Just weeks ago, the Gaza Strip’s feeble health system was struggling with a runaway surge of coronavirus cases. Authorities cleared out hospital operating rooms, suspended nonessential care and redeployed doctors to patients having difficulty breathing. Then, the bombs began to fall.

A video promoting tourism in Turkey amid the pandemic has caused an uproar on social media for showing tourism employees wearing masks that read "Enjoy, I'm vaccinated."

U.S. forces have left Kandahar Airfield, a southern Afghanistan base that was once one of the largest NATO and coalition installations in the country, Afghan and U.S. officials said.

The personnel were in Israel for a routine planning conference for a future exercise between U.S. and Israeli troops, chief Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said.

The stepped-up fighting came as communal violence in Israel erupted for a fourth night, with Jewish and Arab mobs clashing in the flashpoint town of Lod.

Hundreds of rockets fired by militant groups in the Gaza Strip have streaked through Israeli skies in recent days, most repelled by Israel's Iron Dome interceptors but some crashing down into Israeli cities.

The U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, which President Joe Biden ordered to be completed by Sept. 11, was about 6-12% complete as of Monday, according to CENTCOM.

American troops intentionally ruin what they're not taking with them to ensure equipment doesn't fall into militant hands. But to the dozens of scrap sellers around Bagram, it's an infuriating waste.

House lawmakers on Wednesday called for an immediate increase in the amount of special immigrant visas available for thousands of Afghan interpreters and translators who aided American forces and are now scrambling to escape their country in the midst of the U.S. drawdown.

Defense officials had few solid answers Wednesday as frustrated lawmakers sought details on how the United States will keep the terrorist threat from reemerging in Afghanistan after American and coalition troops leave later this year.

Torn apart in the deadly chaos of an air raid, a Syrian family of seven has been reunited, against the odds, three years later at a refugee shelter in Greece's second city of Thessaloniki, a centuries-old melting point of cultures overlooking the Aegean Sea.

The drawdown effort to remove U.S. forces and the warfighting gear that they have spread across Afghanistan since invading in October 2001 was roughly 2% to 6% completed by Tuesday, according to CENTCOM.

The insurgents have long held sway in the area, but the collapse of the district headquarters doesn’t bode well for embattled Afghan security forces as U.S. and NATO troops begin their final withdrawal from the country, after 20 years of war.

Palestinian militants launched dozens of rockets from Gaza and Israel unleashed new air strikes against them early Tuesday, in an escalation triggered by soaring tensions in Jerusalem and days of clashes at the iconic Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the Old City.

Increased threats and attacks by Iran-backed militias forced American contractors to evacuate Iraq’s Balad Air Base in March, where they were supporting Iraq’s F-16 program, a U.S. government report said this week.

Residents of Afghanistan’s capital on Sunday expressed fears of more Taliban-fueled killing and violence in the coming months, a day after foreign forces officially began a full withdrawal from the country.

Across Baghdad and southern Iraq, a rising tide of attacks on activists and journalists is alarming what remains of a protest movement to demand the ouster of Iraq's U.S.-molded political system and the often Iran-linked armed groups that prop it up.

The Biden administration is debating how to get thousands of Afghans who worked for the U.S. out of the country before American forces withdraw in a few months, amid fears that time is running out ahead of a potential Taliban takeover.

Screams and flying debris enveloped Umm Majed al-Rayyes as explosions hurled her from her bed in Gaza City. Groping in the dark, the 50-year-old grabbed her four children and ran as Israeli bombs struck their apartment building Wednesday, shattering windows, ripping doors to splinters and blasting away concrete.

Analysis

The surge in Israeli-Palestinian violence has flummoxed the Biden administration in its first four months as it attempts to craft a Middle East policy it believes will be more durable and fairer than that of its predecessor.

The barrage of rockets from the Gaza Strip and airstrikes into the territory continued almost nonstop throughout the day, in what appeared to be some of the most intense fighting between Israel and Hamas since their 2014 war.

Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard on Tuesday rejected the U.S. Navy's claim that fast-approaching Iranian speedboats in the Strait of Hormuz sparked a tense encounter in the already sensitive region.

Gen. Austin “Scott” Miller on Friday marked 915 days as head of the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan, making him the longest-serving commander of America’s longest war.

The eight deaths last year bring to 99 the number of American troops who have died while taking part in the U.S.-led coalition battling ISIS since it began a little over six years ago.

A short film about two Marines’ final acts of heroism to stop a truck bomb suicide attack in Iraq became free to view this week on the 13th anniversary of the incident, for which the two men earned Navy Cross medals.

Over the last 20 years, Bagram and other towns in Afghanistan became dependent on the sprawling U.S. military bases nearby for their economy and their security. In a few months, they may not have much of either.

As the year ends, we pay tribute to the 10 American service members who died in Afghanistan in 2020.

