Middle East, Wars | featured news

The olive orchards and wheat fields lining the Gaza Strip border with Israel were always sparsely populated, but on Monday the area was a virtual no-man’s land. Fearing an Israeli ground invasion of the coastal strip, hundreds of families have fled.

Israel maintains air strikes on Gaza and militants continue to fire rockets into Israel as the fifth day of unrest becomes the deadliest so far.

President Barack Obama said Sunday an incursion by Israel's forces into the Gaza Strip could only deepen its death toll, cautioning against an escalation even as he defended the Jewish state's right to defend itself. Obama also warned Palestinians the crisis could crush peace hopes for years.

Israel continued its aerial assault on targets in the Hamas-ruled Gaza strip early Saturday, launching 200 airstrikes aimed at smuggling tunnels under the enclave's border with Egypt and what the Israeli military said were four Hamas buildings, including the group's headquarters, a police station and a commander's house. Witnesses reported that the offices of Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh were destroyed.

Palestinian militants for the first time targeted the holy city of Jerusalem on Friday with rocket fire as Israel and the Islamist group Hamas inched closer to all-out war.

The United States declined to follow France in fully recognizing a fledgling Syrian opposition coalition on Wednesday, saying the body must prove its worth, after its predecessor was dogged by feuding and accusations of Islamist domination.

Pakistan on Wednesday released several Afghan Taliban captives, a gesture meant to nudge along on-again, off-again reconciliation talks aimed at ending the war in Afghanistan, Pakistani officials said.

France on Tuesday became the first European country to recognize the newly formed Syrian rebel coalition, going beyond other Western pledges of support.

Gun and mortar fire could be heard on Saturday from the Syrian border town of Ras al-Ain two days after it fell to rebels fighting to oust President Bashar al-Assad, and refugees who had fled to Turkey said they feared retribution from the air.

President Bashar al-Assad was quoted on Thursday saying the price of an invasion by foreign powers would be “more than the world can afford.”