a final communique.