Middle East
Carnage in Gaza / Mothers struggle to care for newborns
Gazan mother Rana Salah cradles her one-month-old daughter Milana in her arms in a sweltering tent for the displaced, and speaks of the guilt she feels for bringing her child into a world of war and suffering.
Israel readying response to Iran’s attack
Israel was preparing a military response to Iran’s missile attack this week that heightened fears of a wider regional war, an Israeli official said yesterday, as fighting raged in Lebanon and Gaza.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
‘Nothing wrong’ with a nuke deal with West
Iran’s supreme leader said yesterday that reaching a deal with the West over Tehran’s disputed nuclear work was possible if the country’s nuclear infrastructure remained intact, state media quoted Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as saying.
Palestinian killed by Israeli forces
Israeli forces yesterday killed a Palestinian in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry and the army said, with the latter adding that a soldier was lightly wounded.
5 Arab Israelis shot dead at car wash
Five Arab Israelis were shot dead at a car wash in the north yesterday, police said, amid the worst crime wave in years to hit the minority sector.
Blinken in Riyadh after Iran-Saudi détente
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Gulf Arab officials in Saudi Arabia yesterday at a time of rapidly shifting alliances following the oil-rich kingdom’s rapprochement with Iran.
Turkish pro-opposition media hit with fines
Turkey’s journalists’ association yesterday criticised fines imposed by the country’s media regulator on four pro-opposition television channels during the election campaign, saying they “penalise the public’s right to information”.
Iran presents its first hypersonic ballistic missile
Iran presented what officials described as its first domestically-made hypersonic ballistic missile yesterday, the official IRNA news agency reported, an announcement likely to heighten Western concerns about Tehran’s missile capabilities.
Blinken visits KSA to rebuild ties
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken headed to Saudi Arabia yesterday to strengthen strained ties with the long-time ally as the oil-rich kingdom forges closer relations with America’s rivals.
Iran embassy to reopen in KSA today
Iran is set to reopen its embassy in Saudi Arabia today following a seven-year closure, a diplomatic source told AFP, sealing a Chinese-brokered rapprochement deal announced in March.
Nato chief urges Turkey not to veto Sweden’s bid
Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg yesterday called on Ankara to drop its opposition to Sweden’s bid to join the US-led defence alliance, hoping Stockholm’s accession would be finalised “as soon as possible”.
Erdogan unveils new cabinet
Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday unveiled a new cabinet lineup, naming a powerful spy chief as foreign minister and market friendly Mehmet Simsek as finance minister, hours after swearing in for a third term as president.