The United Nations has called for the immediate release of two Gaza-bound humanitarian aid flotilla activists abducted by Israeli authorities last week, calling for an investigation into the “disturbing accounts of severe mistreatment”. 
  
Israel must “immediately and unconditionally” release activists Saif Abu Keshek and Thiago Avila, who continue to be held without charge, UN rights office spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan said in a statement on Wednesday. 
 

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has come under attack from Iranian missiles and drones for the second day in a row, according to its Defense Ministry, while Iran denied being behind the aggression. 
  
According to the UAE, Tuesday’s attack came a day after at least three people were injured in strikes the day before, and a drone sparked a fire at a key oil facility in the eastern emirate of Fujairah. 
  

Russian attacks killed 21 people in cities across Ukraine on Tuesday, May 5, as President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned Moscow's "utter cynicism" for launching deadly strikes while seeking a truce to stage its May 9 patriotic parade. The attacks—hitting the cities of Zaporizhzhia, Kramatorsk and Dnipro—came hours before a Ukrainian-suggested ceasefire. 
 
In Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine's southern city close to the frontline, 12 people were killed in an attack Zelensky described as having "absolutely no military justification." 
  

Russia on Monday, May 4, declared a unilateral ceasefire with Ukraine between May 8-9, when Moscow marks its annual World War II Victory Day commemorations, and threatened a "massive missile strike" on Kyiv if Ukraine violated it. Ukraine responded by declaring its own truce from May 6, saying it was "not serious" to expect it to observe a ceasefire during a Russian military holiday. 
 
The quarreling between the two sides comes with a lull in U.S.-led diplomatic efforts to end the war, as Washington shifts its focus to the conflict in the Middle East. 

Boko Haram militants have killed 23 soldiers in an attack on a military post in the Lake Chad region, Chad’s armed forces said Tuesday. 
  
The region has long been threatened by the Nigeria-based Boko Haram militant group, which is known for carrying out attacks in neighboring countries. 
  

Mali’s junta leader and the country’s president has assumed the duties of defense minister, authorities said Monday, after the incumbent was killed in sweeping, coordinated attacks by separatist and jihadi forces that stunned the West African nation. 
   
The announcement comes after Defense Minister Gen. Sadio Camara was killed on April 25, in a suicide bombing that targeted his home in Kati, a garrison town near the capital, Bamako. 
  

Israel has launched multiple strikes across southern Lebanon, killing at least 10 people in further violations of the “ceasefire” declared two weeks ago. 
  
Lebanon’s Ministry of Health said the latest wave of attacks on Saturday increased the total recorded over the previous 24 hours to 41. The overall death toll since March 2 is 2,659, with 8,183 injured. 
   
More than one million people in Lebanon have been registered as displaced since the outbreak of the war. 
 

Israeli military forces have intercepted boats traveling with the Global Sumud Flotilla, using drones, communications jamming technology, and armed raiding parties to halt the humanitarian fleet in the middle of the Mediterranean as it heads to Gaza, according to organizers and Israeli media.