Middle East

Egypt opened its largely sealed border with Gaza on Saturday for the first time since a reconciliation agreement saw the Palestinian Authority take control of the crossing from Hamas. A Palestinian official at the Rafah crossing said it had opened at 0700 GMT and was expected to stay open for three days. “Egypt will open

Its “caliphate” has imploded, its de facto capitals in Iraq and Syria have fallen, and hundreds of its fighters have either surrendered or fled. The Islamic State jihadist group may not be dead yet but its dream of statehood has already been buried, analysts say. No one in IS “will now think of imposing ‘the

By TOI staff Israeli security forces on Saturday raided the home of a 17-year-old Palestinian terrorist who carried out a car-ramming attack in the central West Bank a day earlier, Hadashot news (formerly Channel 2) reported. Forces searched the home of the attacker who rammed his car into two people in Gush Etzion south of

By TOI staff Veteran Army Radio reporter Hadas Shtaif on Saturday accused former prime minister Ehud Olmert of sexually harassing her some years ago. Shtaif said that upon leaving the Channel 1 studio, Olmert pressed her up against the wall and “whispered in my ear.” He then allegedly touched her ear “with his disgusting tongue.

Lebanon’s Prime Minister Saad Hariri, who arrived in Paris from Riyadh on Saturday, has told President Michel Aoun in a phonecall that he plans to return to Beirut by Wednesday, for the Independence Day celebrations, state-run media reported. Hariri resigned as Lebanon’s prime minister earlier this month while in Saudi Arabia. He and his wife

By Dov Lieber and Video by Luke Tress BEERSHEBA — When Fatma was forcefully married to her cousin at age 19, she became his second wife. He drank and beat her. Her own father, who had married her off to her cousin, did not believe her story of abuse, dismissing them as the complaints of

A rare interview given by a top Israeli general to a Saudi-owned news site has raised speculation of joint military action against Iran and its allies, but analysts say it appears unlikely. Though Saudi Arabia and Israel have no official diplomatic ties, they share a common enemy in Tehran, with both seeking to limit the

A series of catacombs excavated deep under Jerusalem’s main cemetery will house a new “city of the dead,” addressing a critical lack of burial space in Israel with the addition of 22,000 graves. The system of beehive-like tunnels stretch more than half a mile beneath the city and have been excavated over the past two

The King of Saudi Arabia plans to step down and announce his son as his successor next week, the British newspaper Daily Mail reported on Thursday, citing a source close to the country’s royal family. The move is seen as the final step in 32-year-old Prince Mohammed Bin Salman’s power grab, which began earlier this