Middle East & North Africa

TEHRAN, Nov. 19 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) on Sunday unveiled a new domestically-developed hypersonic ballistic missile, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.

The missile, dubbed Fattah-2 (Conqueror-2), was unveiled during a visit by Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to an exhibition of the achievements of the IRGC's Aerospace Force in the Iranian capital Tehran, the report said.

According to Tasnim, Fattah-2 is equipped with a hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV) warhead that can maneuver and glide at hypersonic speed.

GAZA, Nov. 19 (Xinhua) -- A Palestinian source said on Sunday that Qatar presented Israel with "two suggestions" on the hostage deal with Hamas.

The source, who requires anonymity, told Xinhua that the first suggestion is for Hamas to release 53 children and women in exchange for a three-day ceasefire and the entry of a certain amount of fuel into the Gaza Strip.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Yemen’s Houthi rebels seized an Israeli-linked cargo ship in a crucial Red Sea shipping route on Sunday, officials said, taking over two dozen crew members hostage and raising fears that regional tensions heightened over the Israel-Hamas war were playing out on a new maritime front.

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Health officials said Sunday that 31 “very sick” premature babies were safely transferred from Gaza’s main hospital to another in the south and will later go to Egypt, as scores of critically wounded patients remained stranded there days after Israeli forces entered the compound.

MANAMA, Nov 18 (Reuters) - Jordan's foreign minister said on Saturday that he did not understand how Israel's goal of obliterating the Palestinian militant group Hamas it is fighting in Gaza could be achieved.

"Israel says it wants to wipe out Hamas. There's a lot of military people here, I just don't understand how this objective can be realized," said Ayman Safadi.

BEIRUT, Nov 18 (Reuters) - Hezbollah and Israel traded rocket and missile fire in areas near the Lebanese-Israeli border on Saturday, officials on both sides said, in the latest flare-up of violence which the United States worries will cause conflict to spiral in the Middle East.

The Iran-backed Hezbollah said it shot down an Israeli drone near the border in the early hours of Saturday. Israel’s military said it intercepted a missile fired at an Israeli drone. Reuters could not verify either statement.

GAZA, Nov. 18 (Xinhua) -- The Israeli army has demanded the evacuation of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City within one hour, Palestine TV reported on Saturday morning.

Sources in the hospital told Xinhua there is a severe state of panic and fear now in the hospital.

"We will not leave the hospital unless we do so with the patients," the sources cited medical personnel in the hospital.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli forces on Friday killed five Palestinians, including three militants, across the West Bank, deepening a surge of violence in the occupied territory that has accompanied Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip.

The deaths raised to 205 the number of Palestinians killed in West Bank violence since the Gaza war erupted on Oct. 7, making it the deadliest period in the territory since the second Palestinian uprising in the early 2000s.

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — The United Nations was forced Friday to stop deliveries of food and other necessities to Gaza and warned of the growing risk of widespread starvation after internet and telephone services collapsed in the besieged enclave because of lack of fuel.

BEIRUT, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- Lebanese experts on Thursday highlighted the challenges posed by the Syrian refugees in Lebanon and the necessity of finding a suitable resolution to address them.

Ziad Sayegh, an expert in refugee and immigration affairs and executive director of Civic Influence Hub, a non-governmental organization, said the first step that the Lebanese government must take is to collect data and know the precise number of Syrian refugees, a move that he says would give a clearer idea of the real situation on the ground.