Middle East

BBC correspondent Katy Watson reports from Jerusalem. BBC News

The spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, Maj Gen Turki al-Maliki, said the Houthi drone and missile attacks targeted civilian and economic sites in the cities of Abha, Khamis Mushait, Jazan and Najran, and that women and children were among the injured. An energy ministry statement cited an official …

Israeli air strikes on a village in southern Lebanon have killed at least 11 people, including two children, Lebanese state media say. Nine people were killed in one strike that destroyed a three-storey residential building in Kfar Rumman shortly after midnight, while two paramedics were killed in a second strike …

Three experts give their BBC their thoughts on whether an imminent end to the conflict is likely. BBC News

Three Lebanese farmers have been detained by Israeli forces in southern Lebanon, according to the leader of their village. Issa Abedelaal told the BBC that Israeli forces called the three farmers on their mobile phones and instructed them to report to a location, where they were detained and taken away. …

At least 81 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers in the West Bank since the start of the year, according to the UN’s figures. Twenty-five of those deaths have occurred in the context of settler attacks. Three Israelis, both security forces and civilians, have been killed by …

Saudi Arabia has condemned what it said was an Iranian attack on a Saudi-owned supertanker on Monday night that killed two Filipino sailors. The Saudi national shipping company, Bahri, confirmed on Wednesday that its vessel Sidr was “involved in a security incident while transiting the Strait of Hormuz”. Sidr was …

A BBC team has joined a humanitarian mission of the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, known as Unifil, which is one of the only ways to visit the area under Israeli occupation. There, as it did in Gaza, Israel has flattened entire villages, and air strikes and demolitions have continued …

Iran has launched missile and drone attacks at US targets across the Middle East, after American forces resumed strikes against Iran. The Iranian Red Crescent said four people – including a child – were killed at wedding celebrations when a US missile hit a building in southern Iran. BBC Verify …

Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has warned his country will retaliate if the UK imposes sanctions against it over the potential expansion of settlements in the West Bank. Addressing Parliament for the first time as foreign secretary, Ed Miliband said he would introduce a “comprehensive reset” of policy on Israel …

At least two Palestinian children and a woman have been killed by Israeli fire in western Gaza City, Palestinian medics say. Unconfirmed local reports say that an Israel-backed Palestinian militia carried out a raid and that the Israeli military carried out shelling and air strikes after it was discovered. A …

Iran and the US have traded strikes after American forces attacked two rocket launchers on Larak Island in the Strait of Hormuz. BBC News

Former British-Israeli hostage Emily Damari has married partner Danielle Amit in a ceremony held in Tel Aviv. The couple, who met after Damari’s release in 2025, have been engaged since January 2026. Their wedding on Thursday was attended by several of Damari’s fellow former hostages, including Romi Gonen, Doron Steinbrecher, …

The Board of Peace’s high representative for Gaza told the Security Council on Wednesday that he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had agreed at their last meeting on a mechanism through which his government’s remaining questions would be settled and that committees had been established for that purpose. Mladenov …

An Israeli court has acquitted a Jewish man who attacked a nun in Jerusalem, in an incident caught on CCTV which drew widespread condemnation. Jerusalem Magistrates Court said Yona Schreiber was experiencing a psychotic episode when he pushed over and kicked the French nun in the Old City in occupied …

Mansour was born in the village of Birzeit in British Mandate Palestine in 1947 – a year before the State of Israel was established, and the advent of the first Arab-Israeli war. During the conflict, more than 700,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes or fled in what is known …

Israeli security forces have seized and closed a training college run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa), the last of its facilities that was still operating in occupied East Jerusalem. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has condemned the incursion of the Qalandia Training Centre, the latest move to …

Israeli settlers have been besieging Palestinian family homes in the occupied West Bank since Sunday, with the families saying their supplies were running out and rights groups urging the authorities to step in. After the Palestinian homeowners made their initial report to the Israeli army, the first soldiers who arrived …

The Israeli military has confirmed for the first time that it opened fire on a car carrying five-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab, who was killed along with six relatives in Gaza in 2024. BBC News

On Monday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, announced an “economic D-day” against Iran, with further sanctions on the regime and countries doing business with it. Iranian Economy Minister Ali Madanizadeh said Tehran was “fully prepared” for the sanctions, which he said would lead to “another defeat” for the US. Iranians …