Iran-backed militias in Iraq claimed they launched cruise missiles toward Tel Aviv and Beersheba on Thursday afternoon in two statements published by the militias on Thursday night.No alerts were activated and no entry of projectiles was reported from the direction of Iraq at the time.The militias in Iraq have periodically claimed to have launched missiles and drones toward Israel amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. While there have been a few isolated instances in which projectiles entered Israel from the direction of Iraq, the majority of the claims have been made in cases where no projectiles were reported from that direction.This is a developing story.

The IDF has informed humanitarian aid groups and the Biden administration of a plan to begin removing Gazans from Rafah ahead of an invasion, a US official and two other people familiar with the situation told Politico on Friday.This is a developing story.

Taiwan's defense ministry said on Friday that in the previous 24 hours it had detected 14 Chinese military aircraft crossing the Taiwan Strait's median line.The median line used to serve as an unofficial border between the two sides, but Chinese military aircraft now regularly cross it. China says it does not recognize the line's existence.This is a developing story.

A 43-year-old woman has been moderately injured from the shrapnel of an aerial target that was intercepted by the IDF after crossing into Israeli territory from Lebanon, MDA said on Friday afternoon. The woman is currently being treated by MDA. No further damage has been reported as a result of the interception.

Dror Or, a resident of Kibbutz Be'eri, was killed on October 7 and his body was taken by Hamas to Gaza, the kibbutz announced on Thursday evening.Or's wife, Yonat, was killed on October 7 as well and their children, Noam and Alma, were kidnapped and released in the ceasefire deal in November.

Former British prime minister Boris Johnson, who introduced a contentious requirement for voters to show photo ID while voting, was turned away from a polling station on Thursday for forgetting to bring his.British media reported that Johnson, who quit in 2022 following a scandal-ridden premiership, was initially turned away at a polling station in Oxfordshire, southern England, while trying to vote in local elections taking place across England on Thursday.As prime minister, Johnson's government introduced the ID requirement in 2022 to crack down on possible voter fraud but it was heavily criticized for the potential to disenfranchise parts of the electorate.This is a developing story.

Ukraine will at some point have to enter into talks with Russia to bring an end to their more than two-year-old war, a senior Ukrainian intelligence official said in an interview published on Thursday.Major-General Vadym Skibitsky, deputy chief of Ukraine's HUR military intelligence directorate, told the Economist magazine that talks would eventually be needed, as would be the case with any war."General Skibitsky says he does not see a way for Ukraine to win the war on the battlefield alone. Even if it were able to push Russian forces back to the borders — an increasingly distant prospect—it wouldn’t end the war," the magazine wrote.This is a developing story.