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UN Security Council due to Vote on Delayed Gaza Resolution 

A picture taken from Rafah shows smoke billowing following Israeli bombardment in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on December 20, 2023, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. (AFP)
A picture taken from Rafah shows smoke billowing following Israeli bombardment in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on December 20, 2023, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. (AFP)
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UN Security Council due to Vote on Delayed Gaza Resolution 

A picture taken from Rafah shows smoke billowing following Israeli bombardment in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on December 20, 2023, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. (AFP)
A picture taken from Rafah shows smoke billowing following Israeli bombardment in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on December 20, 2023, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. (AFP)

The United Nations Security Council was due to vote Wednesday on a much-delayed resolution calling for a pause to the Israel-Hamas war after members wrangled over wording while aid efforts in the Gaza Strip neared collapse.

The humanitarian situation in Gaza was rapidly deteriorating, with a senior UN official saying Israel's steps to allow in aid were "far short" of mounting need.

Members of the council had grappled for days to find common ground on the resolution, a vote on which was pushed back several times throughout Tuesday, after being postponed Monday.

An official scheduling document said the 15-member body would finally vote on Wednesday.

Israel, backed by its ally Washington, a veto-wielding permanent Security Council member, has opposed the use of the term "ceasefire."

Richard Gowan, an analyst at the International Crisis Group, said that "everyone is basically stuck waiting to see what the US will decide to do."

"It looks like even US diplomats do not know how this saga will end," he added, after several United States diplomats gave non-committal answers when asked what would happen and why the vote had been delayed through Tuesday.

US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said he did not want to "get ahead of a resolution that hasn't been voted on yet."

This week's back and forth comes after an impasse earlier this month, when the United States, despite unprecedented pressure from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, blocked the adoption of a Security Council resolution on the war.

It had called for an "immediate humanitarian ceasefire" in the Gaza Strip, where Israel continues its deadly strikes in retaliation for Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack.

'Human catastrophe'

Last week, the General Assembly adopted the same nonbinding resolution by 153 votes to 10, with 23 abstentions, out of 193 member states.

Bolstered by that overwhelming support, Arab countries announced the new attempt at the Security Council.

A draft text prepared by the UAE, obtained by AFP on Sunday, called for "an urgent and lasting cessation of hostilities to allow unimpeded access of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip."

The last version seen by AFP was, however, a modified text that seemingly sought to salvage a compromise.

It was less direct, calling for "the urgent suspension of hostilities to allow safe and unhindered humanitarian access, and for urgent steps towards a sustainable cessation of hostilities."

United Nations official Tor Wennesland said Tuesday that Israel's "limited" steps to allow aid into Gaza "are positive, but fall far short of what is needed to address the human catastrophe on the ground."

After the attack on October 7, which Israeli authorities say left around 1,140 people dead, most of them civilians, Israel vowed to "annihilate" Hamas.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says Israel's military response has killed 19,667 people, mostly women and children.

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Arab World

Palestinian Ministry Says Israeli Troops Kill 2 Children, Parents in West Bank

A Palestinian flag is placed at the site where a Jewish settlers' attack killed 3 Palestinians and injured seven others on March 8, in the village of Abu Falah, northeast of Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on March 12, 2026. (AFP)
A Palestinian flag is placed at the site where a Jewish settlers' attack killed 3 Palestinians and injured seven others on March 8, in the village of Abu Falah, northeast of Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on March 12, 2026. (AFP)
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Palestinian Ministry Says Israeli Troops Kill 2 Children, Parents in West Bank

A Palestinian flag is placed at the site where a Jewish settlers' attack killed 3 Palestinians and injured seven others on March 8, in the village of Abu Falah, northeast of Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on March 12, 2026. (AFP)
A Palestinian flag is placed at the site where a Jewish settlers' attack killed 3 Palestinians and injured seven others on March 8, in the village of Abu Falah, northeast of Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on March 12, 2026. (AFP)

The Palestinian health ministry said Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian husband and wife and their two young children in the north of the occupied West Bank on Sunday.

