WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden said on Monday that any discussions about a Gaza cease-fire could only take place if Hamas frees all hostages seized from Israel in its October 7 attack.
“We should have those hostages released and then we can talk,” Biden said at a White House event when asked if he would support a “hostages-for-cease-fire” deal.
Biden then apologized for having to leave the event to promote his economic program ahead of next year’s election, saying he had to go to the White House Situation Room for “another issue I have to deal with.”

LONDON: Western media may be warning of “drastic implications” for the global economy should the conflict in Gaza spill over into neighboring countries, but Middle East analysts predict that the economic brunt of a wider conflagration will be borne by crisis-ridden regional countries.

GAZA/JERUSALEM : Israel bombarded Gaza with air strikes early on Monday and its aircraft struck southern Lebanon overnight, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened a meeting of his top generals and his war cabinet to assess the escalating conflict.
Israel’s attacks concentrated on the Gaza Strip’s center and north, Palestinian media reported. A strike on a house near the Jabalia refugee camp, in northern Gaza, killed several Palestinians and wounded others, according to media reports.

BAGHDAD: The Iraqi military and Kurdish Peshmerga forces briefly clashed Sunday in a dispute over control of a strategic military post, resulting in four deaths, Iraq’s military spokesperson and a military source said.

The dispute was over who controls three vacated posts previously in the hands of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants. It marked further tension in a fragile alliance between the Iraqi military and Kurdish Peshmerga forces of the semi-autonomous Kurdish region inside federal Iraq.

RAMALLAH, SARAJEVO: Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh called on Sunday on the international community to create “united front” to stop Israel’s attacks in the Gaza Strip.

“We place at the top of our priorities stopping the Israeli aggression  and bringing in medical and relief aid to prevent a major humanitarian catastrophe,” Shtayyeh said during a meeting with 25 ambassadors, representatives and consuls.