Truth. Humanity. Middle East. | Independent Reporting on War Crimes, Human Rights & Conflict in the Middle East.
Young Christian Man Shot Dead in Targeted Attack in Mahardah, Syria
MAHARDAH, HAMA COUNTRYSIDE, SYRIA – A 21-year-old man was shot and killed in a targeted attack in Mahardah city, Hama countryside, on January 31, 2026, in what appears to be a premeditated assassination linked to threats he had been receiving for two years. Elie Simon Elias Najjar Takla was killed by masked assailants who had been waiting for the vehicle…
Will the War Everyone Is Talking About Actually Begin?
The simultaneous use of military threats, ambiguous messaging, and a war of narratives suggests that the United States is neither on the brink of war with Iran nor ready for an agreement. Washington is deliberately keeping the region in a state of suspension in order to keep its options open without paying the political cost of making a definitive decision.…
Why Palestinians Carried Out the October 7 Operation
Maryam Yousefi Sadr Analyzes the Gaza Siege (Palestine), White Phosphorus Allegations, and International War Crimes Claims
Why Is Tel Aviv Pursuing the Annulment of the Oslo Accords?
Israel's push to formally revoke the 1993 Oslo Agreement signals not a new policy, but the open acknowledgment of one…
Why Do Warships Arrive with Smiles?
The deployment of warships is less a prelude to conflict and more a bargaining tool to impose maximum demands at…
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U.S. Embassy Evacuates Dozens of Staff from Beirut Amid Rising Regional Tensions
Lebanese media reports confirmed on Monday that dozens of U.S. Embassy staff members have departed Beirut through Rafik Hariri International Airport in what Washington described as a precautionary measure. The U.S. State Department officially confirmed the order, directing non-essential personnel and their dependents to leave Lebanon amid deteriorating security conditions…
Israel Kills 8 Hezbollah Fighters in Bekaa Valley Airstrikes
Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah confirmed the martyrdom of eight of its fighters following Israeli airstrikes that targeted the Bekaa Valley on the night of February 20, 2026. The Israeli aerial assault, which violates UN Charter provisions on state sovereignty and the prohibition of aggression, also left a number of Lebanese…
Spain and Palestine: A Structural Solidarity
he following note was written by Juan Ávila Montero, a Spanish writer and essayist based in Madrid, who writes on history, collective memory, and political culture. His work focuses on the legacies of the Spanish Civil War and questions of self-determination in the contemporary world. I am a Spaniard. I…
Iran: A Calm Between Two Storms
Just before the new year, Iran witnessed one of the most violent protest movements it has seen in recent years. What began as strike actions by Tehran shopkeepers — protesting the sharp collapse of the Iranian rial against the dollar and the resulting inflation — quickly evolved, over the following…
A Girl, Gazing: Fragment #5
A Girl, Gazing: Fragment #5 (original title: عيون الفتاة: شظية رقم ٥) is a visual essay by Lebanese artist and filmmaker Fatima Joumaa. The work is constructed from images and video segments captured at funeral processions in South Lebanon, documenting the escalating impacts of regional conflict throughout 2024. With a…
الجولاني من إرهابي إلى شريك الغرب
قبل عام، رُوِّج لسقوط بشار الأسد على أنه تحرير. رقص السوريون في ساحة الأمويين. ودوّت عدسات العالم. لكن التحرير في الشرق الأوسط عادةً ما يأتي مشروطًا، وشروط سوريا، كما اتضح، كانت دائمًا تحت سيطرة جهة ما لم يكن السؤال أبدًا ما إذا كانت سوريا ستتحرر، بل من سيحدد معنى هذه…
سوریه – سال صفر
یک سال پیش، سقوط بشار اسد به عنوان آزادی روایت می‌شد. مردم سوریه در میدان اموی رقصیدند. دوربین‌های جهان در حال فیلمبرداری بودند. با این حال، آزادی در خاورمیانه معمولاً با قید و بندهایی همراه است - و معلوم شد که قید و بندهای سوریه همیشه در دست کسی خواهد…
Rebranding Terror in Syria’s Year Zero
A year ago, the fall of Bashar al-Assad was narrated as liberation. Syrians danced in Umayyad Square. The world’s cameras were rolling. Yet liberation, in the Middle East, has a habit of arriving with strings attached — and Syria’s strings, it turns out, were always going to be held by…
Syria’s Year Zero: When the Liberator Looks Like the Problem
A year ago, the fall of Bashar al-Assad was narrated as liberation. Syrians danced in Umayyad Square. The world's cameras were rolling. Yet liberation, in the Middle East, has a habit of arriving with strings attached — and Syria's strings, it turns out, were always going to be held by…
81 Filmmakers Condemn Berlinale’s “Institutional Silence” on Gaza
A group of 81 prominent film industry figures, including Oscar-winning actors Tilda Swinton and Javier Bardem, have signed an open letter published in Variety on Tuesday, February 17, sharply condemning the Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale) for its silence on Israel's ongoing war in Gaza. he letter, coordinated by the…