The Palestinian Red Crescent also said its teams had recovered the bodies of two adults and two children from a vehicle that had been fired on by Israeli forces in the town of Tammun.

The Israeli military said it was looking into reports of the incident in response to AFP's request for comment.

The Ramallah-based Palestinian health ministry said in a statement that "four martyrs from one family arrived at the Turkish Public Hospital in Tubas after the occupation army shot at them in Tammun".

It said the hospital had received the bodies of the man, aged 37, the woman, 35, and two boys aged five and seven, adding that all had gunshot wounds.

The Palestinian news agency WAFA reported that the couple's two other children, aged eight and 11, were wounded by shrapnel after Israeli forces opened fire on their vehicle early on Sunday morning.

Palestinian authorities and the United Nations say there has been a spike in deadly attacks, mostly by Israeli settlers, in the West Bank in recent days, with at least five Palestinians killed since the start of March.

Israel's military launched an operation in November against Palestinian armed groups in the north of the West Bank, including areas around Tubas.

More broadly, violence in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, has risen sharply since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel triggered the Gaza war. It has continued despite a ceasefire since October 10.

According to an AFP tally based on Palestinian health ministry figures, Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 1,045 Palestinians -- many of them fighters, but also scores of civilians -- in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war.

Official Israeli figures say that 45 Israelis, including both soldiers and civilians, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations.

In addition to roughly three million Palestinians, more than 500,000 Israelis live in settlements and outposts in the West Bank, which are illegal under international law.

Arab World

Lebanon, Israel Near First Round of Negotiations

An Israeli artillery unit deployed at an undisclosed location at the Israeli border with Lebanon shells targets in Lebanon, 14 March 2026. (EPA)
An Israeli artillery unit deployed at an undisclosed location at the Israeli border with Lebanon shells targets in Lebanon, 14 March 2026. (EPA)
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Lebanon, Israel Near First Round of Negotiations

An Israeli artillery unit deployed at an undisclosed location at the Israeli border with Lebanon shells targets in Lebanon, 14 March 2026. (EPA)
An Israeli artillery unit deployed at an undisclosed location at the Israeli border with Lebanon shells targets in Lebanon, 14 March 2026. (EPA)

Lebanon and Israel have taken a step forward towards holding a first meeting to negotiate an end to the war on Lebanon.

An agreement has yet to be reached on the necessary arrangements, even as United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said from Beirut on Saturday that the “diplomatic avenues” were available to end the war.

Ministerial sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that an agreement has been reached to hold a meeting between Lebanon and Israel, but the location and date have not been set.

France and Cyprus have both offered to host the talks.

The sources revealed that parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has not yet decided whether to send a Shiite representative to the meeting or not.

The negotiations team does not yet have a Shiite representative.

In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, Berri tied his agreement to negotiations and President Joseph Aoun’s initiative to end the war with two conditions: the ceasefire and the return of the displaced.

He refused to go into further details “ahead of time”.

Berri refuses to take part in direct negotiations between Lebanon and Israel and has demanded a ceasefire be implemented before taking any other step to resolve the conflict.

Sources have quoted him as saying that he is still committed to the Mechanism committee and UN Security Council resolution 1701 to end the war.

‘Only diplomacy’

Guterres urged on Saturday the international community to support Lebanon.

Lebanon was dragged into the Middle East war last week when Hezbollah attacked Israel in response to the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli strikes, and the Tehran-backed group's leader has said the fighters were ready for a long confrontation with Israel.

On Saturday, Israel kept up strikes on Lebanon as Hezbollah claimed attacks against northern Israel and Beirut said the death toll in the country since March 2 had climbed to 826, including 106 children.

US news site Axios reported on Saturday that Israel was planning a major ground invasion of Lebanon "aiming to seize the entire area south of the Litani River", citing US and Israeli officials.

The area, covering hundreds of square miles, is already subject to Israeli evacuation warnings.

