Category: 2. Middle East

Nearly 380 writers from the UK and Ireland, including Zadie Smith and Ian McEwan, penned an open letter Wednesday denouncing what they called Israel’s “genocide” in Gaza and urging a ceasefire.

The letter called on “our nations and the peoples of the world to join us in ending our collective silence and inaction in the face of horror,” they wrote in a letter published on the Medium website.

“The use of the words ‘genocide’ or ‘acts of genocide’ to describe what is happening in Gaza is no…

The UN on Wednesday condemned a US-backed aid system in Gaza after 47 people were injured during a chaotic food distribution that saw shots fired by the Israeli military.

The issue of aid has come sharply into focus amid a hunger crisis coupled with intense criticism of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a shadowy group that has bypassed the longstanding UN-led system in the territory.

With the war sparked by Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel entering its 600th day on Wednesday,…

1,200 Israeli reservist soldiers and officers have signed a letter addressed to the government and the Chief of Staff of the Israeli army, calling for an immediate end to the war in Gaza, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

The signatories said in their letter that continuing the war has become a political act that no longer serves Israel’s security goals and goes against the will of the vast majority of the Israeli public.

They stressed the urgent need…

The head of the Higher Commission for Tribal Affairs in the Gaza Strip, Hosni Al-Mughanni, said on Tuesday that the failure of the Israeli–American mechanism for distributing aid in Gaza was due to the exclusion of international humanitarian organisations and their replacement with private security firms, according to Anadolu Agency.

In a statement, Al-Mughanni said that Palestinian tribes and families “resisted the American company’s attempts to carry out…

France and Indonesia called Wednesday for progress on “mutual recognition” between Israel and the Palestinians at a key meeting next month as Emmanuel Macron visited Jakarta, bringing the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation into his diplomatic efforts.

It came as Paris and Jakarta signed a series of cooperation agreements, with Macron seeking to deepen trade and defence ties with Southeast Asia’s largest economy on a three-country tour promoting France as a balancing power between…

An Iranian director is breathing new life into William Shakespeare’s “King Lear” with a bold staging in Tehran infused with rock music and a dazzling light show to attract younger audiences.

In Iran, artists, writers, filmmakers, musicians and playwrights must walk a tightrope to avoid censorship of content the authorities deem inappropriate.

But despite political tensions between Tehran and the West, many international works still make it to the Iranian stage.

Now well-known actress Elika…

In a vibrant Baghdad district, labourers are working tirelessly to repair the centuries-old shrine of a revered rabbi in an effort to revive the long-faded heritage of Iraq’s Jewish community.

A few months ago, the tomb of Rabbi Isaac Gaon was filled with rubbish. Its door was rusted, the windows shattered and the walls stained black from decades of neglect.

Today, marble tiling covers the once-small grave, and at its centre stands a large tombstone inscribed with a verse, the rabbi’s name and…

After decades of poverty and isolation under the Assad dynasty, imported fruits like pineapples, kiwis and mangoes are available again in Syria’s bustling markets, making mouths water and eyes twinkle.

Fruits that were once designated luxury items, meaning they were accessible only to Syria’s wealthiest, are now as common as potatoes or onions, cooking staples for many of the country’s population.

“We used to smuggle them in,” said 46-year-old fruit vendor Marwan Abu Hayla with a big smile as…

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration defended a controversial Israeli-backed group whose aid distribution hub in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday was overrun by throngs of hungry Palestinians. 

Chaotic scenes unfolded at a distribution center run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) in southern Gaza’s Tel al-Sultan neighborhood. Video shows desperate Palestinians climbing over sandbags and tearing down fences as Israeli troops outside the compound fired warning shots to disperse the…