Hezbollah militants fired dozens of rockets into northern Israel from Lebanon on Wednesday, in what they said was retaliation for an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon overnight. The militants’ barrage came as pro-Palestinian protesters turned up the pressure on the government in neighboring Jordan to sever ties with Israel. It also came as the United […]
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In Hezbollah’s Sights, a Stretch of Northern Israel Becomes a No-Go Zone
More than 60,000 Israelis who live far from Gaza but close to the front line of another spiraling conflict have in recent months been ordered from their homes along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon — the first mass evacuation of the area in Israeli history. In one Israeli border town, antitank missiles fired from Lebanon […]
Read MoreFirst Aid Ship Heads to Gaza, but Far More Is Needed
A ship hauling more than 200 tons of food for the Gaza Strip left Cyprus on Tuesday morning, in the first test of a maritime corridor designed to bring aid to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who the United Nations says are on the brink of starvation. The ship, named Open Arms, for the Spanish […]
Read MoreInside America’s Shadow War With Iran
It’s often been said that the most dangerous hot spot in the world is the waterway between Taiwan and mainland China, where the Chinese Navy and Air Force flex their muscles every day to try to intimidate Taiwan — while the U.S. Navy patrols nearby. I wonder. There is actually a stable balance of deterrence […]
Read MoreIsrael Was Behind Attacks on Major Gas Pipelines in Iran, Officials Say
Israel carried out covert attacks on two major gas pipelines inside Iran this week, disrupting the flow of heat and cooking gas to provinces with millions of people, according to two Western officials and a military strategist affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps. The strikes represent a notable shift in the shadow war that Israel […]
Read MorePalestinians Flee as Israeli Forces Raid Nasser Hospital in Gaza
The Israeli military on Thursday raided the largest hospital still functioning in the Gaza Strip, in what it called a search for Hamas fighters and the bodies of hostages. Many people who had sought shelter there were forced to flee from combat once again. Explosions and gunfire rocked the hospital in the city of Khan […]
Read MoreLebanon’s State Media Says Israeli Strikes Killed 10 Civilians
Israel’s military launched new attacks on targets in Lebanon on Thursday, a day after its strikes in southern Lebanon killed at least 10 civilians, the most in months of cross-border fighting. The strikes — which came in response to a rocket attack from Lebanon on Wednesday that killed one Israeli soldier and wounded eight other […]
Read MoreTalks in Cairo Aim for a Deal to Halt Gaza War and Free Hostages
Negotiators from multiple countries met in Cairo on Tuesday, struggling to reach an agreement to temporarily stop the war in the Gaza Strip, as international concern mounted over Israel’s plan to press its ground offensive into the city of Rafah, where more than half of the territory’s population has sought refuge. Talks involving lower-level officials […]
Read MoreHezbollah Attack Injures 2 Israelis Amid Fresh Push to Reduce Tensions
Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia, fired missiles into northern Israel on Tuesday that injured at least two people, emergency officials said, amid a fresh diplomatic push to end months of clashes along the border. Hezbollah said that it had launched two separate attacks into Israel — one aimed at Israeli soldiers and the other at a […]
Read MoreU.S. Hits Back at Iran With Sanctions, Criminal Charges and Airstrikes
In the hours before the United States carried out strikes against Iran-backed militants on Friday, Washington hit Tehran with more familiar weapons: sanctions and criminal charges. The Biden administration sanctioned officers and officials of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Iran’s premier military force, for threatening the integrity of water utilities and for helping manufacture Iranian […]
Read MoreIran Tries to Avoid War With U.S. After Stoking Mideast Conflicts
Iran’s Supreme National Security Council held an emergency meeting this week, deeply worried that the United States would retaliate after an Iran-aligned militia in Iraq killed three American soldiers and wounded more than 40 others in Jordan. The council, including the president, foreign minister, chiefs of the armed forces and two aides to the country’s […]
Read MorePlans for Gaza’s ‘Day After’ Seem Ever Distant
As the war in Gaza grinds on, there is increasing talk of some “day after” formula for the broken territory. But that notion is an ephemeral one — there is not going to be a bright line between war and peace in Gaza, even if some sort of negotiated settlement is reached. Israel has made […]
Read MoreIran’s Leaders Say They Don’t Want a War. Should We Believe Them?
The war in Gaza has now gone where many feared it would, expanding into conflict in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and the Red Sea. With America’s repeated strikes against the Houthis in Yemen this month, fears of a larger regional conflagration are steadily growing. Present in each of those arenas is Iran — and the question […]
Read MoreIsraeli Strike in Syria Kills Iranian Officials and U.S. Troops Injured in Iraq
Iran accused Israel of launching an airstrike on the Syrian capital, Damascus, on Saturday that killed senior Iranian military figures, the latest in a series of Israeli attacks on officials from Iran and two of its proxies, Hamas and Hezbollah. Iran vowed to retaliate, raising fears of even deeper regional turmoil rippling out from the […]
Read MoreWhy Iran Is the Common Link in Conflicts From Gaza to Pakistan
Israel and Gaza. Yemen and the Red Sea. Lebanon, Syria, Iraq — and now Pakistan, too. At every flashpoint in a set of conflicts spanning 1,800 miles and involving a hodgepodge of unpredictable armed actors and interests, there’s been a common thread: Iran. Tehran has left its imprint with its behind-the-scenes-backing of combatants in places […]
Read MoreU.S. and Iran Wage a Proxy War
For all the fears of an outbreak of fighting in the Middle East that could draw the United States, Israel and Iran into direct combat, a curious feature of the conflict so far is the care taken — in both Tehran and Washington — to avoid putting their forces into direct contact. No one knows […]
Read MoreThe Necessary Risk of America’s Military Strikes in Yemen
By striking Houthi rebel targets in Yemen with Britain on Thursday, Washington sent a searing message to both the Houthis and its Iranian backers that the United States has ended its longstanding defense-only posture in the Red Sea and is determined to stop the group’s attacks against commercial ships in regional waters. It’s unclear whether […]
Read MoreAfter U.S.-Led Strikes in Yemen, How Wide Will the Middle East War Get?
