Armed Militias and Extremist Groups

Smoke rises following Israeli bombardment in southern Lebanon close to the Beaufort Castle as seen from a position across the border in the Upper Galilee, in northern Israel on June 4, 2026.

Analysis

Israel’s Lebanon endgame remains elusive despite ceasefire deal

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was compelled by President Donald Trump to accept a new ceasefire agreement with Hezbollah, but without a clear long-term strategy, he may be inclined to resume hostilities at the first opportunity.

Rina Bassist

By Rina Bassist

In Paris, reporting on Israeli politics and European affairs

A portrait of the late Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is visible in heavily damaged building in the border town of Ayta al-Chaab, southern Lebanon, Feb. 21, 2026.

Analysis

Why Israel sees Lebanon’s 'pilot zones' as path to containing Hezbollah

Israel views the proposed pilot security zones in southern Lebanon as a pragmatic way to gradually expand Lebanese state control, push Hezbollah away from the border and preserve a fragile ceasefire while the Trump administration pursues broader negotiations with Iran.

In Tel Aviv, reporting on national security, Israeli politics, defense

Tom Barrack testifies during his Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on April 01, 2025, in Washington, DC.

Tom Barrack addresses criticism over his remarks on Hezbollah, Turkey: What to know

Tom Barrack, a senior figure within the Trump administration, was recently criticized by a member of the House for some of his past statements on Hezbollah.

First responders gather at the site of an Israeli strike that hit near a hospital in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre on June 1, 2026.

What’s in new Israel-Lebanon ceasefire deal — and what’s missing?

Hezbollah’s insistence on continuing to fight off Israeli attacks, along with Israel’s ongoing airstrikes in Lebanon, could threaten the implementation of the latest US-brokered ceasefire.

Latest News

Analysis

‘Iranians threatened Trump and he folded’: Beirut veto leaves Netanyahu exposed

ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP via Getty Images

In Tel Aviv, reporting on national security, Israeli politics, defense

Ongoing Israeli strikes, Hezbollah projectiles cloud Trump’s ceasefire in Lebanon

Smoke rises from the sites of Israeli airstrikes in the southern city of Nabatieh on June 2, 2026. Israel's growing offensive in Lebanon, including heavy bombardment and its deepest ground invasion in two decades, has threatened to scupper a ceasefire in the wider Middle East war between the United States and Iran. (Photo by Abbas Fakih / AFP via Getty Images)

Trump says Hezbollah, Israel agree to stop fighting after call with Netanyahu

Smoke rises following Israeli bombardment in southern Lebanon as seen from a position across the border in the Upper Galilee in northern Israel on May 31, 2026.

Analysis

Can Iraq absorb Iran-backed militias without deepening Tehran’s influence?

Hawre Khalid/Getty Images

Adam Lucente

By Adam Lucente

In New York City, reporting on regional news, militancy, climate change

A bulldozer removes the wreckage of a vehicle targeted by an Israeli drone strike in the southern Lebanese village of Doueir near the city of Nabatieh, on Nov. 3, 2025.

Israel escalates Lebanon attacks amid US frustration over Hezbollah disarmament

Lebanon has been under growing pressure from the US to completely disarm Iran-backed Hezbollah, which emerged weakened from its war with Israel.

EBRAHIM HAMID/AFP via Getty Images

Sudan PM orders state of alert as atrocity claims mount in Darfur

The UN Security Council met Thursday to address reports of mass killings and alleged atrocities in el-Fasher following its capture by the Rapid Support Forces.

The Prime Minister was accompanied by his Chief-of-Staff, Tzachi Braverman, IDF Chief-of-Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir, ISA Director David Zini, his Military Secretary Maj.-Gen. Roman Gofman, the Head of IDF Coordination Command, Maj.-Gen. Yaki Dolf, and senior IDF officials.

Analysis

As CENTCOM sets up in southern Israel, fears grow of expanding US influence

CENTCOM's establishment of the Civil-Military Coordination Center in southern Israel has given Washington unprecedented control over Israeli actions in Gaza.

In Tel Aviv, reporting on national security, Israeli politics, defense

Camels roam next to wind turbines that will supply power to a desalination plant under construction in Dakhla in the disputed Western Sahara, mostly controlled by Morocco, on May 26, 2025.

