Spotlight
Syria will have a new government next month, Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani said on Wednesday, with transitional authorities having ruled the country since the overthrown of Bashar al-Assad.
"The government that will be launched March 1 will represent the Syrian people as much as possible and take its diversity into account," Shaibani said on the sidelines of the World Governments Summit in the United Arab Emirates.

U.S. President Donald Trump has doubled down on his idea of exiling Palestinians and placing a rebuilt Gaza under "U.S. authority," but faced pushback from visiting Jordanian King Abdullah II.

Arab League secretary-general Ahmed Aboul Gheit on Wednesday rejected any displacement of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip and West Bank, calling it "unacceptable" for the region.

The Israeli military said it conducted an air strike on Wednesday in the Gaza Strip, targeting two people attempting to retrieve a drone that had crossed into the Palestinian territory.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday threatened to resume fighting in the Gaza Strip unless the Israeli hostages in Gaza are released.
"If Hamas does not return our hostages by Saturday noon, the ceasefire will end, and the IDF (Israeli army) will return to intense fighting until Hamas is finally defeated," Netanyahu said in a video message.

The United Nations World Food Program said Tuesday that an aid worker has died in a Yemeni prison three weeks after his detention by Houthi rebels.
The announcement came a day after the U.N. suspended its operations in the rebel's stronghold in northern Yemen.

President Donald Trump will host Jordan's King Abdullah II at the White House on Tuesday as he escalates pressure on the Arab nation to take in refugees from Gaza — perhaps permanently — as part of his audacious plan to remake the Middle East.
The visit is happening at a perilous moment for the ongoing ceasefire in Gaza as Hamas, accusing Israel of violating the truce, has said it is pausing future releases of hostages and as Trump has called for Israel to resume fighting if all those remaining in captivity are not freed by this weekend.

The call came in the middle of the night, Mohammed Shula said. His daughter-in-law, eight months pregnant with her first child, was whispering. There was panic in her voice.
"Help, please," Shula recalled her saying. "You have to save us."

Hamas' threat to delay the next planned release of Israeli hostages from the Gaza Strip has jolted a fragile ceasefire that's seen as having the potential to wind down the war.
The next handover of three hostages had been scheduled for Saturday, and families say time is running out for those still alive. Israel now awaits what comes from a security Cabinet meeting Tuesday morning, moved up in response to Monday's Hamas announcement.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi urged on Tuesday the reconstruction of Gaza "without displacing Palestinians", after U.S. President Donald Trump said he could "conceivably" halt aid to Egypt and Jordan if they refuse to take in Gazans.
During a phone call with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, Sisi "stressed the necessity of starting the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip... without displacing Palestinians and in a way that ensures the preservation of their rights... to live on their land", according to a statement from his office.
