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Dan Williams
For Dan Williams's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
This video grab from AFPTV taken on Sunday shows explosions lighting up the Jerusalem sky during Iranian attack on Israel.
WORLD
Apr 14, 2024
Iran launches unprecedented attack on Israel with drones and missiles
Israel's military spokesperson said Iran launched dozens of ground-to-ground missiles at Israel, most of them intercepted outside Israeli borders.
Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, meets with the family of one of the members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who were killed in the Israeli airstrike on the Iranian embassy complex in the Syrian capital Damascus, during a funeral ceremony in Tehran on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 5, 2024
Iran embassy strike shows Israel's growing reach and disregard for norms
"In my view, it's without precedent," one analyst said, adding that he could not recall any state targeting another's diplomatic presence in this way.
Palestinians inspect the damage at Gaza's Al-Shifa hospital after the Israeli military withdrew from the complex housing the hospital on Monday.
WORLD
Apr 2, 2024
Israeli troops exit Gaza's Shifa Hospital, leaving rubble and bodies
More than 32,000 Palestinians have been killed since the start of Israel's military offensive on Oct. 7.
Palestinians gather to receive aid outside an UNRWA warehouse as Gaza residents face crisis levels of hunger on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 19, 2024
'Catastrophic' food shortages make mass death imminent in Gaza, agency warns
The number of people in parts of northern Gaza suffering the most severe food shortages is said to be more than triple the famine threshold.
U.S. President Joe Biden walks to board Air Force One for travel to New York from Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 27, 2024
Biden hopes for cease-fire in days as talks with Israelis and Hamas progress
The presence of both sides meeting mediators separately but in the same city suggested talks were further along than at any time since February.
Smoke rises during an Israeli ground operation in Khan Younis as seen from a tent camp sheltering displaced Palestinians in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 14, 2024
Gaza truce talks end inconclusively as Rafah braces for assault
The city teems with people living in makeshift shelters who fled there from Israeli bombardments in areas of Gaza farther north.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (right) fist bumps U.S. President Joe Biden upon his arrival at Al Salman Palace, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on July 15, 2022.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 8, 2024
Saudi Arabia pushes for U.S. defense pact ahead of presidential election
Such a major regional deal would face numerous political and diplomatic obstacles, not least the uncertainty over how the Gaza conflict will unfold.
Smoke rises from inside Gaza on Sunday. Gaza health authorities, which do not differentiate between militants and civilians in their tallies, said on Sunday more than 27,300 Palestinians have been confirmed killed since the Israel-Hamas war began.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 5, 2024
Hamas hounds Israeli forces in main Gaza cities
There has been persistent fighting in Gaza City in the north of the densely populated enclave, and in Khan Younis to the south.
A Palestinian girl sits on bags of flour distributed by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 30, 2024
In dossier, Israel accuses 190 U.N. staff of being 'hardened killers'
Over 10 countries, including major donors the United States and Germany, have halted their funding to the agency, which employs 13,000 people in Gaza.
Israeli soldiers operate in the Gaza Strip
WORLD / Politics
Jan 24, 2024
One-month Gaza truce is the focus of intensive talks, sources say
Despite the difficulty of bridging the gap in positions, a source described the talks as intensive and said a deal could be agreed to "at any minute."
Palestinians search for casualties at the site of an Israeli strike on a house in the southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 21, 2023
Egypt aims to broker Gaza ceasefire amid Hamas and Israel demands
Chances for a second truce is slim with Hamas demanding a permanent end to Israeli offensive, which Israel has ruled out.
Houses and buildings destroyed by Israeli strikes in Gaza City, on Tuesday
WORLD / Politics
Oct 10, 2023
Israel pounds Gaza with fiercest airstrikes ever
Israel pounded the Gaza Strip with the fiercest airstrikes in the 75-year history of its conflict with the Palestinians, razing whole districts to dust.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jan 6, 2023
New Arab allies face quandary as Israel shifts hard to the right
As some in Israel's government seek to annex the occupied West Bank, Arab states have to balance their new partnership with historic support for Palestinian aspirations.
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 5, 2014
Israel withdraws troops, 72-hour Gaza truce begins
Israel pulled its ground forces out of the Gaza Strip on Tuesday and started a 72-hour cease-fire with Hamas mediated by Egypt as a first step toward negotiations on a more enduring end to the month-old war.

Longform

Historically, kabuki was considered the entertainment of the merchant and peasant classes, a far cry from how it is regarded today.
For Japan's oldest kabuki theater, the show must go on