A recent article published by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz has confirmed the extent to which Shin Bet interrogators subject their prisoners to torture. 　　Methods include slapping the head "to hurt sensitive organs like the nose, ears, brow and lips", forcing a handcuffed individual to squat against a wall for long... More

　　In Aleppo's Jibreen shelter, home to refugees who have been unable or unwilling to return to their houses or flee further afield, the inhabitants of Qalayah, one of the villages from that area, swear they will one day recover their land. 　　"We raised sheep and had land. We sold everything... More

　　The walls of Izzeldin Abuelaish's office at the University of Toronto are covered in photographs, but one, in particular, stands out. 　　Three of his daughters, Bessan, Mayar and Aya, sit on a beach in the Gaza Strip. The tide is out, and the girls - aged 13, 15 and 20... 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

　　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

　　Syria's vital Tabqa Dam, the country's biggest, has become a major part of a Kurdish-Arab assault to cut off ISIL stronghold of Raqa. 　　Located in Raqa province, the dam is built on the 2,800-kilometre-long (more than 1,700-mile-long) Euphrates River, which flows from Turkey through northern Syria and east into Iraq.... 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

　　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

　　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

　　In a photograph widely shared on social media this month, Kifah Quzmar, a final-year business student at Birzeit University near Ramallah, wears a red-and-white keffiyeh and a somewhat defiant look. 　　The difference between the 28-year-old and tens of other Palestinian students and youth arrested in recent weeks is perhaps that... More

　　Turkey’s Diyanet Foundation plans to repair dozens of mosques in Syria that were heavily damaged in the ongoing war, according to the head of foundation on Sunday. 　　Mustafa Tutkun told Anadolu Agency the state-run foundation was planning to construct and repair 66 mosques in cooperation with the Prime Ministry. 　　Tutkun... More

　　Syrian regime forces have used deadly nerve gas in four chemical weapons attacks since December, including one in Khan Sheikhoun that killed nearly 100 people in April, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW). 　　Citing new evidence, the US-based rights group said the attacks are "part of a clear pattern" that... More