Middle East

Islamist rebels breached neighborhoods in Syria’s second-largest city of Aleppo and clashed with government military forces after detonating two car bombs Friday.

Thousands of Lebanese displaced by the war between Israel and Hezbollah militants returned home on Wednesday as a ceasefire took hold, driving cars stacked with personal belongings and defying warnings from Lebanese and Israeli troops to stay away from some areas.

The ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militants has begun as a region on edge wonders whether it will hold.

Authorities in the United Arab Emirates have arrested three individuals in connection with the murder of an Israeli Moldovan rabbi who was found dead in the country.

An Afghan official says the Taliban will attend a UN climate conference for the first time since their takeover of Afghanistan in 2021.

Iran has the capacity to produce nuclear weapons and is prepared to change its policies on using them if faced with an existential threat, an adviser to its supreme leader said Friday in the latest bellicose statement from the country amid its high-stakes tit-for-tat with Israel. 

Qamar Subuh, who was seen in the viral video, told NBC News she missed her dad “more than the moon” after the family was separated amid Israel’s assault on northern Gaza.

Three waves of pre-dawn strikes on military targets in Iran on Saturday completed Israel’s retaliation on Iran, the Israel Defense Forces said.

Israeli officials are weighing an Egyptian proposal for a small-scale cease-fire deal with Hamas aimed at trying to build momentum for a larger agreement, an Israeli official told NBC News.

The White House is making a new push to end the conflict in the Middle East even as the situation there appears to become more dire. A defense and anti-terrorism expert tells us how Defense Secretary Antony Blinken will try to broker a cease-fire.

The Israeli military hit bank branches across Lebanon overnight to target Hezbollah‘s finances, while the U.N. said Israel was making life “impossible” in northern Gaza.

Biden plans to send Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Israel early next week to discuss securing Gaza, recovering hostages and the future of the Palestinian people

Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, accused of being the architect of the Oct. 7 terror attack, has been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza, Foreign Minister Israel Katz announced on Thursday.

The U.S. struck multiple Houthi weapons storage facilities in parts of Yemen that the Iranian-backed rebel group controls, a defense official said Wednesday evening.

In an interview with NBC News earlier this month, a co-founder of the group known as Samidoun called Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel “a brave and heroic operation.”

The U.S. has approved deploying THAAD anti-missile battery to Israel, a defense official told NBC News. 

President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have held their first call in weeks as Israel expands its ground incursion into Lebanon and considers how to respond to Iran’s recent ballistic missile attack.

Hezbollah has fired another barrage of rockets into Israel, and the militant group’s acting leader vows to keep up pressure that has forced thousands of Israelis from their homes near the Lebanese border.

A hospital director in southern Lebanon says Israel’s military struck outside its gates without warning on Friday, killing seven paramedics and forcing the facility to close.

U.S. arranged flights have brought about 250 Americans and their relatives out of Lebanon this week during escalated fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. That’s as thousands of Americans still there face airstrikes and diminishing commercial flights.