Middle East

Local media reported demonstrations taking place in 50 locations across the country amid anger at Netanyahu’s government.Thousands of Israeli antigovernment protesters have gathered in Tel Aviv, among other parts of the country, to call…

United Nations chief says Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has brought ‘relentless death and destruction’.Here’s how things stand on Friday, April 6, 2024: Fighting and humanitarian crisis Israel said it will “temporarily” reopen the…

Azaz, Syria —  A bomb exploded in a shopping area in a northern Syrian city held by pro-Turkish forces Sunday, killing eight people and wounding more than 20, a war monitor said. The blast in Azaz, Aleppo province, occurred not long…

New report says minority group faces a ‘spectrum of abuses’, including arbitrary arrest and property confiscation.Iran’s persecution of its Baha’i minority has been branded “a crime against humanity”. Human Rights Watch alleged in a…

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday he has approved a military operational plan for the southern Gaza city of Rafah, an area that has drawn international concern as half of Gaza’s population shelters there from the…

Partial results in local elections show CHP candidates ahead of their AK Party rivals in Ankara and Istanbul.Turkey’s main opposition party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP) appears set to retain its control over key cities, according…

Protesters say Jerusalem rally is the biggest anti-government protest since Israel launched its war on Gaza in October.Tens of thousands of people have gathered outside the Israeli parliament building in Jerusalem in the largest…

Jersusalem —  Tens of thousands of Israelis gathered outside the parliament building in Jerusalem on Sunday in the largest anti-government demonstration since the country went to war in October. They urged the government to reach a…

Ankara —  Turkey's main opposition party appeared set to retain its control over key cities in Sunday's local elections, preliminary results showed, in a major upset to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who had set his sights on retaking…

On February 21, it was announced that the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby refused to meet with Munther Isaac, a Palestinian Lutheran pastor, after Isaac had appeared at a pro-Palestine rally with former UK Labour leader Jeremy…

Beirut —  As the Lebanese Christian village of Rmeish marks its first Easter since the Gaza war erupted, residents say a parallel confrontation between Hezbollah and Israel is dragging them into a conflict they did not choose. Like many…

Istanbul, Turkey – Across much of the world, local elections generate little interest beyond the town hall but in Turkey, voting for officials ranging from metropolitan mayors to neighbourhood representatives grips the nation for weeks…

The United States has greenlighted the transfer of a new $2.5bn weapons package, comprising bombs and fighter jets, to Israel, according to US media reports. Despite expressing concern about civilian casualties in Gaza, the White House…

BEIRUT —  Three United Nations observers and a translator were wounded on Saturday when a shell exploded near them as they were carrying out a foot patrol in south Lebanon, the U.N. peacekeeping mission said, adding it was still…

A three-ship convoy has left Cyprus’s Larnaca Port headed for the Gaza Strip with nearly 400 tonnes of food and other supplies as people continue to die from hunger in the enclave amid Israel’s ongoing war. The aid that departed on…

jerusalem —  A three-ship convoy left a port in Cyprus on Saturday with 400 tons of food and other supplies for Gaza as concerns about hunger in the territory soar. The World Central Kitchen charity said the vessels and a barge carried…

Truce talks between Israel and Hamas are expected to resume in Cairo on Sunday, Egyptian media reported, days after the United Nations Security Council issued its first demand for a ceasefire in the war on Gaza. The resumption of…

JERUSALEM —  Israeli troops shot dead two Palestinians and wounded a third on Gaza’s beach, the military acknowledged Saturday, responding to a video that showed one man falling to the ground after walking in an open area and then a…

Israeli attacks kill dozens of Palestinians including 15 people at a sport centre where war-displaced people were sheltering.Here’s how things stand on Saturday, March 30, 2024: Fighting and humanitarian crisis Dozens of Palestinians…

Brazil’s embattled former President Jair Bolsonaro has requested the return of his passport in order to visit Israel, fuelling speculation that he could be seeking respite abroad from his domestic legal troubles. Defence lawyer and…

With an economy so reliant on oil, Iraq has long faced a tough balancing act between the short-term gains that can come from ramping up production and the long-term problems that can arise from overproduction. Last week, the Iraqi oil…

Israeli military say its forces are continuing their siege of al-Shifa Hospital where they have claimed to have killed a number of fighters.Here’s how things stand on Wednesday, March 27, 2024: Fighting and humanitarian crisis Israel is…

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Tuesday to push forward with his campaign to eliminate the Hamas militant group, while also criticizing a U.N. Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire in Gaza.…

We, a diverse group of employees at the Max Planck Society (MPS), Germany’s top research institution, are writing this letter to express our disapproval of the position our employer has taken on Israel-Palestine and call for a serious…

