In the spring of 2015 a Syrian major general escorted a small team of chemical weapons inspectors to a warehouse outside the Syrian capital Damascus. The international experts wanted to examine the site, but were kept waiting outside in their car for around an hour, according to several people briefed... More

　　As Gaza marks three years since the Israeli assault that devastated the Strip and left more than 2,200 Palestinians killed, the psychological effects of the violence linger on. 　　Children were among the most affected groups; in the 50-day onslaught, the Israeli army killed 500 children. The bombing campaign, which started... More

　　Child deaths increased 20 percent in civil war-torn Syria in 2016, making it the “worst year” since 2014, according to the United Nation’s children agency Monday. 　　UNICEF said in a statement that at least 652 children were killed in Syria in 2016 -- 255 of them in or near schools.... More

　　When Israeli opposition leader and Labour Party chairman Isaac Herzog published a plan for kick-starting the peace process last month, one of his stated goals was to "save the settlement blocs" - areas of the West Bank where Israel has built clusters of settlements, including larger towns. 　　Settlement blocs are... More

　　The Israeli army closed several Palestinian media companies in the occupied West Bank in a wave of raids overnight Tuesday, drawing criticism from the Palestinian Authority (PA). 　　The Israeli military authority in the occupied territories, COGAT, said in a statement that they raided eight Palestinian companies, accusing them of inciting... More

　　Torkham is a maze of chain-link fences and razor wire. Stern-faced Pakistani guards, their rifles loaded and at the ready, watch on as Afghan visitors quietly circumnavigate the multiple checks of their papers at the main border crossing between the two South Asian countries. 　　Nearby, a group of about two... More

　　Fatima Salah, 58, does not sleep in the daytime as many do during the fasting month of Ramadan. 　　Instead, she wanders the city of Sanaa visiting neighbors and local shops, hoping to obtain enough food to feed her family at night. 　　"I am exhausted and thirsty because of walking, and... More

　　Trauma surgeon Shazeer Majeed has worked for Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Yemen, South Sudan and Iraq. He is now working in northern Syria, a region gripped by instability, and shares his day-to-day reality of trying to keep victims of war alive. 　　"We usually think of the remnants of war... More

　　On Friday, a senior member of Hamas's military wing, Mazen Faqha, was assassinated in the Gaza Strip by armed gunmen. It was an assassination tactic not seen in Gaza for at least a decade. 　　Faqha was a leading member of Hamas' al-Qassam Brigades in the West Bank. In 2003, he... More

　　On a sweltering spring afternoon, relatives and supporters of the Palestinian hunger-striking prisoners gathered at a marquee in downtown Ramallah. 　　The tent, one of dozens erected in solidarity with the prisoners across towns and villages in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip, stretched across one end of Clock... More

　　When Israeli police showed up at the maps and survey department of the Arab Studies Society's office in Jerusalem last month, director Khalil Tufakji was surprised to receive a six-month shutdown order. 　　Police proceeded to confiscate computers and the main server, along with posters and maps that had hung on... More

　　In October 2016, ISIL strategists and commanders were fully aware of the sheer number of Iraqi armed forces that were moving in to encircle Mosul. 　　The operation to retake Iraq's second-largest city was officially launched last October, and in January its eastern half was declared "fully liberated". Mosul is ISIL's... More

　　A leading human rights group has raised the alarm over an incident it fears is an indication of the Israeli authorities' growing intolerance of dissent. 　　Last week, Raed Jarrar, advocacy director for the Middle East and North Africa division of Amnesty International USA, was stopped at the Allenby crossing between... More

　　From the main street that runs through Wadi Qadum in occupied East Jerusalem, the Sharaf family home is hidden by a primary school and the bright, multicolored stone wall of its playground. 　　Tied to the wire mesh above the painted wall, a single poster shows a young man wearing a... More

　　At the Hjeiji family home in the occupied West Bank village of Qarawat Bani Zeid, classmates, friends and relatives of Fatima Hjeiji lined up to pay their respects. 　　One by one, the women and girls hugged Fatima's mother Dareen and offered sympathetic words. 　　"She was such a lovely girl. Everybody... More

　　A recent plea deal for an Israeli police officer who killed a Palestinian teenager has highlighted a broader policy of leniency in Israel for offences committed against Palestinians, analysts say. 　　"The police, the army, the investigative units, the public attorney and the judiciary are all in concert protecting each other... More

　　Survivors of a suspected chemical attack in Syria's Idlib province and aid workers on the scene say they are still in shock and struggling to recover from the distressing event of the attack. 　　"It's just indescribable," Othman al-Khani, local activist and witness said. "We saw people suffocating while their lungs... More

　　By Nigel Wilson 　　When two buses stopped close to Bab al-Asbat in Jerusalem on the second Friday of Ramadan, the elderly passengers were quick to disembark and head straight for the Old City. 　　It was around 10am, more than two hours before the Friday prayer would begin, but this was... More

　　An entire village consisting of dozens of Palestinian Bedouin families is threatened with imminent forced displacement, after Israel issued a rare evacuation order for the whole community. 　　Jabal al-Baba, which lies to the east of Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank, is home to more than 300 people. 　　"Residents are... More

　　In the Dheisheh refugee camp, it is common to see Palestinian teenagers with deep scars dotting the length of their legs, while posters and murals of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces adorn the concrete walls - testaments to a disturbing reality of routine Israeli violence in the camp. 　　International law... More