Middle East

The Iranian judiciary says two organisers of a marathon have been arrested for allowing women who were not wearing hijabs to take part. The move comes after images appeared online of unveiled women competing in the race on Friday. Two thousand women and 3,000 men took part separately in the …

Yolande KnellMiddle East correspondent, Bethlehem EPA For two years during the Gaza war, all public celebrations for Christmas were cancelled in Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank – where Christians believe Jesus was born. But after the recent ceasefire, the holy city decided that this year the festivities would return …

The parents of the last dead hostage in Gaza have spoken to the BBC about their desperate wait for his body to be returned. Itzik and Talik Gvili insisted the Gaza peace deal could not progress until Hamas handed over the remains of their son Ran, a 24-year-old Israeli police …

A prominent Palestinian militia leader in Gaza who opposed Hamas has been killed. Yasser Abu Shabab headed the so-called Popular Forces group, which has dozens of fighters and operates in Israeli-controlled territory near the southern city of Rafah. The Popular Forces said in a statement that Abu Shabab was shot …

The Israeli military has carried out a new round of air strikes in southern Lebanon, less than a day after Israel and Lebanon held their first direct talks in decades. Residents of the towns of Mjadel, Baraachit, Jbaa and Mahrouna were told to evacuate areas around locations that the Israeli …

Reuters Gaza City’s medieval Great Omari Mosque was targeted by Israel’s military during the past two years of war With pickaxes and wheelbarrows, dozens of Palestinian workers in hard hats and high-visibility vests are clearing rubble from the ruins of the Gaza Strip’s oldest and largest mosque. The broken stump …

Hanya Aljamal, a teacher turned aid worker from Gaza, talks about the alienation she feels after being permitted to move to London to study last month. BBC News

Lucy WilliamsonMiddle East correspondent, Bnei Brak EPA The push to conscript more ultra-Orthodox men triggered a huge protest in Jerusalem last month An impending crisis over conscripting ultra-Orthodox Jews into the Israeli army is threatening to undermine Israel’s government and split the country. Public opinion on the issue has shifted …

Ian YoungsCulture reporter Getty Images Jafar Panahi picked up three trophies at the Gotham Awards in New York on Monday Award-winning Iranian film-maker Jafar Panahi has been given a prison sentence on charges of creating propaganda against the political system, his lawyer has said, on the same day his new …

BBC Elizabeth Tsurkov spoke to the BBC from Israel, where she is recovering from her ordeal An Israeli-Russian woman held captive for two and a half years by militants in Iraq has told the BBC how she invented “confessions” to try to get her captors to stop torturing her. Elizabeth …

Yolande Knell,Middle East correspondentand Malak Hassouneh,Jerusalem BBC In a bustling Gaza City market, a money repairer expertly inspects a worn, yellow 100 shekel ($30.50; £23.10) note. He straightens it out and enhances its faded colour with careful strokes of a pencil. Baraa Abu al-Aoun should have been studying at university …

The Prince of Wales has visited a number of severely ill children from Gaza being treated by the NHS, a Kensington Palace spokesperson says. The NHS began offering specialist care to Gazan children in September as part of a UK government humanitarian mission. As of 21 November, 50 children are …

Watch: BBC correspondent examines footage showing moments leading up to shooting in the occupied West Bank Video has emerged showing Israeli security forces shooting dead two Palestinians who appeared to have surrendered in the occupied West Bank. The incident happened during an ongoing Israeli military operation in the city of …

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband has urged the government to scale up efforts to return a jailed British couple from Iran to prevent another family being separated for years. Craig and Lindsay Foreman were arrested by Iranian authorities in January while on a motorbike trip from Europe to Australia. They were accused …

Jon DonnisonCorrespondent, Jerusalem Zaher Ibrahim Mohammed Ibrahim was 15 when he was arrested at his family’s holiday home in the occupied West Bank A Palestinian-American teenager is expected to appear in court in Israel later this week after nine months in detention without being charged. Mohammed Ibrahim, who is 16 …

Sebastian UsherGlobal affairs reporter BBC Zeynab Javadli divorced Sheikh Saeed bin Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum in 2019 The former wife of a member of Dubai’s ruling family has expressed concern that she could be arrested as her ex-husband has lodged a criminal complaint with local police, accusing her of …

Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and Hamas have handed over to the Red Cross a coffin which the armed groups say contains the body of one of the last three deceased hostages still in Gaza, according to the Israeli military. The remains will be transferred to Israeli forces, who will take …

US President Donald Trump has ordered officials to examine whether to designate some chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood as terrorists groups, a move that would target the group with economic and travel sanctions. His executive order on Monday calls for his top aides to produce a report investigating whether the …

An iconic Popemobile belonging to the late Pope Francis has been turned into a mobile medical clinic for children in the war-torn Gaza Strip. Aid workers say it has a practical purpose and also serves as a symbol of goodwill. The BBC’s Middle East Correspondent, Yolande Knell, went to Bethlehem …

Israel has carried out an air strike on the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital, Beirut, for the first time in months, targeting a senior member of the militant group Hezbollah, despite a ceasefire. The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the target was Hezbollah’s chief of staff. …