Tag - middle-east

 
 

MIDDLE EAST

Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces keep watch during a security operation in Jenin in the Israel-occupied West Bank on Dec. 16.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 2, 2025
Anticipating Trump, Palestinian Authority eager to crush militants
Analysts say that the PA is trying to prove it can control the violence and demonstrate that it could bring stability to Gaza once the war is over.
Children play with fireworks at the Bureij camp for displaced Palestinians on Monday.
WORLD
Dec 31, 2024
World greets 2025 after sweltering year of Olympics, turmoil and Trump
As New Year's Eve parties kicked into gear along Australia's picturesque Sydney Harbour, many revelers were relieved to see the past 12 months in the rearview mirror.
Palestinians gather to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on Dec. 4.
WORLD
Dec 31, 2024
As Gaza suffers, experts call on hunger monitor to redefine famine
Many food-security experts, aid workers and doctors say famine took hold in Gaza many months ago.
Syria's de facto leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa (left), greets a member of Qatar's delegation in Damascus on Dec. 23.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 30, 2024
Syria's de facto leader says holding elections could take up to four years
Drafting a new constitution could take up to three years, Ahmed al-Sharaa said, adding that it would take about a year for Syrians to see drastic changes.
A drone view shows smoke above Beit Hanoun in the Gaza Strip, as seen from near Kibbutz Nir Am in southern Israel on Dec. 12.
WORLD
Dec 30, 2024
Israeli forces order evacuation of northern Gaza town, residents say
Palestinian and United Nations officials say no place is safe in Gaza and that evacuations worsen the humanitarian conditions of the population.
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus speaks during a news conference in Kigali, Rwanda, in October.
WORLD
Dec 28, 2024
WHO chief says he narrowly escaped death in Israeli strikes on Yemen airport
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told BBC radio his ears were still ringing following Thursday's attack.
Smoke rises after Israeli strikes near Sanaa airport, in Sanaa, Yemen, on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 27, 2024
Israel hits Houthis in Yemen in response to slow escalation
Among targets hit Thursday included military infrastructure at the Sanaa International Airport and in the Hezyaz and Ras Kanatib power stations.
Bashar Assad's fall offers a chance to rebuild Syria, but the history of Middle East stabilization is littered with failure, making the coming months crucial.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 26, 2024
Rebuilding Syria after the ouster of the dictator Assad
Hope must be tempered by caution. Across the Middle East, the removal of strongmen has generally produced violent chaos.
Syria symbolized Russia's "great power" status, but Vladimir Putin's failure to stop Bashar Assad's ouster exposed Russia as merely a regional power.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 26, 2024
Russia just lost its 'great power' status
If Russia’s war in Ukraine is about identity and empire, its presence in Syria was about prestige and status.
The silhouettes of a military vehicle and a soldier are seen near the Gaza border on Dec. 16.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 26, 2024
Hamas and Israel blame each other for Gaza cease-fire delay
Hamas said Israel laid down further conditions, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the group of going back on understandings already reached.
Children walk past shelters at a makeshift camp for displaced Palestinians in the Nahr al-Bared area of Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Dec. 9.
COMMENTARY / World / The Year Ahead
Dec 25, 2024
Will stability rise from the Middle East rubble?
If done well, focusing on ending ongoing conflicts and building a basis for stability and security will reestablish a foundation for peacemaking.
Christians attend a Christmas mass at the Lady of Damascus church, after the ousting of Syria's Bashar Assad, in Damascus, Syria, on Tuesday.
WORLD
Dec 25, 2024
Syrian Christians attend Christmas mass for first time since Assad's fall
De facto ruler Ahmed al-Sharaa has told Christians and other groups that they will be safe in a Syria run by his group.
Palestinians gather at a charity kitchen in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Dec. 4.
WORLD
Dec 25, 2024
Looting cripples Gaza food supply despite Israeli pledge to tackle gangs
Israel has failed to crack down on armed gangs attacking food convoys in Gaza, despite a pledge to do so in mid-October to help ward off famine in the Palestinian enclave, according to three U.N. and U.S. officials familiar with the matter. The commitment, made behind closed doors, seemed like a breakthrough...
Smoke rises following an Israeli strike near the Indonesian Hospital that ran out of fuel and electricity, in the northern Gaza Strip, on Nov. 12, 2023.
WORLD
Dec 25, 2024
Israeli army forces patients out of north Gaza hospital, medics say
Israel says its operation around the three northern Gaza communities surrounding the hospital is targeting Hamas militants.
A Wizzair Airbus A320-200 plane lands in Riga International Airport, Latvia, in 2019.
WORLD
Dec 24, 2024
European airline pilots and crews voice concerns about Middle East routes
The safety debate about flying over the Middle East is playing out in Europe largely because pilots there are protected by unions, unlike other parts of the world.
A border fence along the Syria-Israel buffer zone near Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights on Thursday
WORLD / Politics
Dec 23, 2024
Israel and Turkey shape a new Syria from their borderlands
Syria’s leadership isn’t the only aspect of the country to be changing as a result of this month’s toppling of longtime dictator, Bashar Assad.
Israeli emergency responders inspect a crater at the site where a projectile fired from Yemen landed, in Tel Aviv early on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 23, 2024
Netanyahu vows to act with 'force' and 'determination' against Yemen's Houthis
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday vowed to retaliate against Yemen's Houthi rebels after they fired a missile at Tel Aviv.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at a ceremony for military combat officers at an army base near Mitzpe Ramon, Israel, on Oct. 31.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 23, 2024
Israel's Netanyahu eyes Iran after triumphs over Hamas, Hezbollah and Syria
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has had a succession of monumental wins that include the top leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah being eliminated.
Mourners pray during the funeral for Palestinians killed in an Israeli strike, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, in Deir Al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, on Sunday.
WORLD
Dec 23, 2024
Order to evacuate Gaza hospital 'next to impossible' to obey: medics
The hospital is one of the few still partially functioning in the northern edge of Gaza, an area under intense Israeli military pressure for nearly three months.
Turkey's Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan (left) is received by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (also known as Abu Mohammad al-Jolani), in Damascus on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 23, 2024
Syria's new leader says all weapons to come under 'state control'
Ahmed al-Sharaa said Syria's armed "factions will begin to announce their dissolution and enter" the army.

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past