Middle East Middle East news, arts, culture, and politics. Updates on Iraq, Israel, Palestine, Iran, OPEC, and the Persian Gulf states NPR streaming audio. Subscribe to the Middle East RSS feed.

Middle East

A Lebanese police officer inspects a car damaged by an exploding pager in Beirut on Tuesday. Hundreds of pagers belonging to Hezbollah members exploded simultaneously. The group blamed Israel. Hussein Malla/AP hide caption

toggle caption
Hussein Malla/AP

Civil Defense first-responders carry a wounded man whose handheld pager exploded at al-Zahraa hospital in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Sep. 17, 2024. Hussein Malla/AP hide caption

toggle caption
Hussein Malla/AP

Shlomy Green, 37, and wife Inbal Green, 40, pack their home in Rishon Letsiyon, Israel, on July 11. The couple decided to leave Israel with their four-year-old daughter Riley and move to Thailand. Maya Levin for NPR hide caption

toggle caption
Maya Levin for NPR

Some Jewish Israelis are making the choice to leave Israel over the war in Gaza

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/g-s1-22080/nx-s1-403a2604-12b6-417d-b647-017f3f87aa72" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

This undated photo provided by the Iranian Space Agency shows a Chamran-1 satellite. Iran launched the satellite into space on Saturday with a rocket built by the country's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, state-run media reported. Iranian Space Agency/AP hide caption

toggle caption
Iranian Space Agency/AP

A Jordanian man votes in parliamentary elections at a polling station in al-Salt near the capital Amman on Tuesday. Khalil Mazraawi/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Khalil Mazraawi/AFP via Getty Images

Civil defense teams and others carry out search and rescue operations after an Israeli strike on a school that was sheltering families at Nuseirat Refugee Camp in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday. Abed Rahim Khatib/Anadolu via Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Abed Rahim Khatib/Anadolu via Getty Images

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives at the Government Press Office in Jerusalem to give a press conference on Sept. 4. Abir Sultan/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Abir Sultan/AFP via Getty Images

Samhan Shreiteh walks around his house to show the new tanks he has to gather water. Claire Harbage/NPR hide caption

toggle caption
Claire Harbage/NPR

Why Palestinians Often Struggle for Water in the Israeli-Occupied West Bank

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1198684050/1258578337" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Palestinians look at the destruction following an Israeli airstrike in al-Muwasi, a designated humanitarian zone in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, on Tuesday. The Israeli military said it was targeting a Hamas command and control center and killed three Hamas commanders in the strike. Hamas did not confirm the deaths. Ahmad Salem/Bloomberg via Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Ahmad Salem/Bloomberg via Getty Images

An Jordanian citizen votes in historic elections for the Parliament of Jordan's 138-seat lower house on Tuesday in Amman, Jordan. Voters are deciding their representatives in the 20th Lower House of Parliament. Jordan Pix/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Jordan Pix/Getty Images

Palestinians look at the destruction after an Israeli airstrike on a crowded tent camp housing Palestinians displaced by the war in Muwasi, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. Abdel Kareem Hana/AP/AP hide caption

toggle caption
Abdel Kareem Hana/AP/AP

Palestinians march to honor Turkish American activist Aysenur Eygi in Nablus, in the Israeli- occupied West Bank, on Sunday. Witnesses say Israeli forces shot Eygi dead during a pro-Palestinian demonstration Friday. Raneen Sawafta/Reuters hide caption

toggle caption
Raneen Sawafta/Reuters

Armed Palestinian militants attend a group funeral of people killed in a raid by Israeli forces, in Jenin, in the occupied West Bank, on May 23. Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP via Getty Images

A Palestinian family mourns the death of their daughter, who was killed in an Israeli attack as she was heading to play while wearing her roller skates, in Gaza City, Gaza, on Sept. 4. Mahmoud ssa/Anadolu via Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Mahmoud ssa/Anadolu via Getty Images

Father in Gaza mourns his daughter, who was killed while wearing pink roller skates

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5103933/nx-s1-ffd60c77-db9b-4ee4-868e-240a1a91a8c9" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Vice President Harris at the Munich Security Conference on Feb. 17, 2024. Tobias Schwarz/AFP hide caption

toggle caption
Tobias Schwarz/AFP

What Kamala Harris' foreign policy of might look like if she becomes president

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5074203/nx-s1-5e740609-9c34-426b-ab93-f86b77906624" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Husam Abukhedeir, a Palestinian neurosurgeon, left his native Gaza for the United Arab Emirates last November because he felt that conditions caused by the war had stripped him of his power as a physician — and endangered his family. Nearly 9 months have passed, and Abukhedeir does not see an end in sight to the suffering Christopher Pike for NPR/Christopher Pike for NPR hide caption

toggle caption
Christopher Pike for NPR/Christopher Pike for NPR

A protester holds a photo of slain hostage Carmel Gat, killed in captivity in Gaza during a rally calling for an immediate hostage deal and release of hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip on September 2, 2024 in Tel Aviv, Israel. Amir Levy/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Amir Levy/Getty Images

'Bring them home.' Hostages' families cry.

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1198913311/1258262701" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

People walk past a billboard showing a portrait of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar (top) next to Palestine Square in the Tehran on Aug. 12, 2024. Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images

Mourners gather by the grave of killed US-Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin whose body was recovered with five other hostages in Gaza, during the funeral at Givat Shaul cemetery in Jerusalem on September 2. Gil Cohen-Magen/POOL/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Gil Cohen-Magen/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

Israel Mourns Dead Hostages; Gaza Civilians Don't Know Where to Go

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1197477616/1258202767" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">