The Israeli authorities are making preparations to welcome home dozens of hostages held incommunicado by Hamas for over a year in Gaza, without knowing whether they will return starved, traumatized or dead. Thirty-three hostages are supposed to be freed in the first phase of the Gaza cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas, in the first […]

The Israeli government approved a cease-fire deal with Hamas early Saturday that calls for the release of dozens of hostages and hundreds of Palestinian prisoners after hours of deliberations, setting up the first reprieve in a 15-month, devastating war in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli prime minister’s office, which announced the agreement after the full […]

At his seaside office complex in Doha on Wednesday evening, the Qatari prime minister thought he had a deal. Hamas’s negotiators, led by a burly former lawmaker, had left the prime minister’s office, having given up on an 11th-hour demand that was the last major obstacle to a cease-fire in Gaza after 466 days of […]

new video loaded: On a Raid With Syria’s New Security Forces transcript Back transcript On a Raid With Syria’s New Security Forces After the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, The New York Times joined a group of former rebel soldiers trying to enforce law and order in a country grappling with the ghosts […]

Since the cease-fire agreement between Hamas and Israel was announced on Wednesday, Israeli airstrikes have continued across the Gaza Strip, with northern Gaza facing the heaviest attacks, emergency officials in the territory said on Friday morning. Palestinian Civil Defense, an emergency services organization, said that more than two dozen children were among those killed, and […]

It is almost over, the end so close they can practically feel the keys they have kept all these months sliding into the locks of their old homes, the doorknobs turning in their hands, the beds they will sink into for their first night’s peaceful rest in more than 15 months — their own beds. […]

But this elation, for Ahmad and Areej, does not — cannot — translate into an intention to return to Deir al-Zour, at least in the foreseeable future. ISIS has remained active in eastern Syria, and U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, who control large parts of the region, are currently clashing with the Syrian National […]

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered a meeting of Israel’s political security cabinet on Friday to approve the Gaza cease-fire deal after Israeli and Hamas negotiators worked out their remaining differences. Mr. Netanyahu’s office said in a statement early Friday that he had ordered the meeting to approve the deal for later in the day. Lawmakers […]

In a dramatic show of the anger over American support for Israel’s war in Gaza, a farewell news conference by Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken was interrupted by two pro-Palestinian journalists who accused him of enabling “genocide.” One shouted, “Criminal! Why aren’t you in The Hague?” as security officers carried him from the State […]

Despite the announcement of a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas, deadly strikes in Gaza have continued. Gaza’s health ministry said on Thursday morning that at least eight Israeli attacks in the territory had killed 81 people and injured nearly 200 others over the previous 24 hours. The Palestinian Civil Defense, an emergency service, said […]