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Palestinian President to Visit Russia on Monday

File - Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, right, shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin, during a meeting in Bethlehem, January 23, 2020. (Alexander Nemenov, Pool via AP)
File - Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, right, shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin, during a meeting in Bethlehem, January 23, 2020. (Alexander Nemenov, Pool via AP)
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Palestinian President to Visit Russia on Monday

File - Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, right, shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin, during a meeting in Bethlehem, January 23, 2020. (Alexander Nemenov, Pool via AP)
File - Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, right, shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin, during a meeting in Bethlehem, January 23, 2020. (Alexander Nemenov, Pool via AP)

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will visit Moscow next week to discuss the Gaza war with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a Palestinian envoy said.

Russia's state-run TASS news agency cited the Palestinian ambassador in Moscow as saying Abbas will arrive on Monday and meet Putin on Tuesday.

Ambassador Abdel Hafiz Nofal said the two leaders would discuss events in Gaza since the October 7 attacks on Israel. "They will talk about Russia's role, what can be done."

According to AFP, he said: "We have a very difficult situation, and Russia is a country that is close to us. We need to consult each other."

Moscow for years tried to balance relations with all major players in the Middle East -- including Israel and the Palestinians.

But since the Israel-Hamas war and Russia's own offensive on Ukraine, Putin has moved closer to Israel's foes, Hamas and Iran.

The Kremlin has repeatedly criticized Israel's response to the October 7 attacks and called for restraint.

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Arab World

Iraq Official Says Drone Crashed near US Diplomats at Baghdad Airport

FILED - 14 March 2026, Iraq, Baghdad: A view of the damage following a reported drone strike on the US embassy in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone. Photo: Ameer Al-Mohammedawi/dpa
FILED - 14 March 2026, Iraq, Baghdad: A view of the damage following a reported drone strike on the US embassy in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone. Photo: Ameer Al-Mohammedawi/dpa
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Iraq Official Says Drone Crashed near US Diplomats at Baghdad Airport

FILED - 14 March 2026, Iraq, Baghdad: A view of the damage following a reported drone strike on the US embassy in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone. Photo: Ameer Al-Mohammedawi/dpa
FILED - 14 March 2026, Iraq, Baghdad: A view of the damage following a reported drone strike on the US embassy in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone. Photo: Ameer Al-Mohammedawi/dpa

A senior Iraqi security official told AFP that a drone crashed near a group of US diplomats inside the grounds of Baghdad's airport earlier this week as they were escorting an American journalist freed after a recent kidnapping.

The account shed light on a statement issued Thursday by the US State Department saying it had summoned Iraq's ambassador to Washington to express "strong condemnation" of attacks by pro-Iran groups on US interests, "including the April 8 ambush of US diplomats in Baghdad".

Since the war in the Middle East broke out on February 28, the US embassy in Baghdad and a logistical and diplomatic center inside the city's airport have been repeatedly targeted by rockets and drones, with most intercepted.

Pro-Iranian armed groups in Iraq have claimed daily attacks on "enemy bases" in the country and the wider region, but had said on Wednesday they were suspending their actions after the announcement of a temporary ceasefire between the US and Iran.

Hours later, however, the US embassy reported renewed drone attacks near its facility at the airport.

According to the Iraqi official, "the diplomatic support center was targeted on Wednesday by three drones".

"One of them fell at least 50 meters from a diplomatic team accompanying the American journalist Shelly Kittleson," they added.

Kittleson had been released by the powerful pro-Iranian group Kataeb Hezbollah on Tuesday, a week after she was kidnapped in Baghdad.

The attack delayed her departure from Iraq, though she was able to leave a few hours later, the source said.

Arab World

Gaza Civil Defense Says Israeli Strikes Kill Seven

Palestinians walk along a street surrounded by buildings destroyed during Israeli air and ground operations in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians walk along a street surrounded by buildings destroyed during Israeli air and ground operations in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
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Gaza Civil Defense Says Israeli Strikes Kill Seven

Palestinians walk along a street surrounded by buildings destroyed during Israeli air and ground operations in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians walk along a street surrounded by buildings destroyed during Israeli air and ground operations in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Gaza's civil defense rescue service said on Saturday that Israeli airstrikes in the Palestinian territory had killed seven people overnight, despite the fragile ceasefire in place since October last year.

Mahmoud Bassal, spokesman for the group, which operates under the authority of the Hamas movement, said an Israeli drone had fired two missiles close to a police post in the Al-Bureij refugee camp.

In addition to the seven dead, he said, several more people were wounded, four of them critically.

The al-Aqsa hospital in central Gaza said it had received six bodies and seven wounded, "including four in a critical condition because of direct impacts to the face, torso and other parts of the body".

The nearby al-Awda hospital said it had received one fatality and two wounded.

Reached for comment by AFP, the Israeli military said it was working to verify the information.

Israel and Hamas regularly accuse each other of violating the ceasefire that came into effect on October 10, after two years of war triggered by the Palestinian movement's 2023 cross-border attack.

At least 738 Palestinians have been killed since the truce began, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which is under Hamas authority and whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations.

The Israeli army has reported five soldiers killed since the start of the truce.

Under the restrictions imposed on the media in Gaza and the difficulties of accessing the field -- the international press is still barred by the Israeli authorities from entering.

Arab World

In Gaza, Fiberglass Homes Aim to Offer More ‘Dignity’ for Displaced

Boys (C) play with a ball amid tents at a makeshift camp for displaced Palestinians in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip on April 10, 2026. (AFP)
Boys (C) play with a ball amid tents at a makeshift camp for displaced Palestinians in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip on April 10, 2026. (AFP)
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In Gaza, Fiberglass Homes Aim to Offer More ‘Dignity’ for Displaced

Boys (C) play with a ball amid tents at a makeshift camp for displaced Palestinians in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip on April 10, 2026. (AFP)
Boys (C) play with a ball amid tents at a makeshift camp for displaced Palestinians in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip on April 10, 2026. (AFP)

In southern Gaza, aid workers are meticulously assembling fiberglass homes meant to shelter thousands of Palestinians still displaced six months after a ceasefire started between Israel and Hamas.

Nearly two million people in Gaza are living in makeshift shelters, and the humanitarian situation remains dire, according to aid agencies.

The fiberglass units are designed to offer a modicum of relief -- homes with slightly more comfort than a tent vulnerable to the coastal winds that hit Gaza.

Alessandro Markic, head of the United Nations Development Program office in Gaza, initiated the plan. He said families "are facing extremely difficult conditions".

Roughly 4,000 units are planned in the al-Mohararat area, west of Khan Younis.

Workers assemble walls, install small windows, and lay roofs for families who try to settle in with rugs and cushions inside.

"These are very basic and temporary solutions, while we continue to plan for recovery and reconstruction," Markic said. The homes, he added, "provide more dignity, privacy, and protection during the winter."

Some Gazans were visibly relieved to have an alternative to the tents where most displaced people continue to live.

Nasma Sharab has moved into one unit with her sons, and affirmed it was "better" than a tent.

The fiberglass homes "don't constantly blow away in the wind," she said.

But, she added, "it's a temporary solution while we wait for reconstruction to begin and for people to be able to go back to their homes."

Among those who remain in a tent is Ali Abu Nahl, in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza, after being displaced to the center and south of the territory with his children and grandchildren.

His house was destroyed during the devastating conflict that erupted with the Hamas attacks on Israel in October 2023.

"It's been half a year since the bombing stopped, but in Gaza, the war doesn't end when the strikes stop," he said.