Middle East

Yolande KnellMiddle East correspondent, Jerusalem BBC Itzik Gvili demands the return of his son Ran, the last dead hostage in Gaza, in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square In central Tel Aviv, the main stage has now been dismantled in Hostages Square, the focal point for the campaign over the past two …

The US says its military has carried out a “massive strike” against the Islamic State group (IS) in Syria, in response to a deadly attack on American forces in the country. US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said Operation Hawkeye Strike was aimed at eliminating IS “fighters, infrastructure, and weapons sites”. …

UN-backed food security experts have found improvements in nutrition and food supplies in Gaza since the ceasefire but say 100,000 people were still experiencing “catastrophic conditions” last month. In August, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) found that half a million people – about a quarter of Gaza’s population …

Heavy rains over the past week have compounded the already dire living conditions of the hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, UN agencies say. Unicef spokesman Jonathan Crickx told the BBC that the weather overnight had been “horrendous”, with the rain so intense that he had …

Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi was taken to hospital after being beaten when she was arrested last week, her family says. The 53-year-old human rights activist told them in a phone call on Sunday that she was brought to an emergency department twice after being “attacked by plain …

Yolande Knell,Middle East correspondent, Jerusalemand Callum Tulley BBC Huda Abu Jazar and her family watching a match on a mobile phone As a winter storm batters the Gaza Strip, Huda Abu Jazar, has been preparing her tent for floods while in Qatar, her son Ehab gets ready for one of …

Ghana has deported three Israeli nationals who arrived in the country on Wednesday in what appears to be a tit-for-tat move over the alleged mistreatment of Ghanaian nationals at Ben Gurion International Airport in Israel. Seven Ghanaians, including four members of an official delegation attending a cyber-security conference in Tel …

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said a second phase of the US-brokered plan to end the war in Gaza is close – but that key issues still need to be resolved. Under the second phase of President Donald Trump’s plan, Israel should withdraw its troops further from Gaza as …

Jeremy BowenInternational Editor BBC A year ago, the war that President Bashar al-Assad seemed to have won was turned upside down. A rebel force had broken out of Idlib, a Syrian province on the border with Turkey, and was storming towards Damascus. It was led by a man known as …

Hundreds of people gathered in Bethlehem’s Manger Square in the occupied West Bank to watch the lighting of a giant Christmas tree – as festive celebrations returned to the town for the first time since the Gaza war began. People could be seen singing and dancing among the twinkling lights …

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 …