Middle East

Three Separatist Fighters Killed In Drone Strike As Yemen's Government Coalition Fractures

This is Beirut 19:15 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

A drone strike killed three separatist Yemeni fighters on Friday, their commander told AFP, blaming rival Islamist forces they had dislodged from large areas. The UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council last week swept through swathes of Yemen in a near-bloodless takeover they say aimed to expel Islamists and halt smuggling for the benefit of ...

At Least 13 Dead In Gaza As Winter Storm Byron Batters Displaced Population

This is Beirut 19:00 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

Gaza Israel Storm

Gaza's civil defense agency on Friday said at least 13 people had died in the last 24 hours, including three children who died from exposure to the cold, as a winter storm batters the territory. Heavy rain from Storm Byron has flooded tents and temporary shelters across the Gaza Strip since late Wednesday, compounding the suffering of the ...

Gaza: International Force Could Deploy Next Month

This is Beirut 18:25 - Reading : 1 minute(s)

Donald Trump Benjamin Netanyahu Hamas Gaza Israel

International troops could be deployed in the Gaza Strip as early as next month to form a U.N.-authorized stabilization force, part of the second phase of U.S. President Donald Trump’s peace plan, two U.S. officials told Reuters. According to the sources, the International Stabilization Force (ISF) will not be tasked with fighting Hamas. A U.S. ...

Netanyahu: Trump Meeting to Focus on Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria

This is Beirut 16:00 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

Donald Trump Benjamin Netanyahu Lebanon Palestine Hamas

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to arrive in Washington on Monday, December 29, for talks with President Donald Trump, focusing on regional developments, including the Trump administration’s plan for Gaza and rising tensions with Lebanon. On Sunday, Netanyahu said he expects the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire plan to be ...

Real-Life Horror to TV Drama: Feared Syria Sites Become Sets for series

This is Beirut 11/12 16:42 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

Saydnaya Syria Mazzé TV

At a Damascus airbase once off-limits under Bashar al-Assad, a crew now films a TV series about the final months of the ousted leader's rule as seen through the eyes of a Syrian family. "It's hard to believe we're filming here," director Mohamad Abdul Aziz said from the Mazzeh base, which was once also a detention center run by Assad's air force ...

Israel says Hamas 'Will be Disarmed' After Group Proposes Weapons Freeze

This is Beirut 11/12 13:37 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

Hamas Israel Palestine

Israel said on Thursday Hamas "will be disarmed" as part of the US-sponsored peace plan for Gaza, after a top leader from the Palestinian Islamist movement suggested a weapons freeze. The ceasefire, in effect since October 10, halted the war that began after Hamas's deadly attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. But it remains fragile ...

Amnesty Accuses Hamas of Crimes Against Humanity on Oct 7 and Afterwards

This is Beirut 11/12 10:45 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

Hamas International Criminal Court Israel Palestine Amnesty International

Amnesty International on Thursday accused Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups for the first time of crimes against humanity, including extermination, during and after the October 7, 2023 attack that sparked the war in Gaza. "Palestinian armed groups committed violations of international humanitarian law, war crimes, and crimes against ...

US House Votes to Repeal Caesar Act Sanctions on Syria

This is Beirut 11/12 08:45 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

USA US House of Representatives US Treasury Damascus Caesar Act

The US House of Representatives has voted to repeal the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, a landmark sanctions regime imposed in 2019 on officials of former president Bashar al-Assad’s government for war crimes and human rights abuses. The repeal measure was included in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2026, ...

Hamas Proposes Weapons 'Freeze' in Return for Long-Term Truce

This is Beirut 10/12 23:46 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

Israel Hamas Gaza Khaled Meshaal

A top Hamas leader told Qatari news channel Al Jazeera on Wednesday that the militant group is open to a weapons "freeze" but rejects the demand for disarmament put forward in the US-sponsored peace plan for Gaza. "The idea of total disarmament is unacceptable to the resistance (Hamas). What is being proposed is a freeze, or ...

Israel’s Power Vacuum Dilemma

Seth J. Frantzman 10/12 17:10 - Reading : 6 minute(s)

Israel Benjamin Netanyahu USA Lebanon Syria Gaza

On December 2 Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Israel Defense Forces soldiers wounded in recent fighting in southern Syria. Their injuries followed a November 26 IDF raid on the village of Beit Jinn in southern Syria, an operation that left several Syrians dead and wounded a number of Israeli soldiers. Netanyahu had a ...

FocusBarrack's Glaring Error on Syria and Lebanon

Hussain Abdul-Hussain 10/12 16:15 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

Lebanon Israel Palestine Syria Tom Barrack

U.S. envoy Tom Barrack keeps warning that Lebanon will be “reabsorbed” into Syria unless Hezbollah is disarmed, a historically unfounded threat from someone who derides the Sykes-Picot boundaries as colonial nonsense yet treats Syria’s borders as sacrosanct. His selective anti-colonialism spares Syria, disregards Kurdish and Druze ...

Bulgaria Court Refuses to Extradite Beirut Blast Shipowner

This is Beirut 10/12 15:55 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Port Beirut Lebanon Rhosus Bulgaria

A Sofia court on Wednesday refused to extradite a shipowner wanted by Lebanon over the devastating 2020 Beirut port blast, one of the world's largest non-nuclear explosions that destroyed swathes of the Lebanese capital, killed more than 220 people, and injured more than 6,500. Lebanon wants Bulgaria to extradite Igor Grechushkin, a ...