Middle East

Lebanon conflict pushes Gaza truce out of focus

Palestinians fear the crisis in Lebanon is diverting the world’s attention from Gaza, where Israeli strikes killed dozens more people this week, and diminishing already dim prospects for a ceasefire a year into an offensive that has shattered the enclave.

3h ago

Lebanon invasion / How might Israel strike back against Iran?

Israel has sworn it will retaliate for Iran’s missile barrage on Tuesday, which involved more than 180 ballistic missiles and was largely thwarted by Israel’s air defense systems. Below are some ways Israel, backed by the United States, could strike back.

3h ago

Iran’s allies will keep fighting Israel

Iran’s supreme leader yesterday vowed in a rare address that his allies around the region would keep fighting Israel, as he defended his country’s missile strike on its arch-foe.

3h ago

US President Biden does not believe there will be 'all-out-war' in Middle East

U.S. President Joe Biden said he did not believe there is going to be an "all-out war" in the Middle East, as Israel weighs options for retaliation after Tehran's largest ever assault on its arch-enemy.

15h ago

Israel strikes Beirut, south Lebanon

Israel’s military urged residents of more than 20 towns in south Lebanon to evacuate their homes immediately yesterday as it pressed on with incursions after suffering its worst losses in a year of fighting the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah.

1d ago

Food aid to Gaza falls as Israel sets new rule

Food supplies to Gaza have fallen sharply in recent weeks because Israeli authorities have introduced a new customs rule on some humanitarian aid and are separately scaling down deliveries organized by businesses, people involved in getting goods to the territory told Reuters.

1d ago

Iran warned Nasrallah of Israeli plot to kill him

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned Hezbollah leader Syyed Hassan Nasrallah to flee Lebanon days before he was killed in an Israeli strike and is now deeply worried about Israeli infiltration of senior government ranks in Tehran, three Iranian sources said.

1d ago

ISRAEL-HEZBOLLAH CONFLICT / Hezbollah losses strengthen Turkey against Iran: analysts

Israel’s onslaught against Hezbollah in Lebanon is reassuring for Turkey, which could seize the opportunity to strengthen its regional influence in the face of its rival Iran, analysts told AFP.

2d ago

A brief history of Gaza's 75 years of woe

Gaza is a coastal strip of land that lay on ancient trading and maritime routes along the Mediterranean shore. Held by the Ottoman Empire until 1917, it passed from British to Egyptian to Israeli military rule over the last century and is now a fenced-in enclave inhabited by over 2 million Palestinians

11m ago

What we know about Israel's war with Hamas

Thousands have died and the toll was continuing to climb dramatically five days after Palestinian militants launched a surprise attack on Israel, which has responded with massive shelling of Gaza

11m ago

Saudi stands by Palestinians

Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler told Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas he was working to prevent “an expansion” of conflict after the surprise Hamas attack on Israel, Saudi state media said early yesterday.

12m ago

What are Israel’s options

Hamas has threatened to execute one hostage every time Israel drops a bomb, without warning, on a Palestinian home in the Gaza Strip, Reuters said yesterday, as the increasingly bloody war between the two sides rolls into a fourth day with no end in sight. The group has 150 hostages - including children and a Holocaust survivor - grabbed from border towns and kibbutzim in attacks that began early Saturday.

12m ago