Middle Orient

1.4 million Gazans, more than half of Gaza’s total population, are cramped in the southern city of Rafah amid the looming Israeli threat to invade the city. Netanyahu’s aim for a “complete victory” could, according to UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffith, “lead to a …

On 14 February, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah el-Sisi met at the Al-Ittihadiya Palace in Cairo. This marked Erdogan’s first visit to Egypt since 2012. The visit was an important watershed in Ankara and Cairo’s rapprochement that gained momentum after the two leaders met …

The Emirati head of Interpol Maj Gen Ahmed Nasser Al-Raisi has been spotted posing for a photo with Syrian regime Interior Minister Mohammed Khaled Al-Rahmoun who is on multiple sanction lists for his role in the brutal suppression of domestic political dissent. Several Syria analysts and activists shared the photo …

On Thursday morning, Israeli infantrymen, snipers, tanks and drones opened fire on a crowd of starving Palestinians in Gaza City as they lined up to receive flour from aid trucks, killing at least 112 and injuring more than 700. Doctors reported that many victims arrived at hospitals with gunshots to …

It’s been more than three weeks since the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued its preliminary ruling ordering Israel to prevent genocide in Gaza. Yet legal challenges against Israel’s assault on the besieged Palestinian territory haven’t stopped there. The ongoing ICJ genocide case, along with a new hearing which began …

Local officials in northeastern Syria said a series of Turkish drone strikes on Wednesday killed and wounded several people in a Kurdish-controlled town near the border with Turkey. Unlike other attacks carried out by Turkey in recent months, those targeted Wednesday were not Syrian Kurdish fighters. According to local sources, …

“We will destroy everything not Jewish.” —–Theodore Herzl[i] “We have no solution, you shall continue to live like dogs, and whoever wishes may leave, and we will see where this process leads . . . . You Palestinians, as a nation, don’t want us today, but we’ll change your attitude …

Israel’s campaign in Gaza in response to Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attacks still overshadows Middle East politics, with the spectre of wider war or other regional instability ever present even as ceasefire talks appear to be making progress. Crisis Group experts offer a 360-degree view. The war in Gaza between …

Netanyahu is taking Israel’s war on Gaza to a final terrifying stage, promising that total victory is at hand and using 1.5 million Palestinians in Rafah as hostages. If he can’t force them out into Sinai, he wants to take over complete control of the Rafah crossing from Egypt, destroy …

From 29 February to 2 March, there will be an intra-Palestinian meeting in Moscow under the Russian government’s auspices. Officials representing Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Fatah, and approximately ten other Palestinian factions received invitations and will participate. “Moscow’s goal is to help the various Palestinian forces agree to unite their ranks …