Iran retaliates with strikes against Israel as Netanyahu vows to continue for ‘as many days as it takes’New Revolutionary Guards’ chief warns Tehran would open ‘gates of hell … upon this child-killing regime’Fri Jun 13 2025 - 21:47
Dozens of Irish people to join ‘March to Gaza’ from Cairo to Rafah in protest at IsraelAbout 2,500 people from more than 50 countries are expected to take part in pro-Palestinian walk to Egypt-Gaza borderWed Jun 11 2025 - 21:00
Sally Hayden on We Came By Sea: Stories of a Greater Britain - ‘It feels comforting and right to have a writer of Clare’s skill turn attention to this topic’While Britons have been shown to be open to resettling refugees, years of demonisation has led to a mostly negative view of those crossing the ChannelMon Jun 09 2025 - 04:33
Lebanon complains of ‘one-sided ceasefire’ after Israeli air strikes on BeirutIDF says Thursday’s wave of bombings, more than six months after truce agreement, was targeting Hizbullah drone-making facilities Fri Jun 06 2025 - 10:07
Climate change adds to Syria’s problems as Damask rose harvests fadeSyria’s harvest has shrunk as a result of climate change-related drought, further complicating the country’s economic recovery Wed Jun 04 2025 - 05:00
Exhibitions open in Damascus remembering suffering and sacrifice under Syrian regimeHundreds attend the first gallery show openings since fall of Bashar al-Assad, honouring former detainees and disappeared peopleThu May 29 2025 - 16:14
Celebrations in Damascus after Donald Trump’s sudden announcement of end to sanctions on SyriaEconomic embargoes to be lifted as country struggles to rebuild after 13 years of warWed May 14 2025 - 16:23
Syrians celebrate end of US sanctionsSyrians in Damascus celebrate after US president Donald Trump announced plans to ease sanctions on Syria and normalise relation. Video: Sally HaydenWed May 14 2025 - 14:50
In Lebanon I eat lunch and listen for the thrum of planes, the blasts of bombsBeirut Letter: I am unused to the sudden contrast between joy and violence, and feel a deep disquietMon May 12 2025 - 05:00
Voicenotes from Gaza: ‘I can’t bear to see my children fighting over a loaf of bread’Messages from Gaza reveal distressing stories of hunger, crime and a mental health crisisSun May 11 2025 - 06:00
‘So much gratitude in West Bank for Irish solidarity’: How Nobel Prize-winners are raising Palestinians’ plightDelegation of women hears of ‘system of violence and impunity’ on visit to territory occupied by IsraelThu May 08 2025 - 15:00
Humanitarian response in Gaza ‘on verge of collapse’, say aid agenciesThousands more deaths in Gaza Strip are imminent, humanitarian agencies warnFri May 02 2025 - 18:33
‘We are nice people, but poor’: After Assad’s fall, economic problems are Syrians’ biggest concernWar, corruption and sanctions have taken a heavy toll on Syria, whose deepening poverty is ‘a dangerous accelerant in an already volatile environment’Sun Apr 20 2025 - 12:11
The ghosts of Khaldiyeh, a Homs neighbourhood devastated by Syria’s warKhaldiyeh, in Syria’s third-largest city, is a former opposition stronghold once under siege during the country’s long warMon Apr 14 2025 - 12:11
Lebanon marks 50th anniversary since outbreak of its civil warCall for anniversary to be ‘a turning point, and not just a moment of remembrance’Mon Apr 14 2025 - 06:00
In Homs, efforts to rebuild but trauma haunts the streetsSyria’s new government is walking a tightrope, trying to state-build in a devastated country with a diverse and deeply divided societyFri Apr 11 2025 - 16:00
‘They destroyed this moment of joy’: On the frontlines of the Israeli incursion into SyriaDays after the fall of the Assad regime, Israeli forces entered southern Syria, where many locals now want protection from the UNSun Apr 06 2025 - 08:28
‘We try to make a new future now. You can speak, you can go out’Public spaces, some of them scarred by Syria’s conflict, host civilian and community-organised eventsMon Mar 31 2025 - 16:30
‘You could die trying to reach this treatment’: how Israel’s war on Hizbullah has shattered healthcare in south LebanonWith a fragile ceasefire in place, medics look to repair hospitals and care centres to get services running againThu Mar 27 2025 - 15:53
Israel’s Iron Wall operation has displaced tens of thousands in the West BankAlmost 1,900 incidents of violence by Israeli settlers in the occupied territory have been logged, says UN bodyMon Mar 24 2025 - 06:00
‘Dominoes to foreign interests’: a Christian town on the Lebanon-Israel borderUnlike much of southern Lebanon, Rmeish escaped the recent war relatively unscathedFri Mar 21 2025 - 09:28
Netanyahu vows to destroy Hamas following Israeli air strikes that killed more than 400 in Gaza Israeli prime minister says he ordered strikes because Hamas rejected proposals to secure extension to first phase of ceasefire deal that began in JanuaryTue Mar 18 2025 - 21:38
In a bunker with a woman battlefield commander in Syria: ‘To be under the control of a patriarchal husband? I prefer to be here’ Battle-hardened officer lives like a soldier ready for action to safeguard ‘the people’Mon Mar 17 2025 - 11:00
Camp Shamrock, Lebanon: ‘There was a lot of pressure put on us by the Israelis to withdraw from our locations’ Having come under extreme pressure on the front line of the recent war between Israel and Hizbullah, Irish Unifil soldiers far from home are getting on with the job of peacekeepingSat Mar 15 2025 - 06:00
Hebrew graffiti and a mass funeral in a Lebanese village on the Israeli borderNinety five coffins are brought back to a village marked by Israeli military occupationSun Mar 09 2025 - 12:21
Civilians put themselves in firing line between Turkey and northeast SyriaTishreen Dam, on the Euphrates river, has become a flashpoint in the conflict between the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces and the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army Thu Mar 06 2025 - 16:58
