Mena Today

One elderly man had been shot in the head in his living room. Another in his bedroom. The body of a woman lay in the street. 

Israel has agreed to allow limited access by Syrian forces into the Sweida area of southern Syria for the next two days, an Israeli official said on Friday, after days of bloodshed in the predominantly Druze area that has killed over 300 people.

The European Union has eased rules for Turks to use its open-border Schengen area, the bloc's ambassador to Ankara said on Friday, calling for the urgent revival of negotiations on visa-free travel for Turks.

Russian courts sentenced 135 people to lengthy prison sentences in connection with a mass anti-Israel protest in October 2023 at an airport in the predominantly Muslim Dagestan region, the country's Investigative Committee said on Friday.

Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the highest ranking Catholic official in Jerusalem, entered Gaza on Friday to bring humanitarian aid and comfort to victims of Israel's strike on the sole Catholic church of the Palestinian enclave.

Egyptian real estate tycoon Hisham Talaat Moustafa on Friday won his bid to throw out a London lawsuit brought against him by a former kickboxing world champion for ordering the murder of a Lebanese pop star in 2008.

France, Britain and Germany told Iran on Thursday that they would restore U.N. sanctions unless it reopened talks on its nuclear programme immediately and produced concrete results by the end of August.

Syrian security forces are preparing to redeploy to the Druze-majority Sweida city to quell fighting with Bedouin tribes, a Syrian interior ministry spokesperson said on Friday, further straining a fragile truce in Syria's south.

Qatar, Egypt and the U.S. presented Israel and Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas with an updated Gaza ceasefire proposal on Wednesday, Axios reported on Thursday, citing two sources.

In the heart of southern Syria, the Druze community of Sweida faces a growing and brutal threat from extremist militias still operating under the shadow of ISIS ideology. 

Violence in Syria pitting the Islamist-led government against members of the Druze community has put a spotlight on the small but influential minority. Straddling Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, the Druze occupy a special niche in the region's complex politics.

Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa accused Israel of trying to fracture Syria and promised to protect its Druze minority on Thursday after U.S. intervention to help achieve a truce in fighting between government forces and Druze fighters.