Tag - middle-east

 
 

MIDDLE EAST

A woman reacts next to one of the pictures of victims of a recent wave of sectarian violence targeting Syria's Alawite minority in the west of the country along the Mediterranean sea coast, during a protest condemning the attacks in Syria's northeastern city of Qamishli on Tuesday.
WORLD
Mar 12, 2025
Syria determined to 'prevent unlawful revenge,' says fact-finding committee
The latest violence has marked the gravest threat to Syria's new authorities, calling into question their ability to govern.
Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa and Commander of Syrian Kurdish-led forces Mazloum Abdi shake hands, after Syria reached a deal to integrate the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces with state institutions, the Syrian presidency said on Monday, in Damascus, Syria.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 11, 2025
Kurdish-led SDF to join Syria's new state institutions, merging forces
Accord comes at critical moment after mass killings of Alawite minority members in western Syria threatens effort to unite country after 14 years of conflict.
A youth pushes a bicycle loaded with filled water containers outside the Southern Gaza Desalination plant, which stopped working after Israeli after cut off electricity supply to the Gaza Strip, in Deir el-Balah in the center of the Palestinian territory on Monday.
WORLD
Mar 11, 2025
Israeli move to cut power to Gaza affects some water supplies but little else
At night the territory is plunged into almost total darkness, after more than 15 months of intense Israeli bombardment and fighting that had already destroyed the grid.
Jewish settlers pray in the Evyatar settler outpost in the northern West Bank last July
WORLD / Politics
Mar 10, 2025
Christians press Trump to clear path for Israel to annex West Bank
Some 80% of white, evangelical Christians voted for President Trump. Now, some want a policy change that could undermine a future Palestinian state.
A solar panel provides electricity in northern Gaza on Feb. 13. Israel’s energy minister said on Sunday that he was immediately cutting off electricity to the Gaza Strip as Israel tries to pressure Hamas amid talks over their fragile truce.
WORLD
Mar 10, 2025
Israel halts Gaza's electricity supply ahead of new truce talks
Israel's decision comes a week after it blocked all aid supplies to Gaza.
Syrian army personnel gather as they head toward Latakia to join the fight against the fighters linked to Syria's ousted leader Bashar Assad, in Aleppo, Syria, on Friday.
WORLD
Mar 10, 2025
Syrian leader scrambles to contain deadliest violence in years
Clashes that a war monitoring group said had already killed over 1,000 people in Syria continued for a fourth day.
Palestinian fighters and crowds gather to watch a hostage release in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Feb. 15.
WORLD
Mar 7, 2025
U.S.-Hamas talks complicate Gaza truce efforts, analysts say
The direct contact is "a sign of a breakdown in mediation for a wider ceasefire," one expert said.
People gather in front of an Israeli military vehicle in the Nur Shams camp for Palestinian refugees, where troops allowed residents to retrieve belongings after issuing reported demolition notifications for several houses, in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday.
WORLD
Mar 6, 2025
Israel's settler pressure on West Bank villages stirs annexation fears
Most countries consider Israel's settlements in the occupied West Bank to be illegal.
An Israeli hostage who was released from captivity in Gaza arrives at a medical center in Tel Aviv on Feb. 22.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 6, 2025
Trump warns Hamas as U.S. holds unprecedented talks for Gaza hostages
The move broke with a decades-old policy against negotiating with groups that the U.S. brands as terrorist organizations.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas meets with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi during an emergency Arab summit in Cairo on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 5, 2025
Arab states adopt Egyptian alternative to Trump's 'Gaza Riviera'
While hurdles remain, Egypt's $53 billion reconstruction plan would avoid displacing Palestinians from the enclave.
A S-300 missile system is seen during the National Army Day parade in Tehran on April 17, 2024.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 4, 2025
Russian missile experts flew to Iran amid clashes with Israel
It could not be determined what the seven specialists were doing in Iran.
Houses and buildings lie in ruins in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on Jan. 19 following a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 4, 2025
Egypt's alternative to Trump's 'Gaza Riviera' aims to sideline Hamas
Cairo's plan does not tackle issues such as who will foot the bill for Gaza's reconstruction or outline any specific details around how the strip would be governed.
Mourners react during the funeral of two Palestinians killed by Israeli fire in the southern Gaza Strip on Monday.
WORLD
Mar 4, 2025
Israeli fire kills two Palestinians in Gaza amid impasse over ceasefire
A first phase of a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas ended over the weekend with no agreement on what will happen next.
A Russian military vehicle heads toward Hmeimim air base in Latakia, Syria, on Dec. 15.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 3, 2025
Russia gambles to keep military bases in post-Assad Syria
Syria's interim president wants to renegotiate the 49-year lease for one base and an indefinite lease for the other to secure better terms.
People gather by the rubble of destroyed buildings for a mass gathering for a communal iftar fast-breaking meal on the second day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in the area of al-Dahduh in Gaza City's Tal al-Hawa district on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 3, 2025
Israel blocks aid to devastated Gaza as truce's first phase ends
The decision came as talks on a truce extension appeared to hit an impasse, after the ceasefire's 42-day first phase drew to a close.
Palestinians break their fast by eating the Iftar meals during the holy month of Ramadan, near the rubble of buildings, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 2, 2025
Israel agrees on U.S. plan for temporary ceasefire in Gaza, PM's office says
The U.S. proposal came after a realization that more time is needed for talks on a permanent ceasefire.
Volker Turk, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, addresses the Human Rights Council at the U.N. in Geneva on Feb. 29, 2024.
WORLD
Feb 27, 2025
Israel disregards human rights and Hamas broke international law, U.N. says
The U.N. Human Rights Chief called for all violations to be investigated independently, a move which the European Union supported.
Thousands of mourners, carrying flags and orange balloons, joined a funeral procession on Wednesday for Shiri Bibas and her two sons, who were among the hostages taken by Palestinian militants in Gaza in October 2023 and who died during their captivity.
WORLD
Feb 27, 2025
Hamas releases bodies of hostages; Israel frees Palestinian prisoners
After days of impasse, Egyptian mediators secured the handover of the bodies of the four hostages.
Israeli tanks and bulldozers take positions in the Jenin camp for Palestinian refugees, in the occupied West Bank, on Sunday.
WORLD
Feb 25, 2025
West Bank Palestinians fear Gaza-style tactics as Israel clears Jenin camp
Israel says the move is to take on militants implanted in refugee camps but Palestinians accuse troops of permanently displacing the population.
Efrat Machikawa (center) and others protest in white near the Knesset in Jerusalem on Feb. 14, advocating for the safe return of hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
JAPAN / Society
Feb 24, 2025
The terror, the protests and the reunion: Efrat Machikawa's life since the Israel-Hamas war
The family of Machikawa's uncle, 80-year-old Gadi Moses, taken hostage from southern Israel by Hamas in their October 2023 attack, waited nearly 500 days for him to return home.

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.