Middle East

Rescue efforts in Beit Lahia are currently hampered due to communications and internet services being severed in the region, Gaza health officials said. The Hamas-run government media office said the bombing hit “crowded” residential areas, and that 73 people had been killed – a number also reported by Gaza’s civil …

A drone has been “launched towards” the private residence of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the coastal town of Caesarea, his office has said. “The prime minister and his wife were not at the location, and there were no injuries in the incident,” a statement said. It comes after …

Yahya Sinwar was the architect of the 7 October attacks, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others taken back to Gaza as hostages. He was also one of Israel’s top targets from that day on. Sinwar had been the leader of Hamas in Gaza, but became the …

Israel’s foreign minister, Israel Katz, said Sinwar’s killing was a “significant military and moral achievement”. Yoav Gallant, the defence minister, said Sinwar “joins a long series of eliminations”. “Sinwar died while beaten, persecuted and on the run – he didn’t die as a commander, but as someone who only cared …

The prime minister has repeated his war aims many times – destroying Hamas as a military and political force and bringing the hostages home. Neither has been achieved, despite a year of war that has killed at least 42,000 Palestinians and left much of Gaza in ruins. But the remaining …

It also named 12 men who it said were among “dozens” of members of the Palestinian armed groups present in the compound at the time of the strike. The military accused them of being involved in rocket attacks on Israel and of carrying out attacks on Israeli troops in Gaza …

In September, the Pentagon said the Houthis had launched “a complex attack” on US Navy ships in the region, though all of the weapons launched were shot down. As well as the attacks on ships in the Red Sea, the Houthis have fired several missiles and drones at Israel directly. …

Just across the road are the Palestinian villages of Umm Tuba and Sur Baher, where many public facilities are notably inferior to those in Har Homa. In stark contrast to the building work on the other side of the highway, several homes have been forcibly demolished here in recent years …

There has been intense conflict across the Middle East since 7 October last year, when Hamas gunmen killed around 1,200 people and took 251 hostages when the group launched a surprise assault on communities in southern Israel. Since then, Israeli assaults on Gaza have killed more than 42,000 Palestinians, according …

Earlier, the Israeli military body responsible for managing crossings into Gaza, Cogat, said aid had been delivered to northern Gaza for the third consecutive day following a two-week period when the UN said no aid was allowed in. Fifty lorries carrying food, water, medical supplies and shelter equipment from Jordan …

The letter had immediate results. For the first time since the beginning of October, Israel has allowed in convoys of lorries carrying aid, though not yet on the scale requested by the US. Whether the letter can end the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, particularly in the absence of ceasefire, is …

Many of the casualties are taken to Jabalia’s Kamal Adwan hospital. It’s director, Dr Hussam Abu Safiyyah, told me by phone that his hospital faced a dire humanitarian crisis and accused Israel of imposing collective punishment. “We urge the world to intervene and impose their humanity over the Israeli army, …

A highly anticipated museum housing the world’s largest collection of ancient Egyptian artefacts has opened the doors to some of its galleries. More than 20 years in the making, the sprawling 120-acre Grand Egyptian Museum near the pyramids of Giza, will showcase more than 100,000 objects, including treasures from the …

The US letter to the Israeli government – whose contents have now been confirmed by the state department – was first reported by the Axios website. It is signed by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin. “We are now writing to underscore the US government’s deep …

Tensions between Israel and the UN over its peacekeeping operations in southern Lebanon have escalated in recent days – although the confrontations have their roots in years of mistrust and recriminations. In the latest standoff, the head of UN peacekeeping operations rejected a call on Monday by Israeli Prime Minister …

With the escalating attacks on emergency services, as well as the buildings housing the displaced, and crowded neighbourhoods in Beirut, many now see parallels between Israel’s onslaught in Lebanon and its year-long military campaign in Gaza. Last week, a UN commission of inquiry said Israel was perpetrating “a concerted policy …

Israel has not officially said how it intends to respond to Iran’s October missile attack – the second in six months – but Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said last week its reaction would be “deadly, precise and above all surprising”. “They will not understand what happened and how it happened, …

Within days of Israel launching its war in Gaza last October, two Palestinians began filming their daily lives for the BBC. Aya fled to the south of the territory to find safety, Khalid chose to stay in the north. Between them, they document explosions, multiple evacuations, deaths and the trauma …

“Everything is according to operational considerations. We have proven this recently and we will continue to prove it in the coming days as well,” he added. He was speaking during a visit to a military base in northern Israel where a drone launched by the Iran-backed group killed four Israeli …

Overnight, four people were killed when an Israeli aircraft struck a tented camp for displaced people next to al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in the central town of Deir al-Balah. The Israeli military said it had conducted a “a precise strike on terrorists who were operating inside a command-and-control centre in the …