Category: 2. Middle East

Israeli historian and professor Ilan Pappe said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s aggressive policies are tied to the ongoing case against him at the International Criminal Court (ICC), asserting that Netanyahu seeks to delay the proceedings by escalating regional conflicts, Anadolu reports.

Speaking to Anadolu, Pappe said Netanyahu is aiming to deflect attention from the ICC case, especially as it reaches a critical stage.

“He is very much…

Israel said Wednesday that it has evacuated around 3,800 citizens from various areas due to Iranian missile and drone attacks since last week, Anadolu reports.

Iran fired over 400 ballistic missiles and hundreds of drones since June 13, the Israeli Government Press Office said in a statement.

The Iranian attacks resulted in over 40 confirmed impact sites, the office said, without specifying the exact locations.

At least 24 Israelis were killed and 804 others…

The Pentagon has removed a senior officer from his post and launched an internal probe following the emergence of inflammatory social media posts criticizing Israel and US policy in the Middle East, Anadolu reports.

Col. Nathan McCormack, who had been serving as the Levant and Egypt branch chief within the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s J5 strategic planning directorate, is at the center of the controversy.

The move came shortly after the Jewish News Syndicate (JNS)…

An Iranian official claimed Wednesday that an Israeli F-35 fighter jet had been shot down near Tehran, while authorities also said they had destroyed 14 drones allegedly used by Israeli agents in operations across multiple provinces, Anadolu reports.

Hossein Abbasi, the district governor of Varamin – located just south of Tehran – told state news agency IRNA that the aircraft went down in the vicinity of the city.

“An Israeli F-35 fighter jet was brought…

Near the once-bustling Iraqi border crossing of Bashmakh, Iranian driver Fatah stocked up on rice, sugar and tea, staples that have become increasingly hard to get back home.

Fatah — who like others in this story is being identified by a pseudonym — was among dozens of truck drivers waiting impatiently to cross back into Iran from Iraq’s northern Kurdistan region, hauling not only their commercial cargo, but also essential goods for their families after days of Israeli attacks.

AFP spoke…

The Israeli army killed at least 32 Palestinians and wounded dozens more in air strikes and gunfire across Gaza on Wednesday, according to medical sources and witnesses, Anadolu reports.

Among the dead were 11 Palestinians who had gathered near the Netzarim corridor in southern Gaza City awaiting humanitarian aid, where Israeli forces opened fire, wounding others, some critically.

The Israeli military allows only a limited number of aid trucks into Gaza,…

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Wednesday the Islamic Republic will not surrender and warned that any US military intervention will have grave consequences as the Iran-Israel conflict continues unabated.

The statements came in response to US President Donald Trump’s call for Iran’s “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER” in a Truth Social post Tuesday. 

“The Iranian nation will firmly stand against an imposed war, just as it will resolutely resist an imposed peace,” Khamenei said…

Israel is running critically low on key missile defence interceptors, particularly the Arrow system, amid intensified missile barrages from Iran, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal citing a senior US official. 

According to the Journal, the shortage of Arrow interceptors has alarmed US officials who now believe Israel may be forced to ration its air defences as early as this week. “The system is already overwhelmed,” said a source quoted in the…

A first aircraft bringing home Israelis stranded abroad by flight cancellations resulting from the conflict with Iran touched down on Wednesday, with returnees expressing relief to be back on Israeli soil.

A statement from the airports authority said “the first flight of Operation Safe Return” landed at Ben Gurion Airport early Wednesday, with national carrier El Al bringing Israelis home from Larnaca in Cyprus.

Transport Minister Miri Regev said Tuesday that between 100,000 and 150,000…

Gaza’s civil defence agency said 33 people were killed by Israeli fire in the Palestinian territory on Wednesday, including 11 who were seeking aid.

The war sparked by Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel has ravaged the Gaza Strip and resulted in severe shortages of food, fuel and clean water.

Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that 11 people were killed and more than 100 wounded “after the occupation forces opened fire and launched several shells… at thousands of citizens”…