Media Coverage

Israel has carried out air strikes near Syria’s Mediterranean port city of Tartous, Syrian state media has reported. An Israeli army statement said that its forces “struck a military site where weapons belonging to the previous Syrian regime were stored in the area of Qardaha”, the hometown of...

Israel faced sharp criticism as it stopped the entry of all food and other supplies into Gaza and warned of “additional consequences” for Hamas if a fragile ceasefire is not extended. Mediators Egypt and Qatar accused Israel of violating humanitarian law by using starvation as a weapon. The...

The jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) Abdullah Ocalan has called on his party to lay down its arms and dissolve itself, a move that could end its 40-year conflict with Turkiye and have a wider impact on the region. A delegation of Turkiye’s pro-Kurdish DEM Party visited Ocalan in...

Israel will not withdraw from a strategic corridor in the Gaza Strip as called for by the ceasefire, says an official. Israel’s refusal could spark a crisis with Hamas and key mediator Egypt at a sensitive moment for the fragile truce. Hours earlier, Hamas released the remains of four hostages in...

For more than 40 years, people in Hama spoke in whispers about the February 1982 massacre that then-President Hafez al-Assad unleashed on this city. Speaking about it could lead a Syrian to join the hundreds of thousands of their compatriots in al-Assad’s prisons. Now, Syria’s fourth-largest city...

Syria’s de facto leader reiterated his pledge to deliver a democratic political transition as talks on the country’s future opened. Ahmed al-Sharaa urged his countrymen to unite and pledged to establish a transitional justice body, as he welcomed participants of a national dialogue aimed at guiding...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has demanded the complete demilitarization of much of southern Syria. It is an announcement that could make conflict between Israel and the new leadership in Syria, after the toppling of President Bashar al-Assad, more likely. In a speech to Israeli military...

The European Union has lifted select sanctions on Syria as part of an effort to support democratic development during the country’s political transition. The bloc announced that it had suspended restrictions on oil, gas, and electricity, along with sanctions on the transport sector including...

Hamas has handed over the bodies of an Israeli woman, her two young children, and an elderly man who were taken captive during the October 2023 attack on southern Israel. Hamas staged a public handover ceremony in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, displaying four coffins on a stage in front of a poster...

The Israeli army has continued with its large-scale military raid in the northern occupied West Bank city of Jenin and its refugee camp, forcing thousands to flee their homes. Wednesday, February 19 marks 30 days since Israeli forces began their assault on Jenin which then spread to other parts of...