By Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, Rice University

(THE CONVERSATION) Years of simmering tensions between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates exploded into the open on Dec. 30, 2025.

Hamas said Sunday it will dissolve its existing government in Gaza once a Palestinian technocratic leadership committee takes over the territory, as mandated under the U.S.-brokered peace plan. But the group gave no specifics on when the change will occur.

Hamas and the rival Palestinian Authority, the Palestinians' internationally recognized representative, have not announced the names of the technocrats, who are not supposed to be politically affiliated, and it remains unclear if they will be cleared by Israel and the U.S.

Syria's government was in full control of Aleppo on Sunday after taking over the city's Kurdish neighborhoods and evacuating fighters there to Kurdish autonomous areas following days of deadly clashes.

Hamas is preparing to hold internal elections to rebuild its leadership following Israel's killing of several of the group's top figures during the war in Gaza, sources in the movement said on Monday.

Iran would strike U.S. military and shipping targets in the event of a new attack by the United States during an ongoing wave of protests, the parliament speaker said on Sunday.

Israeli strikes across Gaza have killed at least 13 people, according to health officials, as U.S. President Donald Trump was expected to announce his Board of Peace to oversee the fragile ceasefire.

Health officials and family members said at least one child was among the dead in northern Gaza following several strikes there as well as east of Gaza City. All 13 people were killed on Thursday.

Pope Leo XIV on Friday lamented rising violence in the occupied West Bank and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, saying Palestinians had the right to live peacefully in their "own land".

"Sadly, there has been an increase in violence in the West Bank against the Palestinian civilian population, which has the right to live in peace in its own land," said the US pope, adding that civilians in Gaza also should be assured "a future of lasting peace and justice in their own land".

A delegation of Yemeni separatists in Riyadh said their group was dissolving on Friday after a failed land grab, but the announcement was dismissed by its spokesman who called it "ridiculous".

Southern Transitional Council (STC) secretary general Abdulrahman al-Subaihi appeared distracted as he read a prepared statement on a Saudi TV news channel.

Kurdish fighters rejected a call to leave Syria's Aleppo on Friday after the government announced a truce in deadly fighting that forced thousands of civilians to flee.

Since Tuesday, government forces had been fighting the US-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Aleppo, the country's second city.

Top officials from the European Union visited Syria for the first time Friday and met with Syrian interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa, in another sign of the country's improving relations with the West.

The visit by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and the President of the European Council António Costa was part of a regional tour.