Middle East

Israel's long-standing policy has been to isolate Hamas. But in a rare exception, Israel does permit Qatar to send large sums of money for projects in Gaza, the territory run by Hamas.

The nation's top military officials said the U.S. needs a greater commitment from Iraq in the fight against the self-declared Islamic State but argued against sending any U.S. combat troops there.

The U.S has sent humanitarian aid to help Syrian civilians, but only a small number of refugees have been allowed into America. Now the U.S. says it will increase the number of those admitted.

After decades of work, Israel now gets about a quarter of its water from the sea. But experts say desalination is not a magic bullet, and conservation and infrastructure fixes are also needed.

Nasir al-Wahishi was part of al-Qaida's "old guard," NPR's Alice Fordham reports. He was a veteran of the fighting in Afghanistan and had been Osama bin Laden's personal secretary.

Al-Qaida's Yemen affiliate announced on Tuesday that its leader Nasir al-Wahishi was killed by a U.S. drone strike last week. He was also the second-in-command to overall chief Ayman al-Zawahiri.

A push by Kurdish forces against a self-declared Islamic State stronghold in Syria is making gains but displacing thousands of Arabs along the way, forcing them over the border into Turkey.

In 2007, Sunni sheikhs, fed up with al-Qaida, started fighting alongside the U.S. in Iraq. The U.S. needs help again, this time against ISIS militants. But can they win Sunni trust a second time?

Pentagon officials have confirmed that the leader of al-Qaida's arm in North Africa Mokhtar Belmokhtar was killed in a U.S. airstrike in Libya over the weekend. He was notorious for taking hostages.