SEOUL -- After hitting statutory limits on import-export lending, South Korea is gathering local banks to help Poland buy $22 billion worth of weapons in Seoul's largest arms sale, five people familiar with the matter told Reuters. "Five local banks are reviewing a syndicated loan as a support measure" to help Poland finance its purchase of South Korean rocket artillery systems and fighter jets, a South Korean government official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss

Defense Nov. 3, 2023

Israeli forces on Thursday encircled Gaza City - the Gaza Strip's main city - in their assault on Hamas, the military said, but the Palestinian militant group resisted their drive with hit-and-run attacks from underground tunnels. The city in the north of the Gaza Strip has become the focus of attack for Israel, which has vowed to annihilate the Islamist group's command structure and has told civilians to flee to the south. "We're at the height of the battle. We've had i

World News Nov. 3, 2023

In Los Angeles, a man screaming "kill Jews" attempts to break into a family's home. In London, girls in a playground are told they are "stinking Jews" and should stay off the slide. In China, posts likening Jews to parasites, vampires or snakes proliferate on social media, attracting thousands of "likes." These are examples of incidents of antisemitism, which have surged globally since the attack by Hamas gunmen on southern Israel on Oct. 7 and subsequent war o

World News Nov. 1, 2023

Israeli airstrikes hit a densely populated refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, killing at least 50 Palestinians and a Hamas commander, and medics struggled to treat the casualties in the enclave where food, fuel and basic supplies are running scarce. Israeli tanks have been active in Gaza for at least four days following weeks of air bombardments in retaliation for an attack by Palestinian Hamas militants on southern Israeli towns on Oct. 7 and the taking of more than 200 hostages. An Israel Defense

World News Nov. 1, 2023

Israeli forces waged ground operations against Hamas in Gaza on Sunday in what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the second phase of a three-week-old war aimed at crushing the Palestinian militant group. Gaza's besieged residents faced a near-total communications and Internet blackout as Israel's warplanes dropped bombs and its troops and armour pushed into the Hamas-ruled enclave, with Israeli military chiefs signalling they were gearing up for an expanded ground offensive. Speak

World News Oct. 29, 2023

GAZA/JERUSALEM -- The United States and Russia led international calls for a pause in fighting between Israel and Hamas to allow aid into the besieged Gaza Strip, as Israel maintained its bombardment of the enclave where Palestinians are living in harrowing conditions. A total of 704 Palestinians, including 305 children, were killed Tuesday, the Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza said, a toll the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said was the highest reported in a single da

World News Oct. 25, 2023

GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to "fight until victory" in Gaza, signaling no pause in his military's bombardment and expected invasion of the enclave after Hamas released two US hostages. The Islamist group Hamas on Friday released US mother and daughter Judith and Natalie Raanan who were kidnapped in its attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7. They were the first hostages confirmed by both sides in the conflict to be freed since Hamas gu

World News Oct. 21, 2023

TEL AVIV, Israel/GAZA -- US President Joe Biden will make a high stakes visit to Israel on Wednesday to show support for its war on Hamas, after Washington said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had agreed to let humanitarian aid reach besieged Gazans. Trucks carrying vital supplies for Gaza reached the Rafah crossing in Egypt, the only access point to the enclave outside of Israel's control. A witness told Reuters some 160 trucks had left the nearby Egyptian town of Al-Arish, where they ha

World News Oct. 17, 2023

WASHINGTON -- US President Joe Biden said on Sunday he believes the Hamas militant group must be eliminated but there should be a path to a Palestinian state, after top US officials warned the war between Israel and Hamas could escalate. Biden did not think American troops would be necessary on the ground as Israel has one of the "finest fighting forces," even as American warships headed to the area amid growing clashes on Israel's northern border with Lebanon. Israel unleashed a feroc

World News Oct. 16, 2023

Israeli warplanes bombed Gaza repeatedly overnight ahead of a possible ground offensive to root out Hamas, while US President Joe Biden described the Palestinian militant group's surprise assault on Israel as 'sheer evil' and issued a warning apparently aimed at its Iranian backers. Israel said dozens of its fighter jets struck more than 200 targets in a neighborhood of Gaza City that it said had been used by Hamas to launch its unprecedented wave of attacks. Israeli troops have k

World News Oct. 11, 2023

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden denounced Hamas on Tuesday, calling the attack the Palestinian militant group launched against Israel "an act of sheer evil," and stressed US support for Israel as it mourns the killing of more than 1,000 people. The president also voiced concern for Americans being held hostage by Hamas, an Iranian-backed Islamist group, whose stated purpose, he said, is to "kill Jews." He called for Israel to follow the "law of war" in its re

World News Oct. 11, 2023

DALLAS (Reuters) -- The outbreak of military conflict in the Middle East may leave central bankers battling new inflationary trends as well as deal a blow to economic confidence at a time when they had expressed growing hope about containing the price surge sparked by the pandemic and Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The stunning violence in Israel, with thousands killed as fighters from the Hamas movement invaded from their Gaza enclave and Israel responded in force, added the possibilit

World News Oct. 9, 2023

Israeli forces clashed with gunmen from the Palestinian group Hamas on Sunday, 24 hours after the militants launched a surprise attack on Israel in which about 500 people were killed in the deadliest day of violence in Israel for 50 years. The biggest incursion into Israel in decades could undermine US-backed efforts to forge regional security alignments that could threaten Palestinian aspirations for statehood and the ambitions of the group's main backer, Iran. Hamas fighters began their a

World News Oct. 8, 2023

President Vladimir Putin will meet China's Xi Jinping for talks in Beijing in October, Russia said on Tuesday, Putin's first known trip abroad since an arrest warrant was issued against him over the deportation of children from Ukraine. Nikolai Patrushev, a close Putin ally and the secretary of Russia's Security Council, said Russia and China should deepen cooperation in the face of the West's attempt to contain them both. He was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying t

World News Sept. 19, 2023

MOSCOW/TOKYO -- Russia hopes to increase its marine product exports to China in the wake of China's ban on Japanese seafood imports after the release of treated radioactive water from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant into the sea. Russia is one of the biggest marine product suppliers to China, with 894 Russian companies allowed to export seafood, Rosselkhoznadzor, the Russian food safety watchdog, said in July. In a statement late on Friday, Rosselkhoznadzor said it was seeking to

World News Aug. 26, 2023