Middle East

At a time when Hezbollah and Israel have been locked in a low-level war for almost a year, these attacks will have devastating consequences for Hezbollah’s manpower, communications and morale. Israel has yet to comment, but this was undoubtedly its work – no other group or country has the motivation …

This video, shared on social media, appears to show the moment a pager explodes in a supermarket in Lebanon on Tuesday afternoon. It shows a small blast injuring one person who falls to the floor. Thousands of people were injured and at least eight killed when pagers belonging to Hezbollah …

Dozens of members of Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement have reportedly been injured after handheld pagers they use to communicate exploded. Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said the incident took place in the southern suburbs of Beirut, which is a stronghold of the Iran-backed armed group, and several other regions. A Reuters …

Pezeshkian, who became president after his predecessor died in a helicopter crash, is seen as a potentially reformist leader. He was responding to questions from a female reporter who said she had taken detours en route to the press conference to avoid police vans. She was wearing her head scarf …

Women in Iran have told the BBC how their online activity has been spied on by the authorities, leading to arrests, threats and beatings. Iran stepped up surveillance following nationwide women-led anti-establishment protests, after the death in police custody two years ago of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was arrested for …

Netanyahu said the strike showed that Israel was in a “multi-front battle against Iran’s axis of evil that strives to destroy us”. “[The Houthis] should have known by now that we exact a heavy price for any attempt to harm us,” he said. “Anyone who attacks us will not escape …

Last Sunday, at least 18 people were killed in Israeli air strikes on a number of military sites in the vicinity of Masyaf, according to the Syrian health minister. Israeli strikes have reportedly been stepped up since the start of the war in Gaza in October last year, in response …

Video of the aftermath of Wednesday’s air strike showed hundreds of people inspecting the heavily damaged ground floor of one wing of al-Jaouni school, as well as the remains of an adjoining structure that appeared to have been destroyed. Other footage showed ambulances bringing wounded men, women and children said …

Wafa also said an Israeli military operation was continuing in the city of Tulkarm and its refugee camps for a second day. On Tuesday, the Palestinian health ministry said a Palestinian man and woman were killed by gunfire from Israeli forces in Tulkarm. The IDF did not comment on the …

Israel’s military has said it was “highly likely” its forces shot dead a 26-year-old US-Turkish woman at a protest in the occupied West Bank last week, though unintentionally. Aysenur Ezgi Eygi was demonstrating in the town of Beita, near Nablus, against Jewish settlement expansion on 6 August. Local media reports …

At least 14 people have been killed after a number of suspected Israeli strikes against targets across Syria, the country’s state news agency has reported. It says five sites were targeted, including a scientific research centre. Israel usually does not comment on attacks in Syria and has not given a …

“Paving the road puts pressure on negotiators and mediators. The Israelis are trying to create a fait accompli,” says Dr Krieg. “It also suggests that Israel is not going to withdraw entirely from the Gaza strip any time soon,” he says. He cites a road built earlier this year by …

The city of Tubas and al-Faraa refugee camp were also raided during the operation across the northern West Bank – the deadliest of its kind since the start of the war in Gaza last October triggered by Hamas’s attack on Israel. Hundreds of troops from several branches of the security …

The IDF said one of its aircraft had “struck armed terrorists who hurled explosives and shot at the security forces” during the operation in al-Faraa camp. “In an exchange of fire, Israel Prison Service forces eliminated a terrorist who was armed with an explosive device,” it added. The IDF provided …

In a wide-ranging interview, he explained the ICC needed to request warrants for leaders on both sides to ensure people around the world thought the court was applying “the law equally based upon some common standards”. “If one had applied for warrants in relation to Israeli officials and not for …

Defence for Children Palestine (DCIP), a rights group, said, external Israeli soldiers entered Kafr Dan around 11:30 (09:30 BST) on Tuesday, prompting clashes with armed Palestinians. “Israeli soldiers surrounded and besieged the home of a wanted Palestinian man, firing live ammunition and shells at the house,” it said. “Around 14:10, …

“[The] decision means that while ministers apparently accept that Israel may be committing war crimes in Gaza, [the government] is nevertheless continuing to risk complicity in war crimes, apartheid – and possible genocide – by Israeli forces in Gaza,” he said. The non-profit organisation has continuously called for a ceasefire …

It felt like quite a moment. The new-ish government spelling out a different approach to Israel and the conflict in the Middle East from that of its predecessor – the third such time it has done so in two months. When David Lammy became foreign secretary in early July, he …

Through limiting access to grazing land, outpost settlers like Moshe Sharvit are able to put Palestinian farmers in increasingly precarious positions, says Moayad Shaaban, the head of the Palestinian Authority’s Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission. “It reaches a point where Palestinians don’t have anything anymore. They can’t eat, they can’t …

The government has reacted angrily to the union’s action, with far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich accusing it of playing into the hands of Hamas. It is unclear how widely the stoppage will be observed, after several cities and municipalities announced they would not take part. However, the call for a …