Spotlight
Three months following the overthrow of President Bashar Assad, Syria is at a crossroads, the top U.N. envoy for the country said.
Geir Pedersen told the U.N. Security Council that Syria can return to violence or start an inclusive transition and end decades of conflict.

Israel's parliament has passed a state budget, a move that shores up Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's governing coalition even as the embattled leader faces mounting public pressure over the war in Gaza and the hostage crisis.
The budget vote was seen as a key test for Netanyahu's coalition, which is made up of ultranationalist and ultra-Orthodox parties that had demanded and largely received hefty allocations for their constituents in exchange for supporting the funding package.

Houthi media in Yemen reported Wednesday at least 17 strikes in Saada and Amran, blaming the United States for the attacks.

Syria slammed Israeli attacks as a "flagrant violation" of its sovereignty after a deadly bombardment Tuesday in the country's south, where Israel's military said it had responded to incoming fire.
The violence near the U.N.-patrolled buffer zone on the Golan Heights followed Israeli air strikes in central Syria, the latest in a string of attacks on military sites since Islamist-led forces overthrew longtime president Bashar al-Assad.

Hundreds of Palestinians have shouted anti-Hamas slogans at a protest in northern Gaza calling for an end to the war with Israel, witnesses said.
The mostly male demonstrators chanted "Hamas out" and "Hamas terrorists" in Beit Lahia, where the crowd had gathered a week after the Israeli army resumed its intense bombing of Gaza following nearly two months of a truce.

The Israeli army said Tuesday that it had again struck two military bases in central Syria, a day after the European Union's foreign policy chief warned strikes there and in Lebanon risked escalation.

An Israeli air strike killed a journalist working with Al Jazeera on Monday and the military issued fresh calls to evacuate parts of Gaza's north, as Israel pressed its renewed bombardment and ground operations in the Palestinian territory.

Israel's military said it conducted a strike in Syria on Tuesday in response to incoming fire from across the demarcation line, after reports of Israeli shelling killing five people in southern Syria.

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas warned on Monday during a visit to Jerusalem that Israeli strikes on Syria and Lebanon threatened to worsen the situation.
"Military actions must be proportionate, and Israeli strikes into Syria and Lebanon risk further escalation," Kallas said at a joint news conference with Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar.

The Palestinian Prisoners Club non-governmental organization said Monday that a Palestinian 17-year-old died in Israel's Megiddo prison in unknown circumstances.
In a statement, the NGO announced "the death of Walid Khaled Abdullah Ahmad (17 years old), a minor detainee from the town of Silwad, east of Ramallah, in Megiddo Prison" in Israel, adding he was the 63rd Palestinian to die in Israeli jails since the start of the war in Gaza.
