Middle East & North Africa

CAIRO, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi expressed Wednesday Egypt's firm support for the Palestinian people and a strong opposition to any attempts to relocate them to the adjacent Sinai Peninsula.

In a joint press conference with visiting German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Cairo, Sisi said "we reject the displacement of Palestinians from their land" and expressed concerns that the current escalations in the Gaza Strip are "bids to force Palestinians to seek to enter Egypt's Sinai."

(AP) --- A fatal stabbing in Illinois, a gun pointed at protesters in Pennsylvania, vandalism at synagogues and harassment of staff at a Palestinian restaurant all are raising fears that the war between Israel and Hamas is sparking violence in the United States.

The tensions follow a familiar pattern of crimes against Jewish and Muslim communities rising when conflict erupts in the Middle East and Americans have been killed or taken hostage.

DEIR al-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Even the “safe zones” of Gaza aren’t safe for Palestinians.

Intense Israeli strikes Tuesday destroyed homes, hit a U.N. school sheltering the displaced and killed dozens of people in south and central Gaza.

“The situation is very, very difficult with artillery shelling and aerial bombardment on homes and defenseless people,” said Abu Hashem Abu al-Hussein, who initially welcomed displaced families into his home in Khan Younis, but then fled to a U.N. school, where he hoped to find safety himself.

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Doctors in Gaza City faced with dwindling medical supplies performed surgery on hospital floors, often without anesthesia, in a desperate bid to save badly wounded victims of a massive blast that killed civilians sheltering in a nearby hospital amid Israeli bombings and a blockade of the territory.

The Hamas militant group blamed the blast on an Israeli airstrike, while the Israeli military blamed a rocket misfired by other Palestinian militants. At least 500 people were killed, the Hamas-run Health Ministry said.

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — President Joe Biden vowed to show the world that the U.S. stands in solidarity with Israelis during his visit there Wednesday, and offered an assessment that the deadly explosion at a Gaza Strip hospital apparently was not carried out by the Israeli military.

“Based on what I’ve seen, it appears as though it was done by the other team, not you,” Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a meeting. But he said there were “a lot of people out there” who weren’t sure what caused the blast, which sparked protests throughout the Middle East.

DAMASCUS, Oct 17 (NNN-SANA) – Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad, and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, held a phone conversation yesterday, to discuss the pressing situation in the Gaza Strip.

The two leaders highlighted the urgency in the immediate delivery of humanitarian aid to the besieged, densely-populated enclave, and discussed ways to stop Israeli shelling and the displacement of Palestinians in Gaza, it reported.

At least 2,750 Palestinians, including women and children, were killed by the Israeli army in Gaza.

DUBAI, Oct 17 (Reuters) - Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has described Israel's assault on Gaza as a genocide of Palestinians and said it must stop immediately, state TV reported on Tuesday.

A senior commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) also warned of further action by Tehran-backed militant groups against Israel if it did not cease its attacks.

Israel has bombarded the Palestinian territory of Gaza with air strikes since Hamas fighters burst into Israel from the enclave on Oct. 7 and killed 1,300 people, most of them civilians.

GAZA, Oct 17 (Reuters) - Israeli air strike killed senior Hamas armed commander Ayman Nofal in Gaza, the Hamas armed wing Izz el-Deen Al-Qassam Brigades said on Tuesday.

A member of the higher military council of Izz el-Deen Al-Qassam Brigades, Nofal was in charge of the Central Gaza area in the armed wing.

TEHRAN, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has blamed the United States for fueling and expanding the Israel-Hamas conflict by adopting "unconstructive policies" and providing support for Israel to launch more attacks on the Gaza Strip.

Amir-Abdollahian made the remarks on Monday when speaking with European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell by phone, according to a statement released by Iran's Foreign Ministry on Tuesday.

ISTANBUL, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- Turkish police on Tuesday rounded up 17 suspects accused of transferring money to Islamic State (IS) members in a large-scale operation in Istanbul, local media reported.

Authorities found that the suspects were illegally transferring money between Türkiye and conflict zones through companies and individuals, the private news agency Demiroren said.