Ceasefires have been announced, often to great fanfare, in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran. So why is there still so much fighting?
Archiv: Associated Press (news agency)
The UAE says drones that targeted its Barakah nuclear power plant came from Iraqi territory
The drones that targeted the United Arab Emirates’ Barakah nuclear power plant all came from Iraq, the country’s Defense Ministry said on Tuesday, an indication that Iraqi Shiite militias backed by Iran were likely behind the assault.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack but Tehran and its militia proxies have launched drone attacks targeting Gulf Arab states since Israel and the United States began their war against Iran on Feb.
AP PHOTOS: Across the globe, workers observe May Day
The holiday, also known as International Workers’ Day or Labor Day, marks the struggles and achievements of workers and the labor movement around the world. Thousands of people are expected to attend rallies and demonstrations calling for stronger protections for workers, higher wages, greater equality and more.
Huge flames in Tehran as Israeli airstrikes hit Iran oil depot and refinery
Pillars of flame rose above an oil storage facility in Tehran late on Saturday as Israel carried out further air strikes. It appeared to be the first time a civil industrial facility has been targeted in the war. (AP video by Mohsen Ganji)
Torture still scars Iranians 40 years after revolution
(February 6, 2019)
Torture became widespread, as shown in the museum’s exhibits. Interrogators all wear ties, a nod to their Western connections. Portraits of the shah, Queen Farah and his son, Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, who now lives in exile in the U.S., hang above one torture scene
(…)
Sheikhi walked with Associated Press journalists through the prison that once held him, built in the 1930s by German engineers. Black-and-white photographs of its 8,500 prisoners from over the years line the walls. They include current Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the late President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.
Sheikhi, then 19, spent about three months in the prison and 11 months in another after being detained for distributing anti-shah statements from Khomeini, then in exile.
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Israel bombs Khan Younis hospital, killing journalists and rescue worker
The first strike hit the upper floor of the hospital, which was one of the largest medical facilities in Gaza prior to the war.
A second strike targeted the rescue team responding to the casualties from the initial bombing.
Four journalists were killed in the attack, including Mohamed Salama, a contributor to Middle East Eye who had produced numerous video reports since the start of the Israeli genocide in Gaza in October 2023.
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Salama also worked with Al Jazeera.
The other three reporters were identified as Hossam al-Masri, a Reuters cameraman; Mariam Abu Daqa, who contributed to Independent Arabia and AP; and Moath Abu Taha, who worked with NBC.
Multiple journalists killed by Israeli strikes on Gaza hospital
Mariam Dagga, 33, a visual journalist, freelanced for the AP since the Gaza war began, as well as other news outlets. The AP said in a statement that it was shocked and saddened to learn of Dagga’s death, along with several other journalists.
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Al Jazeera confirmed that its journalist Mohammed Salam was also among those who were killed in the Nasser strike. Reuters reported that its contractor cameraman Hussam al-Masri was killed and its contractor photographer Hatem Khaled wounded. It was not immediately clear who the fourth journalist killed was.
US contractors say their colleagues are firing live ammo as Palestinians seek food in Gaza
Jul 2, 2025
American contractors guarding aid distribution sites in Gaza are using live ammunition and stun grenades as hungry Palestinians scramble for food, according to accounts and videos obtained by The Associated Press. Two U.S. contractors, speaking to the AP on condition of anonymity because they were revealing their employers’ internal operations, said they were coming forward because they were disturbed by what they considered dangerous and irresponsible practices. (Production: Luke Garratt).
Aid workers feel helpless as Israel’s blockade pushes Gaza towards famine
Some 170,000 metric tons of aid, including food, sits in trucks a few miles away, just inside Israel.
‘A skeleton covered in skin’: Aid workers on Gaza’s malnourished children
Nutritionist Rana Soboh says she has been pushed to her wits’ end after seeing two extreme malnutrition cases in Gaza, which is on the brink of famine due to Israel’s aid blockade.
The first was a woman who was rushed to an emergency room after fainting while she breastfed her newborn, who had not eaten for days, the humanitarian worker with MedGlobal told the Associated Press news agency.
Bloodied Ukrainian troops risk losing more hard-won land in Kursk to Russia
Battles are so intense that some Ukrainian commanders can’t evacuate the dead. Communication lags and poorly timed tactics have cost lives, and troops have little way to counterattack, seven front-line soldiers and commanders told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity so they could discuss sensitive operations.
AP images offer a close-up look at the smoldering site of Nasrallah’s assassination
Onlookers at the site Sunday clambered over large slabs of concrete, surrounded by high piles of twisted metal and wreckage. Several craters, likely used by rescuers to penetrate under the site of the explosion were visible, some of them apparently up to 30 meters (100 feet) deep.
A few Hezbollah workers were using a bulldozer to excavate around one of the craters, some of them apparently dug by rescuers to reach the dead. State security and investigators were nowhere to be seen.
The Latest | Blinken says Israel will open a major aid crossing into hard-hit northern Gaza
Here’s the latest:
PALESTINIANS WANT U.N. GENERAL ASSEMBLY TO RECONSIDER THEIR BID FOR FULL MEMBERSHIP (…)
Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian U.N. ambassador, told The Associated Press late Tuesday that the vote will take place on May 10.