As Iran negotiates with world powers over its tattered nuclear deal amid tensions with the U.S., the entry of former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad could enliven an election that Iranians so far appear unenthusiastic about during the coronavirus pandemic and crushing sanctions.

The Islamic State group is using stealth to regenerate its forces by developing its military capabilities underground, and France is deploying its warships and aircraft in the region to help troops on the ground root out the threat, a senior French naval officer said Monday.

Attorneys for Asadullah Haroon Gul acknowledge that he was captured in 2007 as a commander in Hezb-i-Islami Gulbuddin, a paramilitary group then allied with al-Qaida, that resisted the U.S. invasion in 2001.

The USCGC Maui fired about 30 warning shots Monday when 13 vessels of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard Corps came too close to the U.S. ships and "conducted unsafe and unprofessional maneuvers."

On Sunday at the site of the attack, children picked through items left behind, including notebooks riddled with holes and discarded clothing.

Sgt. 1st Class Robert Nicoson, the platoon sergeant on a patrol that came under fire in August near the northeastern Syrian town of Qamishli, is facing an Article 32 hearing later this month.

A contractor used her position as a security supervisor at Kandahar Airfield to make fake badges that allowed unvetted Afghans to enter the base in 2015 and remove military property, court documents said.

No U.S. troops have died in combat in Afghanistan for a year as of Monday, but the Taliban have threatened to target them again if Washington opts to keep international forces in the country after a May withdrawal deadline.

As rockets from Gaza streaked overhead, Arabs and Jews fought each other on the streets below and rioters torched vehicles, a restaurant and a synagogue in one of the worst spasms of communal violence Israel has seen in years.

The soldier was found dead in his living quarters at Ali Al Salem Air Base, the Army said Tuesday in a statement. Officials did not provide information about the cause of death, stating it was under investigation.

After drawing down to 4,500 troops this fall, the number of U.S. forces in the country is expected to be further reduced to 2,500 in January. Some have said that cut, ordered by President Donald Trump this month, could leave a security vacuum.

Iraqi protesters set fire to trailers belonging to Iran's consulate in Karbala amid widespread anger over the killing of Ehab Wazni, an activist who took part in anti-government protests that swept Iraq in October 2019.

Qatar's ruling emir is visiting Saudi Arabia on Monday for the first time since signing a declaration with the kingdom and other Arab Gulf states to ease a years-long rift and end an embargo that had frayed ties among important U.S. allies and security partners.

The attacks are largely focused on towns in provinces where the Taliban has had a strong presence for years.

Several Palestinian families facing imminent eviction in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of east Jerusalem, and their plight has ignited weeks of demonstrations and, in recent days, clashes between protesters and Israeli police.

Staff Sgt. Christopher F. Pantos died Monday while deployed to Kuwait to support military operations in the Middle East, Army officials said.

Militants fired at Kandahar Airfield in the afternoon, but the assault caused no injuries or damage to equipment, Col. Sonny Leggett, a spokesman for the U.S. military in Afghanistan said.

The U.S. is expected to withdraw about 2,500 troops by Sept. 11 and there is often a rush to move animals out when bases close.

Afghan government forces face an uncertain future and, in a worst-case scenario, some "bad possible outcomes" against Taliban insurgents as the withdrawal of American and coalition troops accelerates in the coming weeks, the top U.S. military officer said Sunday.

The Taliban's strong-arm tax collection tactics in areas under its control are just one reason Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and many of the country's 38 million citizens are opposed to any potential power-sharing arrangement with the militant group.

Six former employees of a U.S. government contractor have been charged with fraudulently recruiting unqualified linguists to work alongside U.S. troops in Afghanistan, U.S. officials said this week

The U.S. Navy announced Sunday it seized an arms shipment hidden aboard a vessel in the Arabian Sea, the latest such interdiction by sailors amid the long-running war in Yemen.

A rocket attack on a Turkish military supply convoy in Syria's northwestern Idlib province has killed one soldier and wounded four others, Turkey's Defense Ministry said Tuesday.

Pakistan's Prime Minister on Tuesday ruled out talks with neighboring nuclear-rival India, saying they cannot happen until New Delhi restores the semi-autonomous status of the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir.

Eid al-Fitr marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan and is expected to begin Wednesday or Thursday when the next new moon is observed.

A federal judge Monday refused to release on bond an accused Islamic State soldier captured on a Syrian battlefield three years ago, saying there is a risk the Michigan man could flee the state.

The pre-dawn attack damaged a hangar, tweeted coalition spokesman Col. Wayne Marotto. He said the attack was under investigation.

Israeli police clashed with Palestinian protesters inside a flashpoint Jerusalem holy site on Monday.

With commercial activity now heating up in Tel Aviv, employers and employees around the world are watching with interest to see what happens in a country that has come to be seen as a late-pandemic bellwether.

Taliban insurgents are believed to have killed the man for his 12 years of work for the U.S. Embassy and military in Afghanistan.