‘We’ve become used to being betrayed’: US aid cuts affect camps for people accused of Isis affiliationTrump spending freeze threatens security arrangements and could make it harder to stop resurgence of Islamic StateSun Mar 02 2025 - 11:00
‘Privileged and blessed’: Irish citizens post positive coverage of Hizbullah on paid-for trip to LebanonSelf-described human rights defender Tara Reynor O’Grady and comedian Tadhg Hickey attended the funeral of assassinated Hizbullah leader Hassan NasrallahSat Mar 01 2025 - 06:00
‘Guantánamo on steroids’: Inside a prison for suspected Islamic State members in SyriaDuring my visit, an administrator says ‘that’s correct’ when I ask if many detainees had died from tuberculosis, and ‘no answer’ when I request the exact figureSat Mar 01 2025 - 06:00
Tens of thousands attend funeral of Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah as Israeli jets fly overheadFlights to Beirut fully booked as thousands arrive from around the world, including Irish 'activists'Sun Feb 23 2025 - 20:25
Israel refuses to withdraw its forces fully from southern Lebanon as extended ceasefire deadline passesIDF says it will continue to ‘remain and temporarily control several control points inside southern Lebanon’Tue Feb 18 2025 - 20:45
Writer Omar El Akkad: ‘There have been so few bright spots in terms of ... national or institutional moral compass. Ireland has been a rare exception’ The US-based Egyptian-Canadian’s new book reads as a break-up letter with a West that has seen a derailment of normalcySat Feb 15 2025 - 05:00
Palestinian booksellers’ arrests by Israeli police prompt outcry ‘Bookseller of Jerusalem’ and his nephew operate famous Educational Bookshop stores in East JerusalemMon Feb 10 2025 - 19:13
‘I hope that one day I can visit my parents’ graves’: new reality for Gazans with ‘life-changing injuries’A UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights report found children aged five-nine accounted for the largest number of dead in Israel’s military onslaught, followed by 10-14 year olds and then babies and children aged 0-fourSun Jan 05 2025 - 15:00
The toll of war on Lebanon’s children: ‘They hid under beds, saying mattresses would protect them from rockets’Between October 2023 and the November 2024 ceasefire, Israeli attacks in Lebanon claimed at least 2,961 lives, including 248 childrenFri Jan 03 2025 - 11:00
After the fall of Assad, a family reunitesThe future is far from certain, but over juice and cakes one group of relatives celebrates finally being in the same room togetherTue Dec 24 2024 - 11:00
Inside Syria: Sally Hayden on the excitement and emotion of Syrians after Assad’s fallOne young man says, ‘I’m so mentally happy because any other regime that comes could never be as bad as the regime that has collapsed’Fri Dec 13 2024 - 19:35
Desperate search for the 100,000 missing continues as life returns to the streets of DamascusRebel coalition calls for people to return to work and ‘contribute to building a new Syria’Wed Dec 11 2024 - 20:16
Crowds throng Syria’s ‘human slaughterhouse’ drawn by hopes of a miracle reunionThey came from far and wide to search the notorious Sednaya prison, seeking answers but finding only disappointment and desperationTue Dec 10 2024 - 20:38
Checkpoints and guard posts burned or abandoned on the road into SyriaDespite jubilance, Syria is in grip of power vacuum and economic problems with path of evolution unclearMon Dec 09 2024 - 22:16
Syrians celebrate ‘new era’ as Bashar al-Assad reportedly flees to Moscow In a stunning 12-day advance, opposition forces achieved what 13 years of war could not: ending the Assad family’s brutal ruleSun Dec 08 2024 - 21:02
South Lebanon after the ceasefire: Ruins, funerals and talk of resistanceThe day after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah came into force 580,000 Lebanese people started moving back towards their homes. Video: Sally HaydenSat Dec 07 2024 - 07:35
South Lebanon after the ceasefire: Ruins, funerals and talk of resistanceThere are signs of mass return, of cleaning and clearing; a sense of reclamation, but also of griefFri Dec 06 2024 - 15:39
‘Now I wait on the hill for the Israeli bomb to drop’: Beirut nightclub photographer moves to a more serious beatWhen the war started and the clubs closed, Raghed Waked turned his focus to the conflict in LebanonThu Dec 05 2024 - 19:17
Ceasefire offers displaced southern Lebanese a chance to bury their deadDespite a halt to attacks, many Lebanese refer to a ‘one-sided ceasefire’ amid reports of multiple breaches by IsraelTue Dec 03 2024 - 18:23
Lebanon ceasefire: ‘We have no windows, no doors but we can live. Not like other people’Hours after a truce was called, people began to return to southern Lebanon without knowing if their homes remained intactWed Nov 27 2024 - 20:20
Beirut celebrates as Israel-Lebanon ceasefire confirmedPeople took to the streets in Beirut's southern suburbs as a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon was confirmed. Video: Sally HaydenWed Nov 27 2024 - 16:37
‘People hope the fire will stop’ after Israel and Lebanon agree ceasefire‘Israel can say one thing today and tomorrow it can change,’ says Ali amid reports of a 60-day cessation of attacksTue Nov 26 2024 - 21:28
Ancient Tyre paying high price for being at the front in a modern warThe city has seen a mass exodus since Israel intensified its assault against Hizbullah, displacing more than 1.2m peopleTue Nov 26 2024 - 19:30
Death of a Hizbullah fighter: ‘With your blood Lebanon will win’Militant group is believed to have tens of thousands of recruits from Lebanese Shia communityWed Nov 20 2024 - 12:47
