BAGHDAD: Iraq’s parliament postponed until further notice its planned vote for a new speaker on Wednesday, local media reported, with MPs focused on local elections.

The previous speaker, influential Sunni politician Mohamed Al-Halbussi, was dismissed last month after accusations of forgery in an arcane dispute with another member of parliament.

CAIRO: Egypt has again slammed what it described as Israeli attempts to encourage Palestinians to leave the Gaza Strip.

Any move to displace Gazans, whether voluntarily or forcibly, was on Wednesday condemned by Cairo.

The latest Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ statement on the Israel-Hamas war came in response to recent comments made by the Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer suggesting Palestinians should vacate the Strip.

PARIS: The United States will always insist on the need to protect journalists reporting from Gaza during the conflict between Israel and Hamas militants, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a letter to Agence France-Presse on Tuesday.
AFP and other international media groups had written to Blinken in late October urging his help in protecting journalists on the ground in Gaza after several were killed since the outbreak of fighting.

WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden declined to directly answer a question on reports that Israel was pumping seawater into Hamas’ Gaza tunnel complex, referring only to assertions that there were no hostages in the areas targeted.
Citing unnamed US officials, the Wall Street Journal reported that Israel had recently begun pumping seawater into Hamas’ vast labyrinth of tunnels underneath Gaza, in a process that would likely take weeks.
ABC News later published a similar report and said the flooding appeared limited as Israel evaluates the strategy’s effectiveness.

CAIRO: A senior official from Yemen’s Houthis on Tuesday warned cargo ships in the Red Sea to avoid traveling toward the occupied Palestinian territories, after the Iran-aligned group claimed an attack on a commercial tanker earlier in the day.
The Houthis earlier said they hit a Norwegian commercial tanker with a missile in their latest protest against Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, underlining the risks of a conflict that has shaken the Middle East.