Iran strikes military bases in response to US attack

Iran has struck US infrastructure in Jordan and a UAE military base in retaliation of American strikes on Monday morning on the country's Larak island, which killed Iranian civilians and military personnel.

Tehran shared footage of strikes against the King Hussein and al-Azraq US military bases in Jordan and said it struck the UAE's Al Minhad Air Base, a claim Abu Dhabi has denied.

The US CentCom announced early on Monday that it struck Iran for it posing an "imminent threat" to the Strait of Hormuz. Reports have meanwhile emerged on Pete Hegseth, the US defence chief, receiving warnings against continuing the war on Iran on behalf of US senior military officials, according to the Washington Post.

Can Syria reintegrate its Druze population?

The Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, announced its dissolution last week in a landmark decision for the country's Kurdish-led paramilitary.

The announcement was hailed as a step forward in Syria's reintegration following over a decade of civil war.

Yet the news was overshadowed by reports of clashes among militias in Suwayda, where the country's Druze population is still reeling from massacres by government-aligned forces last year.

So, can Suwayda be reintegrated into the Syrian state? And what would that look like?

Former Israeli PM Bennett says American students associate Israel with genocide

Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said during a podcast interview that, just as Italy is associated with "spaghetti and pasta", Israel is now associated with "genocide and baby killers" in the US.

He made these comments in trying to prove the point that Israel must further work on its public image to regain appreciation, especially in American universities, which he says have been "infiltrated" by pro-Palestinian agents.

‘A soul was snatched from me’: Gaza crisis pushes increase in miscarriages

“I was really upset about the baby, to be honest. I mean, it’s not easy, it’s like a soul was snatched from me.”

Enaam Abou Fasaifi, 38, is one of nearly 4,000 miscarriage cases recorded by Gaza’s health ministry in the first half of 2026.

Medical workers and doctors are warning that the increasing number of miscarriages - which has tripled between January and June compared with the previous six months - is a result of declining sexual and reproductive health conditions in the strip as well as poor nutrition and severe anemia among pregnant women.

Israeli settlers assaults journalists in the occupied West Bank

Footage circulating online shows an Israeli settler assaulting and filming two journalists as they tried to cover the demolitions of Palestinian homes in the occupied West Bank town of Birzeit. 

The occupied West Bank has seen record levels in violent attacks by illegal settlers protected by the Israeli army and emboldened by Israel’s far-right government.

‘We knew exactly what we were doing’: Ex-US diplomat on Iran elementary school bombing

"We knew exactly what we were doing."

Did the US deliberately strike an elementary school on the first day of the US-Israeli war on Iran?

Hear what former US diplomat Hala Rharrit had to say.

More than six months after the strike killed over 170 people, mostly children, the US government has yet to publicly accept responsibility or formally release the findings of a Pentagon investigation. 

Rharrit, who served as the US State Department's Arabic-language spokesperson, resigned in 2024 over US policy in Gaza. She sat down with Mohamed Hashem on Real Talk. 

Watch it here: https://youtu.be/UEJdz49l2WE

On The David Hearst Podcast, Sir Jeremy Greenstock joins David Hearst on the lessons of Iraq, the war on Iran, Gaza and the future of British foreign policy.

Premiering this Wednesday on our YouTube channel. Subscribe now and turn on notifications so you do not miss it.

Israel builds barriers in Gaza, changing its territory and infrastrucure

Though diplomatic talks over Gaza's future are at an impasse, Gaza's reality on the ground is witnessing major infrastructural as Israel builds massive sand walls in areas past the yellow line, along with gates as dividing barriers. @rnatourious has more.

Should Brits care about Palestine? | MEE Live

Andy Burnham addressed the Commons as UK prime minister for the first time on Tuesday. He focused on domestic issues such as water, energy, transport and the cost of living. But a pressing briefing to his government published on the same day argues Israel-Palestine must be a policy priority.
 
Written by the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians and the Labour Muslim Network, it accuses Britain of publicly condemning Israel's occupation while its money and weaponry sustains it.
 
MEE Live's Mathilda Mallinson asked LMN Chair Ali Milani why Palestine should be a policy priority in Britain, whose new prime minister came to fame as a local mayor who put his town first.

Audience cheer at anti-Muslim speech during Jewish American Summit

Audience members laughed and cheered on Mosab Hassan Youssef as he called on Muslims to “get the fuck out of the United States” and return to the “shitholes” where they "came from", during a talk at the Jewish American Summit in Los Angeles on Sunday. 

“I don't give a fuck about your Quran. I don't give a fuck about your paedophile prophet. And I don't care, I don't give a fuck about your entire belief system. You disgust me,” added Youssef, the son of a Hamas co-founder who defected to Israel in 1997 and renounced Islam.

Netanyahu visits Gaza, boasts about occupying 60% of it

The Israeli Government Press Office released footage of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visiting Gaza with the army, and a video-statement in which he says: "We control the area. We are not retreating. [...] We control 60% of the Strip, and we are not stopping."