Tehran —  Iran's currency fell to a record low on Sunday, plunging to 613,500 to the dollar, as its people celebrated the Persian New Year. On Sunday, people were trying to exchange rials for foreign currency at Tehran's main hub of…

Alex Cosh is an editor with the status-quo-allergic independent Canadian news upstart, The Maple. Cosh is a young reporter with an old-style muckraker’s temperament. His bunkum antennae are tuned to detect and expose the…

The line of blocked aid trucks stuck on Egypt’s side of the border with the Gaza Strip while Palestinians face starvation on the other side is a “moral outrage”, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on a visit to the…

Authorities in Gaza said 23 people were also injured while waiting for bags of flour and aid near Kuwait Roundabout.At least 19 Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli attack targeting civilians who were waiting for aid southeast of…

GENEVA —  More than 13 years after Syria erupted into civil war, the United Nations says the country has become a more dangerous place for civilians, noting that the oppressive government of President Bashir al-Assad that sparked the…

Tel Aviv, Israel —  During China’s annual national legislature this month, Premier Li Qiang announced plans to construct more solar and wind farms as well as hydropower projects. China is already the world’s largest producer of…

Washington, DC – Describing the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza as a genocide, progressive Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has called on the United States to suspend weapons transfers to Israel. In an impassioned speech on the…

UNITED NATIONS —  The United Nations Security Council is set to vote on a United States-sponsored resolution declaring that "an immediate and sustained cease-fire" in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza is "imperative" to protect civilians and…

Washington —  U.N.-appointed international legal experts who investigated Iran’s suppression of a women’s rights movement that erupted in September 2022 are appealing for more time to do their work, but objections from Tehran’s allies…

Revenues from Qatar’s LNG fields will provide budget surpluses until the 2030s, Fitch said.Fitch Ratings has upgraded Qatar to AA, its third-highest rating, on the back of revenues expected from its expanded gas fields, the agency has…

The Israeli military says it has killed 90 people during its raid on Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital where a siege has entered a third day, as displaced Palestinians sheltering in the facility described long detentions and abuse. Hamas…

In its annual report, Harm Reduction International says at least 467 drug-related executions took place last year.At least 467 people were executed for drug offences in 2023, a new record, according to Harm Reduction International (HRI),…

In November, veteran journalist, fixer and translator Mohammed Dawwas died in Gaza after fleeing fighting. Mohammed, who had suffered a stroke, lost access to medical care because of the Israel-Hamas war. Following is a tribute to his…

In November, veteran journalist, fixer and translator Mohammed Dawwas died in Gaza after fleeing fighting. Mohammed, who had suffered a stroke, lost access to medical care because of the Israel-Hamas war. Following is a tribute to his…

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to visit Saudi Arabia and Egypt this week for talks that he said will focus on pushing for a cease-fire in Gaza, the release of hostages held by Palestinian militants, and planning for a…

Washington, DC – The United States has issued its strongest public warning yet to Israel against invading the crowded city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip, saying that such a ground operation would deepen the humanitarian crisis in the…

Israel asks the UN court to reject South Africa’s request for more emergency orders in the Gaza genocide case.Israel has asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) not to issue emergency orders for it to step up humanitarian aid to…

GENEVA —  Iran’s violent repression of peaceful protests and widespread, systematic violations of human rights could, in many cases, amount to crimes against humanity, according to a U.N. fact-finding mission. The three-member team on…

Israel is using bureaucracy to “deliberately” hinder aid supplies headed into Gaza, Oxfam has claimed. The NGO’s assertion was made in a report titled: Inflicting Unprecedented Suffering and Destruction, which was released on Monday. It…

Israel’s military said Monday it was conducting an operation at the Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, an area where it came under international criticism for a November raid. Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in…

A suspected attack by Yemen's Houthi rebels saw an explosive detonate near a ship early Sunday in the Gulf of Aden, potentially marking their latest assault on shipping through the crucial waterway leading to the Red Sea. The British…

Israel says it will send a delegation to Qatar for more talks with mediators after Hamas presented a new truce proposal.The main United Nations aid agency operating in Gaza has said that acute malnutrition was accelerating in the north…

CAIRO —  Stalled talks aimed at securing a cease-fire in the war between Israel and Hamas are expected to resume in earnest in Qatar as soon as Sunday, according to Egyptian officials. The talks would mark the first time Israeli…

AL-NAYRAB, Syria —  For years, Syria’s civil war has been a largely frozen conflict, the country effectively carved up into areas controlled by the Damascus government of President Bashar al-Assad, various opposition groups and Syrian…

Documents apparently hacked from an Iranian government database and published exclusively by VOA's Persian Service have shed new light on how Iran's Islamist rulers covered up casualties from violent crackdowns on mostly peaceful mass…

Washington —  With increasingly frequent and vocal expressions of frustration, U.S. President Joe Biden appears to be distancing himself from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has vowed that international pressure will not…