Israel has already sent some ground forces into Lebanon and late on Saturday Hezbollah said it was engaged in ongoing "direct clashes" with Israeli forces in Khiam.

Guterres, however, insisted "there is no military solution, only diplomacy" and dialogue.

The UN chief arrived in Beirut on Friday for what he called a solidarity visit and launched a $325 million humanitarian appeal to support Lebanon as it responds to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people amid sweeping Israeli army evacuation orders.

Guterres urged the international community to "step up your engagement, empower the Lebanese state" and support the army, which has committed to disarming Hezbollah.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Saturday that Ankara feared Israel could commit "genocide" in Lebanon and called for the international community to intervene.

Turkey has been fiercely critical of Israel since the start of the Gaza war.

Paramedics

The health ministry said 31 paramedics had been killed this month, after the bodies of additional health workers were found following an overnight strike that authorities said hit a healthcare center in Burj Qalawiya in the country's south, killing doctors, paramedics and nurses.

The Hezbollah-affiliated Islamic Health Committee said the center was one of its facilities, pledging such attacks would not deter it from "performing our humanitarian duty".

The Israeli military accused Hezbollah of using ambulances militarily, and its spokesman Avichay Adraee warned that Israel would act "in accordance with international law against any military activity" by any Hezbollah use of medical facilities or ambulances.

Lebanon's health ministry accused Israel of repeatedly "targeting ambulance crews while they were performing rescue duties".

The Israeli army said that it had struck Hezbollah operatives on Friday "who were bringing rockets into a weapons depot" in Majedel, near Burj Qalawiya.

It also said it had struck "approximately 110 Hezbollah command centers" since the regional conflict broke out.

On Saturday, a strike hit an apartment building in a northern Beirut suburb that had been targeted a day earlier.

An AFP correspondent in the Nabaa-Burj Hammoud area saw rescue workers at the scene and damage including a hole in a building, outside Hezbollah's strongholds in the capital's southern suburbs.

The health ministry said the strike killed one person in Burj Hammoud, a densely populated, mixed area known for its large Armenian-Lebanese community.

'No safety'

Levon Ghazalian, 42, who lives in the building next door, said "it's the first time this happens" in the area, which was spared in the previous conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in 2024.

"All the neighbors are afraid," he told AFP.

Hanadi Hachem, 50, who was in her pyjamas, said "there's no safety anymore... you never know where a strike will come from".

She said she and some family members were sleeping in their car out of fear.

French President Emmanuel Macron said the Lebanese government was ready to engage in "direct talks" with Israel and offered to host negotiations in Paris, warning that "everything must be done to prevent Lebanon from descending into chaos".

The French foreign ministry later denied there was a French plan to end the war, saying it had only offered to facilitate talks, after Axios reported that Paris had drawn up a proposal involving Lebanon formally recognizing Israel.

Arab World

US Embassy Urges Americans to Leave Iraq

A photograph shows the damage following a reported drone strike on the US embassy in Baghdad's fortified "Green Zone" on March 14, 2026. (Photo by Murtadha RIDHA / AFP)
A photograph shows the damage following a reported drone strike on the US embassy in Baghdad's fortified "Green Zone" on March 14, 2026. (Photo by Murtadha RIDHA / AFP)
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US Embassy Urges Americans to Leave Iraq

A photograph shows the damage following a reported drone strike on the US embassy in Baghdad's fortified "Green Zone" on March 14, 2026. (Photo by Murtadha RIDHA / AFP)
A photograph shows the damage following a reported drone strike on the US embassy in Baghdad's fortified "Green Zone" on March 14, 2026. (Photo by Murtadha RIDHA / AFP)

US citizens should leave Iraq immediately, the US embassy in Baghdad said in an updated security alert ⁠on Saturday, following ⁠an overnight missile attack on the ⁠embassy's building.

"US citizens choosing to remain in Iraq are strongly encouraged to reconsider in light of the ⁠significant ⁠threat posed by Iran-aligned terrorist militia groups," the embassy said.