He added that the Israeli army is working towards the "demilitarisation of Hamas".

This comes as further scrutiny has been placed on the operation of the US-led Board of Peace intended to rebuild Gaza. The head of the Board, Nikolay Mladenov recently said in an interview that "there would be no more Gaza".

Is this an Israel we can trade with? | Sir Jeremy Greenstock | The David Hearst Podcast

Has Britain learned anything from two decades of military intervention in the Middle East?

Catch the latest episode of The David Hearst Podcast with former UK envoy Sir Jeremy Greenstock on Youtube

📰 Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair was recently sent by Donald Trump's Board of Peace to ask the Palestinian Authority (PA) to replace any mention of the word "Palestine" in schoolbooks with the Jewish designation of "Samaria", Middle East Eye has heard.

Jeremy Greenstock, who was Britain's ambassador to the UN between 1998 and 2003, told MEE that Blair attempted to exert pressure on the PA and said that if it was serious about being seen by the Board of Peace as capable of reaching an agreement with Israel to end the war on Gaza, then the word "Palestine" should be erased from textbooks.

In a wide-ranging interview on the David Hearst Podcast, Greenstock said the demand was rejected by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Greenstock also said that his former boss was experiencing "difficulties" in his new role overseeing the postwar management of Gaza for the board.

🔗https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/blair-asked-palestinian-authority-remove-palestine-textbooks-former-uk-envoy-says

Gaza Board of Peace 'an abstract and arbitray commitee', says former British diplomat

"It's an abstract and arbitrary committee." 

Former British diplomat, Sir Jeremy Greenstock, criticised the creation of the 'Board of Peace' to manage post-war Gaza, arguing it bypasses the UN Security Council and lacks genuine legitimacy.

Greenstock stresses that no lasting settlement can work without Palestinian participation and a fundamental commitment to justice.

Sir Jeremy Greenstock recently sat down with David Hearst, editor in chief of MEE, for The David Hearst Podcast. They discussed the catastrophic cost of Western intervention in the Middle East.

From the lessons of the 2003 Iraq war to rising tensions with Iran, Israel's assault on Gaza, and the erasure of international law.

Watch the full interview on our YouTube channel.

Baghdad's House of Wisdom | Josephine Quinn | UNAPOLOGETIC

Josephine Quinn on what Baghdad's House of Wisdom actually was, and why the popular story about it preserving Greek literature isn't quite right.

The full episode is now available to MEE Youtube channel members.

UNAPOLOGETIC is hosted by Ashfaaq Carim.

Two Palestinian teenagers killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank

Two Palestinian teenagers were killed by Israeli forces on Wednesday evening during an attack on the village of al-Mughayyir, north of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, Wafa news reported. 

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said its crews evacuated two 19-year-old Palestinians, who were shot with live ammunition, one in the neck and the other in the back, during an attack by settlers and Israeli forces on the village. 

They later succumbed to their injuries after being transported to hospital.

Will Burnham deliver when Starmer failed? The same lobby groups funded both | Joe Gill | MEE Opinion

Joe Gill, editor at Middle East Eye, says that Andy Burnham came into office promising hope and an end to 40 years of neoliberalism, but his early record is already raising questions about how far he is willing to break from Keir Starmer.

Gill points to Burnham’s retreat on policies including caps on large political donations, rent controls and the nationalisation of Thames Water. On foreign policy, he says Burnham has so far followed much of Starmer’s approach, including support for Ukraine, reluctance to call Gaza a genocide and limited action against Israel.

#BREAKING: The President of the United Arab Emirates has pardoned Egyptian poet and high-profile activist Abdul Rahman Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who was facing a ten-year prison sentence, Emirati media reported.

According to the reports, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan issued the pardon on Friday after Qaradawi was convicted by the Cybercrime Circuit of the Abu Dhabi Federal Court of Appeal on 27 August, who handed him a 10-year custodial sentence and a fine of Dh200,000.

🔗 Read more: https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/uae-president-pardons-egyptian-poet-abdul-rahman-yusuf-al-qaradawi

Thousands of Lebanese students still displaced by war as school year nears

Thousands of children remain displaced from their hometowns in Lebanon's south six months after a new war erupted between Israel and Hezbollah. 

Many still live in schools-turned-shelters, and as schools gear up for a new academic year beginning on September 15, families are wondering where they will go — and how their children can pick up schooling amid so much uncertainty.

'Why aren't you crying?': Former US diplomat on watching Gaza from inside the State Department

"Why aren't you crying?"

Former US diplomat Hala Rharrit describes the toll of watching Gaza's genocide unfold from inside the US State Department, breaking down in her office while colleagues stayed silent around her. She joined Mohamed Hashem on Real Talk.

Watch it now: https://youtu.be/UEJdz49l2WE