Middle East

U.S. pressures Israel to stop Israeli settler violence against West Bank Palestinians

7:19am December 06, 2023

by Michele Kelemen

The State Department announces visa bans for Israeli settlers who've recently attacked Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. Palestinians who've attacked Israelis would also be subject to the bans.

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With military siege of Gaza, ICRC says there's no adequate humanitarian response

5:13am December 06, 2023

NPR's Steve Inskeep speaks with Mirjana Spoljaric Egger, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, about her trip to the Gaza Strip.

Families of hostages speak out as Congress debates aid to Israel

5:13am December 06, 2023

by Becky Sullivan

Family members of hostages held by Hamas held a news conference in Washington, D.C., as Congress debates sending billions more dollars of aid to Israel.

An Israeli artillery unit is pictured near the border with the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, amid continuing battles between Israel and the militant group Hamas.

World News

Israel is expanding its offensive in Gaza, forcing more Palestinians to flee south

6:52pm December 05, 2023

The apparent drive to encircle Gaza's second-largest city of Khan Younis was forcing people to flee further south to escape the fighting.

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An Israeli man remembers his Gazan friend

4:55pm December 05, 2023

by Fatma Tanis

A Palestinian living in Gaza and a Jewish Israeli bonded over their hopes for peace and dreamed of one day getting a coffee together. But with one killed in the war in Gaza, that's now impossible.

Houthi supporters chant slogans and hold signs reading "Death to America, Death to Israel," as they attend a rally on March 26, 2023, in Sanaa, Yemen.

World News

After Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, fears of a wider Middle East conflict grow

10:40am December 05, 2023

by Joe Hernandez

The Iran-backed rebel group attacked multiple ships in the Red Sea over the weekend. The Houthis control large swaths of Yemen's territory.

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Palestinian Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish with four of his five surviving children in Gaza in May 2009. Several months earlier, an Israeli tank shell killed three of his daughters in their home. Abuelaish has worked in Israeli and Palestinian hospitals and is an outspoken advocate for peace. He now lives in Canada, but on Nov. 7, an Israeli airstrike killed 22 members of his extended family in Gaza.

World News

A Palestinian doctor pushes for peace, but suffers a devastating blow from war

8:10am December 05, 2023

by Greg Myre

Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish has served in both Israeli and Palestinian hospitals. He's an outspoken advocate of peace. None of this has spared him from terrible tragedies in the conflict.

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A salvo of rockets is fired by Palestinian militants from Gaza toward Israel on Oct. 10. Hamas' unprecedented attack on Israel started Oct. 7. A senior Hamas official told NPR that its planning was kept a close secret.

World News

These were NPR.org's biggest international stories in 2023

5:08am December 05, 2023

by John Helton

Hamas' attack in Israel and the war that followed and the stalemate in Ukraine were our biggest international stories in 2023, but we also found some wonder around the world.

Morning news brief

5:03am December 05, 2023

A ex-U.S. ambassador is accused of working as a secret agent for Cuba. After Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, fears of a wider Middle East conflict grow. It's been 10 years since Nelson Mandela died.

Health & Safety

For children living with war, every day threats lead to trauma

5:03am December 05, 2023

NPR's Leila Fadel talks to Zlatina Kostova, a clinical psychologist at the University of Massachusetts, about the trauma children experience when living through war.