Israel's intensifying military campaign in Gaza is raising the specter of a broader regional war involving Iran-allied groups. Iran's foreign minister says its allies are ready to strike.

The conflict between Israel and Hamas has led to accusations of war crimes on both sides, as combatants are bound by international humanitarian law to minimize the impact on civilians.

It is too soon to know whether current events will be nearly as momentous as those of 1973 — for the region, for the U.S. or for the world at large. But it is also possible they could be more so.

President Biden is the latest in a long line of presidents to place himself in the middle of a Middle East conflict. U.S. efforts have seen failed starts, wrong turns and dead ends, but some progress.

Known as "the guest" for his habit of staying in a different house each night to evade Israeli attacks, Mohammed Deif, leader of Hamas' military wing, remains an enigmatic and shadowy figure.

The evacuation order from Israel affecting 1 million people faced immediate objections, including from the U.N., which warned such an evacuation would have "devastating humanitarian consequences."

With high poverty and unemployment and severe restrictions on movement, life in the Gaza Strip was already difficult before Israel's retaliatory offensive began this week in response to Hamas attacks.

At a highway rest stop near where Hamas gunmen killed Israelis and took hostages, Israeli volunteers are helping rescue civilians and support soldiers who are being dispatched to the front lines.

There are still a number of unaccounted-for U.S. citizens, U.S. officials said, as the fighting entered its third day.

A series of violent escalations on the border between Israel and Gaza over the past week during a sensitive Jewish holiday period raised the specter of an escalation for the first time since May.

As much as a quarter of the Palestinian population of the crowded Jenin refugee camp has fled an Israeli military offensive, the United Nations says.

Israeli forces shot and killed three Palestinian gunmen who opened fire on troops in the occupied West Bank, the military said, the latest bloodshed in a year-long wave of violence in the region.

The Israeli military says it was targeting a militant group in the West Bank called the Lion's Den. So far this year, at least 55 Palestinians — including civilians — have been killed.

Officials say a 6-year-old boy and a man in his 20s were killed when a Palestinian driver rammed a car into a group of people at a bus stop in a largely ultra-Orthodox Jewish settlement neighborhood.

A 10-month military crackdown, a half-century occupation, increasing Palestinian militancy and a far-right Israeli government could impact the chances for more violence.