Middle East crisis live: US urges Iran’s neighbours to help lower tensions with Israel – reports

The US Middle East envoy Brett McGurk has reportedly called the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Iraq, asking them to deliver a message to Tehran to lower tensions with Israel.

Russia on Thursday advised against travel to the Middle East and German airline Lufthansa extended a suspension of its flights to Tehran, as the region was kept on edge by Iran ’s threat to retaliate against Israel for an attack in Syria, reports Reuters.

The airdrops come as Muslims in the Gaza Strip mark a desperately sad Eid al-Fitr for the end of the Ramadan fasting month, with little food and after Israeli bombardment overnight killed 14 people including children, according to the health ministry there, reports AFP.

As cold, driving rain swept across the rubbish- and rubble-strewn streets of Rafah early on Wednesday morning, residents of the crowded city in the south of Gaza set out to celebrate the end of the holy month of Ramadan and the festival of Eid al-Fitr.

“It doesn’t feel like Eid because of the lack of a beautiful atmosphere, and we are not buying clothes and sweets, or gathering together like we usually do,” said JanaMuhammad Sorour, a 12-year-old dispatched by her displaced family to sell homemade goods to neighbours in Rafah to raise much-needed funds.

CNN also reported the claims earlier, saying sources had told the news outlet that Hamas had informed international mediators it does not have the required number of living hostages who fit the criteria, including women, sick and elderly men.