The shadowy leader of the armed wing of the Islamic militant group Hamas has issued his first public statement in nearly seven years, warning Israel it will pay a "heavy price" if it evicts Palestinians from their homes in east Jerusalem.

DOD documents show the Pentagon knew troops were exposed to multiple toxins at a base in Uzbekistan known as K2, and that exposure to those toxins caused hundreds of cancer cases. But the VA has denied many of the sick veterans care and disability benefits.

Baluchistan is the scene of a long-running insurgency by small Baluch secessionist groups, which for decades have staged attacks to press their demands for independence.

Israeli authorities on Thursday charged a Spanish woman under the country's anti-terrorism laws, accusing her of funneling large sums of donations from European governments to a banned Palestinian militant group.

Some 100 U.S. soldiers in Kuwait grabbed their loaded rucksacks and marched through the desert in a bid to prove their mental and physical endurance was up to Nordic standards.

An Afghan man aided American forces and was slain by the Taliban while waiting for a U.S. visa. But his family is still in Afghanistan and getting threats, lawyers said.

World powers held a fourth round of high-level talks Friday aimed at bringing the United States back into the nuclear deal with Iran, with both sides signaling a willingness to work out the major stumbling blocks.

Israel's military and the Shin Bet security service said Thursday that they arrested a Palestinian suspect in a weekend drive-by shooting in the West Bank that left one Israeli dead and two injured.

Iran poses a daily threat to the U.S. and its allies in the Middle East as America’s military superiority in the region wanes, the top U.S. commander in the region told Congress on Tuesday, as indirect nuclear talks between the two nations continue in Vienna.

Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie told House Armed Services Committee members that he is working with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to come up with a plan should a renewed terrorism threat from the Taliban emerge once U.S. troops leave Afghanistan.

Officials said 136 people were wounded in clashes with police at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound and elsewhere in Jerusalem. Most were wounded in the face and eyes by rubber-coated bullets and shrapnel from stun grenades. Israel said six police officers were wounded.

Gunmen killed a former Afghan TV presenter on Thursday as he was travelling in the southern city of Kandahar, a provincial official said, adding to fears for press freedom in the war-wrecked country.

The U.S. envoy for the Horn of Africa on Wednesday met with the Egyptian president as Washington aims to find a resolution to a regional decade-long dispute over Ethiopia's massive dam on the Nile River's main tributary.

The rockets hit Balad Air Base in northern Iraq at 8 p.m. local time, the statement said. Security forces launched a large-scale security operation to search for whoever launched the strike.

Maj. Alivia Stehlik’s fears that transgender soldiers would be kicked out of the Army faded Friday as former President Donald Trump’s regulations were overturned. Those who meet military standards are once again allowed to enlist and serve openly.

Ten years after a team of Navy SEALs and Army helicopter pilots flew 162 harrowing miles into Pakistan to kill Osama bin Laden, the two men at the center of ordering and overseeing the raid met to reflect on the operation.

For the first time in two decades, the United States says it will have no troops and contractors in Afghanistan, and the CIA and special forces teams that have led the search for al-Qaida's remaining operatives will no longer work from bases in the eastern part of the country.

The commander of American forces in Afghanistan said some “local actions” related to the drawdown have already begun, though the U.S. withdrawal from the country is not set to begin formally until Saturday.

Israeli police faced off with Palestinian protesters Sunday in another night of clashes in east Jerusalem, a day before Israeli nationalists planned to parade through the Old City in an annual flag-waving display meant to cement Israeli claims to the contested area.

When the militiamen abducted Abdul Ali al-Falus and his four sons last year, their family had every reason to fear the worst. By then, the Kaniyat militia had killed scores and perhaps hundreds of civilians in this pastoral town.

Saudi Arabia's most prominent women's rights activist was summoned by security officials on Sunday and informed of a supreme court decision that ultimately upholds her initial conviction, relatives told The Associated Press.

Israeli police on Saturday clashed with Palestinian protesters outside Jerusalem's Old City during the holiest night of Ramadan, in a show of force that threatened to deepen the holy city's worst religious unrest in several years.

The United States has deployed a dozen additional warplanes to bolster protection of American and coalition troops making a final withdrawal from Afghanistan as Taliban insurgents step up pressure on Afghan government forces, top Pentagon officials said Thursday.

During the Taliban's rule in the 1990s, women were largely confined to their homes, and girls had no access to education.

A group of militants in Afghanistan fired across the border at troops in southwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, killing at least four soldiers before fleeing, the military said. Three other troops were killed in a shootout with militants in the country's northwest.

Obituary

Yitzhak Arad, a Holocaust survivor and scholar who was the director of Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial for more than two decades, has died at the age of 94, the center said Thursday.

A German company has removed dangerous chemicals stored in dozens of containers from Beirut's port and is shipping them abroad as part of efforts to secure the facility following last year's massive blast, the office of Lebanon's prime minister said Wednesday.