Search focused on the Middle East

22+ min ago (480+ words) ISRAEL AT WAR - DAY 798 Scottish rock group Primal Scream superimposed swastikas combined with Stars of David over the eyes of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant, as well as other global politicians, in on-stage graphics during a Monday night concert, leading a Jewish security group to file a police complaint. The Scottish band was playing at the historic Roundhouse venue in north London, where they performed their 2000 single "Swastika Eyes." During the song, the band flashed images on screen of global politicians " many of them Israeli " in which their eyes had been replaced by flashing swastikas inside a Star of David. The politicians featured by Primal Scream included US President Donald Trump, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Argentine President Javier Milei and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. A spokesperson for the Jewish organization Community Security…...

22+ min ago (449+ words) ISRAEL AT WAR - DAY 798 Iranian security forces on Friday "violently" arrested the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi at a memorial ceremony for a lawyer who died earlier this month, her supporters said. Mohammadi, who was granted temporary leave from prison in December 2024, was detained along with several other activists at the ceremony for lawyer Khosrow Alikordi, who was found dead in his office last week, her foundation wrote on X. Also writing on X, Mohammadi's Paris-based husband, Taghi Rahmani, said she had been arrested at the ceremony in the eastern city of Mashhad along with fellow prominent activist Sepideh Gholian. Alikordi, 45, was a lawyer who had defended clients in sensitive cases, including people arrested in a crackdown on nationwide protests that erupted in 2022. His body was found on December 5, with rights groups calling for an investigation into his death, which…...

37+ min ago (778+ words) ISRAEL AT WAR - DAY 798 The United States has reportedly pressed Israel to assume responsibility for clearing the vast rubble left behind by more than two years of war in the Gaza Strip, a demand that could burden Jerusalem with a massive, multi-year engineering project costing upward of $1 billion. According to a Thursday Ynet report, Washington has conveyed to Israel that it expects the country not only to finance the removal of debris across Gaza, but also to oversee the operation itself " a prerequisite for reconstruction that has yet to begin under the proposed postwar framework. The Gaza Strip has been devastated during the war that erupted after Hamas's October 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage. Israel launched a military campaign against Hamas in response, leading to widespread destruction across the enclave as fighting…...

40+ min ago (627+ words) Iran's crisis goes viral as Gen Z leads a bold challenge to the ayatollahs. They are young, plugged into TikTok and Instagram and no longer afraid. From a devastating water crisis to nostalgia for the shah's style, Iran's Generation Z is openly challenging the regime online. But before optimism, there is also a nightmare scenario ... Irans crisis goes viral as Gen Z leads a bold challenge to the ayatollahs The post Irans crisis goes viral as Gen Z leads a bold challenge to the ayatollahs appeared first on Jerusalem World News....

1+ hour, 53+ min ago (650+ words) ISRAEL AT WAR - DAY 798 For the second week in a row, hundreds gathered at Tel Aviv's Hostages Square to support the family of police officer Master Sgt. Ran Gvili, the final hostage whose body is held captive in Gaza. Itzik Gvili, Ran's father, spoke about his son in the present tense. "It's hard for me to accept condolences. Until I see his body, I don't speak about him in the past tense," he said. Gvili mentioned the police officers present at the gathering, "who saved the nation," and described that October 7 morning, when they woke Ran early in the morning to tell him about the Hamas invasion. Ran Gvili, a police master sergeant who had a broken shoulder, went to fight at Kibbutz Alumim. "His shoulder was broken and he didn't think twice about fighting," said Gvili. "He said to…...

2+ hour, 10+ min ago (73+ words) [ Rain-flooded street in Gaza City, December 12, 2025. (photo credit: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa)]Israel says it is meeting its obligations and accuses agencies of inefficiency and failing to prevent theft by Hamas, which the terror group denies. Heavy rains flood Gaza shelters, killing 12 and displacing thousands Israel says it is meeting its obligations and accuses agencies of inefficiency and failing to prevent theft by Hamas, which the terror group denies....

2+ hour, 44+ min ago (461+ words) ISRAEL AT WAR - DAY 798 Hundreds of thousands of displaced Gazans face flooding of their tents and shelters by heavy rains, and materials for shelters and sandbags are not being allowed to enter the enclave, the UN International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Friday. COGAT, the Defense Ministry agency that oversees humanitarian matters in Gaza, did not immediately comment on the claim, but on Tuesday said it was working "continuously to support a winter humanitarian response for the civilian population" with 270,000 tents and tarpaulins shipped into the Strip and repairs made to critical infrastructure. The UN statement came as Hamas's civil defense agency said that 11 people had died across the Strip as a result of Storm Byron, including a baby and a nine-year-old girl who died from cold exposure in displacement camps, and other people killed when structures collapsed under…...

3+ hour, 23+ min ago (896+ words) Over 200 entertainment industry figures have signed a petition calling for Israel to release Marwan Barghouti from prison, dubbing him the "Palestinian Mandela" and envisioning him as leader of a future Palestinian state. The star-studded list includes British actors Ian McKellen and Benedict Cumberbatch, musician Sting, and Jewish actresses Miriam Margolyes and Hannah Einbinder, alongside Mark Ruffalo and Javier Bardem who have previously expressed anti-Israel views. But who is this notorious figure that Hollywood elites want to crown as Palestinian leader? The post Notorious among Israelis but loved in Hollywood: Who is Marwan Barghouti, the Palestinian prisoner activists are trying to free? appeared first on www.israelhayom.com. Since the events of October 7, 2023, Hollywood's involvement in the war between Israel and Hamas has been strongly felt, to say the least. Whether through star-led protests against Israel and petition campaigns, criticism of…...

3+ hour, 31+ min ago (1702+ words) ISRAEL AT WAR - DAY 798 BUKHARA " You could have heard a pin drop as a small group of men (and two women) gathered on a recent Friday night inside the 300-year-old synagogue of Bukhara, Uzbekistan, on what was once the Silk Road of Central Asia. Located behind a wall and gate, the ancient building stands on a side street of Bukhara's old city, just off the tourist bazaar. One man in a leather jacket read a newspaper written in Cyrillic, while a couple of elderly locals exchanged greetings before sinking back into silence. That they were able to form the minimum 10-man quorum required by Judaism to pray communally was only thanks to the presence of this reporter's husband, a tourist from Karmiel in Israel, and a Canadian visitor born in Bukhara. Once the service started, Binyamin Badalov " who at 20 was…...

3+ hour, 57+ min ago (1098+ words) ISRAEL AT WAR - DAY 798 These are the voters who hope to elect their country's most right-wing president since its military dictatorship on Sunday. Former lawmaker Jos" Antonio Kast, 59, they argue, can bring back the simple, stable life that Chileans lost to rising crime, uncontrolled migration and left-wing excesses. Kast's rival in this runoff presidential election is their worst fear: a communist. "We need to go back in time to when Chile meant peace and quiet, when there weren't so many Venezuelans and Colombians in the streets, when you didn't have to look over your shoulder every second," said Ernesto Romero, 70, shucking corn at his vegetable stall in Chile's capital of Santiago. Ask the same question to other Chileans and they'll recount an opposite reality: A shorter work week, higher minimum wage and more generous pension system have made one of…...