Middle East

World News

Israel intensifies its offensive on Gaza with no signs of another truce

8:04am December 03, 2023

We look at the latest in the war between Hamas and Israel. The temporary ceasefire now over, deadly strikes in Gaza have resumed, and there are reports of more violence in the West Bank.

Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza, attends a demonstration held to mark Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Day, a commemorative day in support of the Palestinian people celebrated annually on the last Friday of the Muslim month of Ramadan, in Gaza City on April 14.

World News

The shadowy Hamas leader behind the war against Israel

6:01am December 03, 2023

by Daniel Estrin

Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, is widely believed to have helped mastermind the unprecedented Hamas attack that changed the course of Israeli-Palestinian history.

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Palestinians search the destroyed annex of the Church of Saint Porphyrius, damaged in a strike on Gaza City on Oct. 20.

More than 100 Gaza heritage sites have been damaged or destroyed by Israeli attacks

6:00am December 03, 2023

by Chloe Veltman

The nonprofit group Heritage for Peace's preliminary findings show 104 historic religious buildings, museums and archaeological sites have been destroyed or damaged.

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Journalists, relatives and friends pray over the bodies of journalists Sari Mansour and Hassouna Esleem after they were killed in an Israeli bombardment at Bureij camp in the central Gaza Strip on Nov. 19.

World News

Gaza war is deadliest conflict for journalists in over 30 years, press advocates say

6:00am December 03, 2023

by Fatima Al-Kassab

More than 60 journalists and media workers have been killed so far, most of them Palestinian journalists in Gaza. Gaza's journalists have reported while also suffering personal losses.

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Vice President Harris speaks to leaders at the United Nations climate summit in Dubai on Dec. 2, 2023.

In Dubai, Harris deals with 2 issues important to young voters: climate and Gaza

6:46pm December 02, 2023

by Deepa Shivaram

Vice President Harris gave her most extensive comments to date on the fighting in Gaza, emphatically calling on Israel to do more to protect civilians.

A Palestinian man carries a child wounded during an Israeli bombardment in Rafah, on the southern Gaza Strip, on Saturday.

World News

Israel says it has hit more than 400 targets in Gaza since end of truce with Hamas

12:09pm December 02, 2023

by Scott Neuman

The temporary truce that collapsed early Friday followed seven weeks of fighting in Gaza sparked by simultaneous attacks on southern Israel by Hamas militants on Oct. 7.

Bethlehem, in the occupied West Bank, will skip Christmas festivities this year

10:59am December 02, 2023

by Asma Khalid

NPR's Asma Khalid asks Palestinian Christians Munther Issac and Tamar Haddad about their efforts to convince American lawmakers to support a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas.

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World News

As Israel's air strikes resume, the U.S. and Qatar try to negotiate another ceasefire

8:26am December 02, 2023

Israel says it's hit more than 400 targets since the resumption of fighting in Gaza, as Qatar and the US try to negotiate another ceasefire.

World News

How Israel's judicial system handles the estimated 7000 Palestinians in its prisons

7:57am December 02, 2023

by Asma Khalid

NPR's Asma Khalid speaks to Dror Sadot of B'Tselem The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, about how Israel has detained thousands of Palestinians for years.

A man wearing an Israeli flag looks toward ambulances outside a hospital in Petah Tikva, Israel, on Nov. 24.

Some Israeli hostages are coming home. What will their road to recovery look like?

7:01am December 02, 2023

by Rachel Treisman

Dozens of women and kids held hostage by Hamas for nearly two months returned home to Israel this week. Experts say reacclimating is a process — and there are ways professionals and parents can help.