RAMALLAH: Three Palestinians were killed in an Israeli drone strike early on Friday in the city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank, the head of the Palestinian ambulance service said.
The Israeli army confirmed it had carried out an airstrike, saying it had killed at least five militants during fighting in Jenin, a focus of repeated recent clashes as tensions soar against the backdrop of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.
At least 200 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas gunmen operating out of Gaza.

SAN FRANCISCO: US President Joe Biden pressed Friday for the immediate release of hostages seized by Hamas in Israel during talks with the leader of Qatar, which has relations with the militants.
Biden, in San Francisco for an Asia-Pacific summit, in a telephone call with Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani “discussed the urgent need for all hostages held by Hamas to be released without further delay,” a White House statement said.

MANAMA: The crown prince of Bahrain on Friday called for a “hostage trade” between Hamas and Israel in order to achieve a break in hostilities that he said could lead to an end to the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
Prince Salman bin Hamad Al-Khalifa also said that security would not be realized without a two-state solution, in which he described the US as “indispensable” in achieving.

ANKARA: The Turkish parliament’s decision to postpone a vote on Sweden’s NATO membership bid — the latest twist in an 18-month saga — has raised questions about the reasons for the delay and its potential implications.

Experts suggest the postponement may be linked to Turkiye’s hopes of buying $20 billion of F-16 fighter jets and modernization kits from Washington.

Turkiye plans to exert more pressure on the US to endorse the deal before approving Sweden’s bid to join NATO.

NEW YORK CITY: Israel must allow clean water and fuel supplies into Gaza “before it is too late,” a UN expert warned on Friday, as he called on Israeli authorities to stop using water as a “weapon of war.”

Under international law, intentionally depriving the civilian population of the conditions required to sustain life with the aim of bringing about their destruction is classified as an act of extermination and a crime against humanity, said Pedro Arrojo-Agudo, the UN’s special rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation.