Middle East

Iran's overarching strategy in attacking targets in Iraq, Syria and Pakistan

5:48pm January 19, 2024

NPR's Ari Shapiro speaks with Karim Sadjadpour, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, about Iran's strategy after attacking targets in Iraq, Syria and Pakistan.

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In Israel talks, U.S. reaffirms demands for Middle East's future — to little success

5:48pm January 19, 2024

by Daniel Estrin

A rift is deepening between the Biden administration and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The backdrop is the war in Gaza and what the future should hold for Palestinians.

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Protesters at a rare anti-war rally in Tel Aviv Thursday. The crowd was made up of people of all ages, many belonging to groups that have long called for an end to Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories.

World News

Israeli protesters demand Gaza cease-fire in rare anti-war march through Tel Aviv

2:57pm January 19, 2024

by Aya Batrawy

Civil rights lawyers pushed back against a crackdown on protests, securing permission to hold a rally to stop the war in Gaza.

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Dr. Ghassan Al-Suwaiti, a Jordanian plastic surgeon and burn specialist, performs an operation in December at Jordan's field hospital in Khan Younis.

World News

Jordan accuses Israel of deliberately targeting its Gaza field hospital

10:57am January 19, 2024

by Jane Arraf

Jordan said its field hospital in Khan Younis was hit by shells and gunfire, injuring a doctor and a patient. Israel denied the claim and said it was engaged in a skirmish with Hamas fighters nearby.

Displaced Palestinians take shelter in a makeshift tent camp by the beach in Rafah near the border with Egypt in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

World News

War in Gaza drove them from their homes. Now, many Palestinians can't even find tents

10:06am January 19, 2024

Nearly 2 million people have been displaced in Gaza, many living without sanitation, adequate food or water. Now, tents and materials to make shelters are in short supply, and prices are soaring.

A civil defense team carries out search-and-rescue operations in a damaged building following a missile strike launched by Iran on Irbil, the capital of northern Iraq's Kurdish region, on Tuesday.

World News

Iran's regional flashpoints are increasing. Here's what to know

9:18am January 19, 2024

by James Hider

Pakistan and Iran have traded cross-border rocket attacks, stoking fears of widening conflict even farther.

Politics & Government

Has a president who promised to put diplomacy first become defined by wars?

7:28am January 19, 2024

President Biden once pledged diplomacy first. Is his foreign policy now defined by military action? NPR's Leila Fadel talks to William Wechsler of Middle East programs at the Atlantic Council.

Anti-war protesters turn out in Tel Aviv for demonstration approved by police

5:14am January 19, 2024

by Aya Batrawy

Israeli authorities permitted a rare anti-war protest in Tel Aviv. It drew several hundred people who called for an end to the fighting in Gaza, reflecting some of the divisions in Israel.

Politics & Government

As Israel-Hamas war presses on, flareup between Iran an Pakistan emerges

5:14am January 19, 2024

by Peter Kenyon

Iran has attacked targets in Pakistan, Iran and Syria in recent days, and its militant proxies are also active. This adds to the tension in an already volatile region.

Politics & Government

Morning news brief

5:13am January 19, 2024

Justice Department report finds failures in response to the Uvalde attack. Congress averts a government shutdown by passing another short-term funding bill. Iran attacks add to tension in the region.