Feature

Trump eyes Algeria-Morocco rift over Western Sahara in latest peace bid

With the world’s attention fixed on the Gaza ceasefire, the Trump administration has its sights set on another diplomatic deal: Western Sahara.

Elizabeth Hagedorn

By Elizabeth Hagedorn

In Washington, DC, reporting on diplomacy, regional politics, human rights

MEDITERRANIAN SEA - OCTOBER 2: In this handout provided by the U.S. Navy, The USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78), and Italian Navy Offshore Patrol Vessel ITS Paolo Thaon di Revel (P430), flagship of Standing NATO Mine Countermeasures Group 2, operate in the Mediterranean Sea, Oct. 2, 2025. Gerald R. Ford, a first-in-class aircraft carrier and deployed flagship of Carrier Strike Group 12, is on a scheduled deployment in the U.S. 6th Fleet area of operations to support the warfighting effectiveness, lethality and re

Trump’s Venezuela standoff to leave Mideast without US aircraft carrier

The USS Ford’s departure will leave Washington without the Navy’s on-call mobile strike capability in the Middle East as the Trump administration shifts its pressure campaign to Latin America.

A Lebanese policeman walks past a portrait of Ibrahim Salameh, a Lebanese municipal employee who was killed during an Israeli army raid in the southern border village of Blida, displayed outside the municipality building on Oct. 30, 2025.

Aoun urges response after Israeli raid kills municipal worker in southern Lebanon

Israeli forces killed a municipal employee during an incursion into Lebanon, further escalating tensions in a country where fears of a renewed war have grown in recent weeks.

A woman walks past electoral billboards in central Baghdad on Oct. 19, 2025, ahead of parliamentary elections in Iraq on Nov. 11.

Iraq hit by wave of political violence weeks ahead of national election

Authorities work to step up security ahead of the upcoming vote, which could again be marked by low turnout amid widespread frustration with the political process.

Displaced Sudanese who fled el-Fasher after the city fell to the Rapid Support Forces rest near the the town of Tawila in war-torn Sudan's western Darfur region, on Oct. 28, 2025.

RSF’s el-Fasher takeover kills 2,300 in Sudan as UAE accused of aiding militia

Videos coming out of the captured North Darfur city show scenes of brutal violence and devastation, with hospitals turned into “slaughterhouses” and civilians executed in the streets.

A boy reacts sitting amid the rubble of a house destroyed in an Israeli strike in Nuseirat, in the central Gaza Strip, on Oct. 29, 2025.

Israel renews Gaza ceasefire after airstrikes kill over 100 Palestinians

After a night of aerial strikes in the Gaza Strip in retaliation for the killing of an Israeli soldier in Rafah, the Israeli military announced the resumption of the Gaza ceasefire.

Hamas militants carry a body retrieved from a tunnel in an area north of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, on Oct. 28, 2025.

Live Updates

Netanyahu orders 'powerful' strike in Gaza after Hamas attack in Rafah

Earlier in the day, Hamas militants fired anti-tank missiles at an Israeli military force that was conducting engineering work in the Rafah area, which remains under Israeli control.

Sudanese residents gather to receive free meals in Al Fasher, a city besieged by Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) for more than a year, in Darfur region, on August 11, 2025. RSF attacked a famine-hit refugee camp in North Darfur state on August 11, 2025, killing at least 40 civilians and injuring 19 others, rescuers said. Al-Fasher is the last city in the western Darfur region still held by the Sudanese army, at war with the paramilitary group since April 2023. (Photo by AFP) (Photo by STR/AF

Aid groups sound alarm on 'atrocities' after RSF captures Sudan's el-Fasher

Sudan’s RSF are facing numerous accusations of rights violations and abuses against civilians following their takeover of el-Fasher city in the Darfur region.

A United Nations convoy evacuating families from Sweida moves through the buffer zone in Busra al-Harir in Syria's southern Daraa province on July 22, 2025.

Bus attack in Syria’s Suwayda kills 2 as violence flares: What to know

Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Hikmat al-Hiji is calling for independence for southern Syria’s Suwayda province as violence continues in the area despite a July ceasefire.