War in the Middle East

All of our coverage in one place

Latest stories

A man inspects the damage at the site of an overnight Israeli airstrike that targeted the Shayyah neighborhood in Beirut's southern suburbs on November 26, 2024

Israel and Hizbullah strike a fragile deal to end their war

Joe Biden makes a last push to bring peace to the Middle East

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant hold a press conference in Tel Aviv

The arrest warrant is a diplomatic disaster for Netanyahu

But may also undermine the International Criminal Court


A protester holds a poster depicting former U.S. President Donald Trump, shown in a defiant pose, during a rally in Tehran, Iran, on November 3, 2024.

Get ready for “Maximum Pressure 2.0” on Iran 

The Trump White House may bomb and penalise the regime into a deal 


Israel’s hardliners reckon Gaza’s chaos shows they must control it

Only 11 out of a recent convoy of 109 aid trucks managed to get in

Iraq could be the Middle East’s next battleground

Until recently violence was at its lowest since the American invasion

Quitting Qatar is the least of Hamas’s problems

Farewell to comfortable villas in Doha, hello Turkey

The world’s most unlikely safe haven



Regional conflict

 A member of the Hezbollah-affiliated civil defense force raises the Lebanese flag amid rubble after an Israeli air-strike in Lebanon

Israel’s war aims in Lebanon are expanding

It is hoping for political change as well as the destruction of Hizbullah

Iranian demonstrators hold posters of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

Iran needs a new national-security strategy

Will it choose a nuclear bomb or detente with America?


Iran reacts to Israel's attacks on the Gaza Strip

Israel is keeping open the nuclear option

It has prepared a path to hit Iran’s nuclear sites after America’s election


Israel’s limited missile strike on Iran may be the start of a wider assault

Whatever Iran’s response to the attack, it carries risks for the regime

Inside the secret oil trade that funds Iran’s wars

An investigation by The Economist uncovers a multi-billion-dollar, America-defying network

Does Israel’s new plan for Gaza include withholding food?

Israel’s government says no, but America is demanding the ramping up of supplies



Israel

Former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant speaks at Hariya base following Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to fire him

Binyamin Netanyahu fires his defence minister

The Israeli prime minister stamps his authority on his government

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives at Ben Gurion

Israel’s leaders are watching America’s election closely

Who wins will shape Israel’s approach to its three wars


Israeli soldiers stand next to a group of Orthodox men

A year on, Israeli society is divided about the lessons of October 7th

Hawks and doves, religious and secular, right and left—all the old cleavages are resurfacing


Israel’s government is again trying to hobble its Supreme Court

While at war, Israel is facing a constitutional crisis


War and diplomacy

Major Saad Haddad and Christian militias or SLA (South Lebanon Army) from South Lebanon

Bad ideas are back on the menu in the Middle East

From a proxy force in south Lebanon to regime change, what’s old is new again

A pro-Iranian Hezbollah supporter holds up a poster of assassinated Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in front of a building that was flattened in an Israeli air strike on Beirut

Israel’s invasion of Lebanon may bolster support for Hizbullah

The group is deeply embedded in Lebanese politics and society


Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Iran’s leader must choose how to fight his war with Israel

Hardliners may force the supreme leader to escalate the conflict with Israel


The framework that ended Lebanon’s war in 2006 could help end this one too, says Tarek Mitri

Lebanon’s former foreign minister says any Israeli plan to reshape the country is a recipe for more chaos


The military campaign

Photographs of Sinwar and Nasrallah posted near Begin boulevard in Jerusalem

Do Israel’s assassinations work?

Why the conventional wisdom about decapitating Hamas and Hizbullah might be wrong

Israeli troops patrolling in the southern Lebanon's Naqoura region near the border.

Just inside Lebanon, Israeli soldiers debate how far to go

They are 2km inside the country, but prepared to go farther


The Israel-Iran standoff in maps

A visual guide to the escalating conflict


A narrow corridor in Gaza has become an obstacle to a ceasefire

Binyamin Netanyahu says the presence of Israeli troops is crucial. His generals disagree


Hamas and Gaza

Yahya Sinwar sitting on a sofa in the open air, surrounded by rubble, Gaza, 2021

Yahya Sinwar made Hamas his own fief

Will his successor embrace more violence or compromise?

Yahya Sinwar will hold sway over Hamas from beyond the grave

Will his death moderate or aggravate its bloody ethos?


Palestinians surrounded by the remains of their tents after they were burned following an Israeli army strike inside the walls of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir El-Balah, central Gaza

Does Israel’s new plan for Gaza include withholding food?

Israel’s government says no, but America is demanding the ramping up of supplies


How Yahya Sinwar’s death will change the Middle East

Gaza’s mastermind of mayhem is dead. A ceasefire may be alive again  


Latest coverage

By Invitation

A broader peace is within Israel’s grasp, say Tamir Pardo and Nimrod Novik

A former Mossad director and former foreign-policy adviser on an offer not to be refused

Middle East & Africa

The Lebanese-American businessman in Donald Trump’s inner circle

Can Massad Boulos influence the incoming administration in the region?

Leaders

Peace in Lebanon is just a start

Donald Trump must build on Joe Biden’s belated success

Middle East & Africa

Israel and Hizbullah strike a fragile deal to end their war

Joe Biden makes a last push to bring peace to the Middle East

Middle East & Africa

The arrest warrant is a diplomatic disaster for Netanyahu

But may also undermine the International Criminal Court

Middle East & Africa

Israel’s hardliners reckon Gaza’s chaos shows they must control it

Only 11 out of a recent convoy of 109 aid trucks managed to get in

Leaders

From Nixon to China, to Trump to Tehran

Iran is weak. For America’s next president that creates an opportunity

The World Ahead Middle East in 2025

Binyamin Netanyahu weighs up the political impact of a ceasefire

He wants to avoid a reckoning

The World Ahead Middle East in 2025

The outlook for the Middle East depends on three cantankerous old men

Ali Khamenei, Binyamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump will determine whether the conflict continues

Middle East & Africa

Get ready for “Maximum Pressure 2.0” on Iran 

The Trump White House may bomb and penalise the regime into a deal 

Middle East & Africa

Iraq could be the Middle East’s next battleground

Until recently violence was at its lowest since the American invasion

Middle East & Africa

Quitting Qatar is the least of Hamas’s problems

Farewell to comfortable villas in Doha, hello Turkey

Middle East & Africa

The world’s most unlikely safe haven

As war rages in the Middle East, Shia are fleeing to a deadly dictatorship

Asia

South-East Asian Muslims are incensed by the war in Gaza

A few may become radicalised off the back of it

Middle East & Africa

Will Donald Trump “stop the wars” in the Middle East?

What he does may depend on which son-in-law spoke to him last

Middle East & Africa

Israel’s war aims in Lebanon are expanding

It is hoping for political change as well as the destruction of Hizbullah

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