From the outbreak of the Israeli-Hamas war nearly 100 days ago, President Biden and his aides have struggled to keep the war contained, fearful that a regional escalation could quickly draw in American forces. Now, with the American-led strike on nearly 30 sites in Yemen on Thursday and a smaller strike the next day, there […]
Read MoreThe Regional War No One Wanted Is Here. How Wide Will It Get?
From the outbreak of the Israeli-Hamas war nearly 100 days ago, President Biden and his aides have struggled to keep the war contained, fearful that a regional escalation could quickly draw in American forces. Now, with the American-led strike on 16 sites in Yemen early on Friday morning, there is no longer a question of […]
Read MoreIsraeli Strikes in Lebanon Kill Hezbollah Commander, Militia Says
Israel launched strikes into southern Lebanon on Monday against Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militia, which said one of its senior commanders had been killed there, adding to concerns that Israel’s fight against Hamas in Gaza could erupt into a wider regional war. Hezbollah and Israel have shelled and fired rockets at each other frequently over the […]
Read MoreHezbollah Says Strike Kills a Commander in Southern Lebanon
Hezbollah said on Monday that one of its commanders had been killed in a strike in southern Lebanon, adding to concerns about a wider regional war as Israel battles Hamas in Gaza. In a statement, Hezbollah identified the commander as Wissam Hassan al-Tawil but gave few additional details. A Lebanese security official, speaking on condition […]
Read MoreFrom Lebanon to the Red Sea, a Broader Conflict With Iran Looms
President Biden and his top national security aides believed last summer that the chances of conflict with Iran and its proxies were well contained. After secret talks, they had just concluded a deal that led to the release of five imprisoned Americans in return for $6 billion in frozen Iranian funds and some Iranian prisoners. […]
Read MoreHezbollah Fires Rockets at Israel in Response to Assassination in Beirut
The Lebanese militia Hezbollah fired a volley of rockets toward a small military base in northern Israel on Saturday morning, in what the group said was an initial response to the assassination of a senior Hamas commander in Lebanon five days ago that has raised fears of a wider conflagration. Hezbollah said in a statement […]
Read MoreIsraeli Minister Proposes Plan for Postwar Gaza Amid Divisions
As Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken returned to the Middle East on Friday in an effort to ease escalating tensions, Israel’s defense minister floated a postwar plan for the Gaza Strip that exposed divisions in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s wartime government. The proposal by the defense minister, Yoav Gallant, who is a moderate member […]
Read MoreTerrorism in Iran Exposes a Vulnerability It Doesn’t Want to Admit
For years Iran justified its military presence in Iraq and Syria, to its own people and the world, as a strategy for keeping terrorist groups at bay. Iranian officials frequently boasted that fighting terrorists directly or through proxy militias in the region meant they didn’t have to fight them at home. That sense of security […]
Read MoreAttacks Heighten Fears of a Wider War for the Middle East and U.S.
American, Israeli and Lebanese officials insist that few parties want Israel’s war in Gaza to become a wider conflict that engulfs the Middle East. But the assassination of a top leader of Hamas in Lebanon on Tuesday, and the deaths of scores of people in mysterious twin explosions in Iran on Wednesday, threatened to bring […]
Read MoreLeader’s Killing Is a Blow, but Not a Knockout, for Hamas
The killing of Saleh al-Arouri, a top Hamas leader, on Tuesday deprives the group of one of its most skilled tacticians, who helped route money and weapons to its operatives in the Gaza Strip and elsewhere in the Middle East and integrated Hamas more tightly into Iran’s network of forces committed to fighting Israel, according […]
Read MoreDeputy Hamas Leader Is Killed in Lebanon as Fears Grow of a Wider War
Hamas on Tuesday accused Israel of killing Saleh al-Arouri, a top leader of the group, along with two commanders from its armed wing, the Qassam Brigades. Mr. al-Arouri is the senior-most Hamas figure to be killed since Israel vowed to destroy the organization and eliminate its leadership after a deadly Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7. […]
Read MoreDeputy Hamas Leader, Saleh al-Arouri, Is Killed in Lebanon
Hamas on Tuesday accused Israel of killing Saleh al-Arouri, a top leader of the group, along with two commanders from its armed wing, the Qassam Brigades. Mr. al-Arouri is the senior-most Hamas figure to be killed since Israel vowed to destroy the organization and eliminate its leadership after a deadly Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7. […]
Read MoreA war cabinet member warns that Israel could open a new front against Hezbollah.
When Samir Hassan and his surviving family members fled their home in the town of Mughraqa in the central Gaza Strip weeks ago, they did so under intense Israeli airstrikes, which killed a number of family members, including an uncle, and severely injured his brother. They settled in a tent in the nearby Nuseirat area, […]
Read MoreIsrael, Citing Hezbollah Rocket Strikes, Warns of War in Lebanon
As Israel pounded targets in the Gaza Strip from the air and sea on Wednesday, a member of the country’s war cabinet threatened action on a second front, along the border with Lebanon, where the Iranian-backed militia Hezbollah has fired rocket barrages into Israel. “I say to our friends around the world: The situation in […]
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