A mission of mercy, then a fatal strike: How an aid convoy in Gaza became Israel’s target
(today)
The path to the April 1 attack started months ago, as aid groups desperately looked for ways to feed millions cut off from regular food deliveries. Gaza was sealed off by Israeli forces within hours of the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas militants that ignited the war. Since then, more than 33,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 80% of the enclave’s 2.3 million people displaced.
Hunger has become commonplace. Famine, U.N. officials warn, has become increasingly likely in war-ravaged northern Gaza.
Israeli strike on Iran’s consulate in Syria killed 2 generals and 5 other officers, Iran says
(02.04.2024)
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — An Israeli airstrike that demolished Iran’s consulate in Syria on Monday killed two Iranian generals and five officers, according to Iranian officials. The strike appeared to signify an escalation of Israel’s targeting of military officials from Iran, which supports militant groups fighting Israel in Gaza, and along its border with Lebanon.
Palestinians describe bodies and ambulances crushed in Israel’s ongoing raid around Gaza hospital
Israeli jets on Sunday launched several strikes near the Shifa Hospital, which largely stopped functioning following the November raid. After claiming that Hamas maintained an elaborate command center there, Israeli forces months ago exposed a single tunnel leading to a few underground rooms.
Hardly any aid has been delivered in recent weeks to northern Gaza and Gaza City, where Shifa is located.
U.S. hits Iraq militia sites and anti-ship missiles in Yemen
(today)
Both the strikes in Iraq and Yemen targeted sites that the U.S. has said are involved in the attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria and were threatening U.S. military and commercial vessels in the Red Sea.
In Israel’s killing of 3 hostages, some see the same excessive force directed at Palestinians
Israelis were left stunned and speechless when three hostages held by Hamas were killed by Israeli forces in the middle of an active war zone after they waved a white flag and screamed out in Hebrew to show they did not pose a threat.
For some, the incident was a shocking example of the ugliness of war, where a complex and dangerous battlefield is safe for no one. But for critics, the incident underscores what they say is the excessively violent conduct of Israel’s security apparatus against Palestinians.
New York Times report says Israel knew about Hamas attack over a year in advance
(01.12.2023)
The attack was planned in plain sight. A month before the assault, Hamas posted a video to social media showing fighters using explosives to blast through a replica of the border gate, sweep in on pickup trucks and then move building by building through a full-scale reconstruction of an Israeli town, firing automatic weapons at human-silhouetted paper targets.
In the video, the militants destroyed mock-ups of the wall’s concrete towers and a communications antenna, just as they would do for real on Oct. 7.
What is Gaza’s Ministry of Health and how does it calculate the war’s death toll?
The United Nations and other international institutions and experts, as well as Palestinian authorities in the West Bank — rivals of Hamas — say the Gaza ministry has long made a good-faith effort to account for the dead under the most difficult conditions.
“The numbers may not be perfectly accurate on a minute-to-minute basis,” said Michael Ryan, of the World Health Organization’s Health Emergencies Program. “But they largely reflect the level of death and injury.”
Burkina Faso’s junta says its intelligence and security services have foiled a coup attempt
(September 28, 2023)
Since the country’s first coup in January 2022, the number of people killed by Islamic extremists has nearly tripled compared with the 18 months before, according to a recent report by the Africa Center for Strategic Studies.
Not only is corporate media like @AP predictably running hit pieces on Rumble for its crime of not obeying censorship orders of the neoliberal establishment, but British media outlets are explicitly threatening that Rumble will be banned from the UK under its repressive new law:
Niger’s junta gains the upper hand over the regional bloc threatening military force, analysts say
On Thursday, the bloc ordered the deployment of a “standby” force to restore constitutional rule in Niger, with Nigeria, Benin, Senegal and Ivory Coast saying they would contribute troops.
But it’s unclear when, how or if the troops will deploy. The move could take weeks or months to set into motion, and while the bloc decides what to do the junta is gaining power, some observers say.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard runs drill on disputed islands as US military presence in region grows
Iran did not provide a reason for launching the drill, though such snap exercises have happened in the past.
Analysis: Buildup of American forces in Persian Gulf a new signal of worsening US-Iran conflict
Thousands of Marines backed by advanced U.S. fighter jets and warships are slowly building up a presence in the Persian Gulf. It’s a sign that while America’s wars in the region may be finished, its conflict with Iran over its advancing nuclear program continues to worsen, with no solutions in sight.
The dispatch of the troop-and-aircraft-carrying USS Bataan to the Gulf, alongside stealth F-35 fighters and other warplanes, comes as America wants to focus on China and Russia.
Poland: Russian-made missile fell on our country, killing 2
That assessment and Biden’s comments at the Group of 20 summit in Indonesia contradict information earlier Tuesday from a senior U.S. intelligence official who told the AP that Russian missiles crossed into Poland.
Saudi Arabia quells dissent inside the United States: Report
According to a report released by the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights (ESOHR), during the first half of 2022, Saudi Arabia executed 120 people, a number higher than that of 2020 and 2021 combined. The kingdom is on its way to surpassing the record of 186 executions set in 2019.
Most of the executions carried out this year took place on 12 March, when Saudi officials killed 81 detainees on charges of “terrorism-related activities.”