Palestinian Islamist group Hamas took Israel by surprise yesterday with the biggest attack for decades, a sudden assault by gunmen who crossed into Israeli villages, killed dozens of people and brought hostages back into the Gaza Strip.

Hamas spokesperson Khaled Qadomi has told Al Jazeera that the group’s military operation is in response to all the atrocities the Palestinians have faced over the decades.

Palestinian Islamist group Hamas launched the biggest attack on Israel in years on Saturday, killing at least 250 people and wounding hundreds in a surprise assault that combined gunmen crossing into Israel with a barrage of rockets fired from Gaza

The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas launched the biggest attack on Israel in years on Saturday in a surprise assault that combined gunmen crossing into several Israeli towns with a heavy barrage of rockets fired from the Gaza Strip

The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas launched its biggest assault on Israel in years early on Saturday, firing a barrage of rockets from Gaza and sending fighters across the border

Israeli forces killed two Palestinian militants in the occupied West Bank yesterday, the Palestinian health ministry said, as the Israeli army confirmed its soldiers had been engaged in a shootout.

Turkey yesterday arrested dozens of suspected Kurdish militants and their supporters after an attack on the government district in the capital Ankara injured two policemen.

Five Arab Israelis were killed Wednesday in a shooting in northern Israel, police said, the latest fatalities in a crime wave hitting the country's Arab minority

A fire ripped through a packed wedding hall in northern Iraq late on Tuesday, killing more than 100 people in a Christian town that had survived Islamic State occupation as authorities announced an investigation into the blaze.

Israeli forces killed two Palestinians, including a fighter of the Islamist Hamas group, during a raid on a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank yesterday, emergency workers and Hamas said.

Authorities in Iran have neutralised 30 bombs meant to go off simultaneously in Tehran and detained 28 terrorists linked to Islamic State, Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported yesterday, citing the intelligence ministry.

Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas has said there could be no peace in the Middle East without a two-state solution, sending a warning as Saudi Arabia considers recognizing Israel.

Saudi Arabia and Israel voiced optimism Wednesday that they were moving closer to a historic normalization of ties as Iran -- their common foe -- accused the kingdom of betraying the Palestinians through the US-led effort.

Iranian women who flout the strict Islamic dress code mandating head coverings and modest clothing would face up to 10 years’ prison under a bill passed yesterday.

Officials in eastern Libya ordered journalists out of Derna yesterday, the morning after demonstrators staged a rally and torched the home of the ousted mayor in fury over the authorities’ failure to protect the city from floods.

A member of Iran’s Basij paramilitary force linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was shot dead during events falling on the anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s death, state media reported yesterday.

Iran has warned the European Union that its decision to maintain sanctions on the Islamic republic beyond a deadline set in a landmark nuclear deal was “illegal”.

Thousands of Syrians protested yesterday in the southern city of Sweida, the largest in nearly a month of anti-government demonstrations that have intensified despite one incidence of violence, activists said.

Bodies were washing ashore in eastern Libya yesterday, swelling the death toll from a storm that swept whole neighbourhoods out to sea, with thousands already confirmed dead and many thousands more still missing.

At least 10,000 people were feared missing in Libya on Tuesday in floods caused by a huge storm, which burst dams, swept away buildings and wiped out as much as a quarter of the eastern city of Derna