الشرق الأوسط

Elite government forces, supported by the Hezbollah converged in the city of Aleppo on Tuesday as rebels boosted their own forces in preparation for a major showdown, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The monitor’s director Rami Abdel Rahman said that it was likely that government forces will lay siege to rebel-controlled parts of Aleppo; rebels, fighting to depose …

On Tuesday, Turkey urged Israel to “immediately” stop its assault on the Gaza Strip, following its lethal air campaign on Gaza. “We are calling on Israel to immediately halt its attacks on Gaza”, the Turkish foreign ministry said in its statement. It also urged the international community, particularly the United Nations, to get involved and warn Israel to relinquish its …

On Tuesday, the United Nations warned that thousands of female Syrian refugees were caught in a “spiral of hardship, isolation and anxiety”, either separated from their husbands or widowed, and struggling to survive. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the UN agency for refugees, said in a new report that the plight of about 145,000 Syrian refugee women …

The Arab League on Tuesday called on the UN Security Council to talk about the lethal Israeli air campaign on the Gaza Strip, Secretary General Nabil al-Arabi said. On Tuesday, 13 people were killed in several attacks in the most serious conflict between the two since November 2012. Earlier in the day, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas asked global leaders to …

Israeli warplanes on Tuesday pounded the Gaza Strip to take out Hamas’ rocket fire, killing 13 Palestinians and wounding at least another 90, as the two sides moved closer to another major conflict. The attack, the most serious outburst between the two since November 2012, comes as Israel tries to cope with the wave of violence in Arab Israeli towns …

General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff on Thursday said that Iraqi forces were shored up around Baghdad but will need external help to regain some of the territory it lost to the militant offensive sweeping across the nation. He added that American military advisers were evaluating the Iraqi army’s condition, and suggested that US military …

On Thursday, the United Nations said that it does not expect a let-up in the number of Syrian refugees fleeing to neighboring Jordan and asked for funds to help Jordan cope with the influx. According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the number of Syrian refugees in Jordan is expected to increase by up to 33% and reach …

On Thursday, the Human Rights Watch said that women in Syria have been victims of unreasonable unrest, discrimination, harassment and torture at the hands of both rebel and government forces during the three-year conflict. The global rights group, in its report, urged international leaders to “hold those responsible for such abuses to account”. Liesl Gerntholtz, women’s rights director at Human …

On Thursday, Israel deployed additional troops on the Gaza border after Palestinian rocket fire heightened tensions following the alleged revenge killing of a Palestinian teen in Jerusalem. “We are moving and we have moved forces in order to serve defense activities and forward preparation, but we have no interest in escalation”,Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner, spokesman for the Israeli army, said. …

Militant group Islamic State (IS) on Thursday seized control of the Al-Omar oil field on the Iraqi border as fighters from rival groups withdrew,the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. By capturing the Al-Omar oil field, the militant group now controls most of the gas and oil fields on the province of Deir Ezzor, most of which is already under …