Middle East

President Biden is pictured at the White House on Oct. 10, giving remarks about the attack by Hamas on Israel.

World News

Up First briefing: Biden heads to the Middle East; how screen time changes your eyes

8:03am October 17, 2023

by Suzanne Nuyen

Biden is set to travel to the Middle East to reaffirm support for Israel and press for humanitarian aid in Gaza. Spending time indoors — often looking at screens — could be behind nearsightedness.

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President Biden plans to visit Israel to show support for an ally against Hamas

7:38am October 17, 2023

The White House says he wants to show solidarity with Israel and emphasize the need to get humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza. Israel cut off food, water and power to more than 2 million people.

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People in Gaza are said to be in need of shelter, food, water and medicine

5:14am October 17, 2023

Aid groups in the Gaza Strip are warning that the enclave is near complete collapse. Gaza is under an Israeli siege that is blocking basic humanitarian needs from getting in.

Politics & Government

Morning news brief

5:14am October 17, 2023

President Biden will travel to Israel and Jordan as the Israel-Hamas war intensifies, and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza deepens. The House is set to vote Tuesday to elect a new speaker.

Biden set to visit Tel Aviv and Amman as Israel-Gaza conflict intensifies

10:37pm October 16, 2023

by Tamara Keith

President Biden plans to head to the region ahead of what's expected to be an intense ground battle inside Gaza as Israeli forces look for Hamas militants involved with the Oct. 7 attacks.

A Palestinian boy sits on the rubble of his building destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip on Monday.

World News

Israel-Hamas war: Water is scarce in Gaza, and rockets force Blinken into a bunker

7:58pm October 16, 2023

"Gaza is running dry," and families are turning to unsafe water, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees said on Monday. The crisis comes as masses of people try to flee northern Gaza.

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A Palestinian-German woman shows her German passport at the Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt on Saturday. The crossing point remains closed, but is a potential route for foreign passport holders to leave Gaza, and for humanitarian supplies to enter as the Mideast crisis worsens.

World News

The ragged border crossing that could become Gaza's lifeline

5:35pm October 16, 2023

by Greg Myre

The Rafah border crossing is a modest, isolated outpost at the southern end of the Gaza Strip. Yet it could be a critical lifeline as Gazans face a growing humanitarian crisis.

World News

The latest in Gaza as power, drinking water and medical supplies are running out

5:27pm October 16, 2023

by Aya Batrawy

Israel vows it's preparing a land attack after 10 days of air strikes after Hamas militants killed more than 1,300 people in Israel. Power, potable water and medical supplies are running out in Gaza.

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World News

From the ground in Jordan, talking with Palestinians who have family in Gaza

5:11pm October 16, 2023

by Ari Shapiro

For Jordanian Palestinians with family in the Gaza Strip, that distance can feel painfully close and impossibly far. Across Jordan on Friday, thousands of people marched in support of Palestinians.

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What Biden and Republicans are saying about Israel

4:26pm October 16, 2023

by Mara Liasson

President Biden has taken a very pro-Israel stance since the Hamas attacks. But starting on Friday, the president has begun to talk more about the situation on the ground in Gaza.

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