Famine has been officially confirmed in the Gaza City region and is projected to spread within weeks to two more population centers in the wider Gaza Strip, the global authority on hunger said Friday. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

'Women – especially single mothers and widows like herself – are all but absent from the scenes of aid drops. "We simply can't reach those areas. It's too violent, too chaotic and too dangerous. Only the strong or well-connected get through," she says.' www.haaretz.com/middle-east-...

State Dept fired top press officer for Israeli-Palestinian affairs, after vetoing his use of the line: “We do not support forced displacement of Palestinians in Gaza.” Also rejected his suggested condolences after Israel's killing of an Al Jazeera crew. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

Figures from a classified Israeli military intelligence database indicate five out of six Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in Gaza have been civilians. www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int...

The Trump administration is planning to vet all 55 million foreigners who currently hold visas for travel to the United States. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

Staggering numbers of Palestinians now being shot in Gaza as they try to find food at GHF sites, or along UN convoy routes. More than 4,500 people treated in a single Red Cross clinic. Almost 1,400 across two MSF clinics. Total is more than 12,000, according to health ministry.

For another comparison, there's also an aerial view from a similar perspective, though at lower altitude since it's from a drone photographer, here on Facebook from 2019: www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=... The drone photo is closer to 31.5057, 34.4619 whereas the plane photo is closer to the coast.

Can just barely see it but the massive destruction in Gaza City's eastern neighborhoods such as Shejaiya and Tuffah is visible in the background of the photo. When compared with a satellite image taken a week after the war started, can see thousands of homes have been razed.

An aerial view of what the Gaza City area looked like this week. Taken from a Jordanian military aircraft, by our colleague Heidi Levine.

The death toll in Gaza now stands, officially, at 60,000. Experts say this is a significant undercount. How many have gone unrecorded? www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

I spoke to the @washingtonpost.com's podcast this week about our reporting on starvation across the Gaza Strip. The number of people killed by malnutrition or starvation after four months of Israeli blockade has now risen to 154. 89 are children. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/p...

Almost a week after Israel promised to increase aid to Gaza, UN says situation on the ground is mostly unchanged. A former Israeli military official described a “total breakdown of order” caused by IDF campaign. washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

Israel's military campaign in Gaza has killed 60,000 people. 18,500 were children. Here are their names. www.washingtonpost.com/world/intera...

Medical Aid for Palestinians says that Baby Zainab, on the right, has now died. Her mother "couldn’t find the medical care Zainab needed here in Gaza, nor was she allowed medical evacuation, as her mother was hoping for. More children will die, one by one, as this madness continues”.

After 4 months of a near-total Israeli siege, Gaza’s hospitals now have wards for the malnourished children whose tiny bodies are just the width of their bones. Aid groups had warned of this for more than a year. Now a worst case scenario is upon us. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

Iran-linked militias in Iraq are earning billions of dollars from state coffers, operating extensive business networks and holding more power than ever before. There is much at stake if these groups become a target. — @leloveluck.bsky.social & Mustafa Salim www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

From the nightmarish early months of Israel's military campaign in Gaza, Dr Marwan Sultan had narrated its horrors to the world. Here is what he told us: 🧵 www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

Volunteer surgeon Prof. Nick Maynard on the malnutrition he witnessed inside a Gaza neonatal unit: "'Skin and bones’ doesn't do it justice. I had tears in my eyes seeing how unbelievably thin these children are. A doctor who tried to bring formula feed in, had it confiscated by Israeli authorities."

The build-up to an innocent man's murder felt like a horror story on so many levels. It's brutal watching, but in the words of Jean's mother: "Everyone should watch it.”

On the fear and hatred left behind by Assad’s police state, as seen on a single street in Tadamon, Damascus. Wonderful journalism on a tragic subject by @leloveluck.bsky.social, Zakaria Zakaria, and @salwangeorges.bsky.social, for @washingtonpost.com. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

The Assad regime made Syria an informant state. Neighbours and colleagues reported on each other in every district and workplace: what they said, where they went, who came for dinner. With the dictatorship gone, our story on what happened next. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

@washingtonpost.com's @leloveluck.bsky.social, Zakaria Zakaria and @gerryshih.bsky.social on acute feelings of insecurity in Syria's Suweida and mixed attitudes on Israeli intervention: www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

Fireworks and dancing in the streets: Syrians celebrate Trump’s decision to scrap the sanctions that, for years, have impoverished them and prevented Syria’s reconstruction. @leloveluck.bsky.social @washingtonpost.com www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

Our beloved colleague Hajar Harb has been the beating heart of our Gaza coverage. Devastatingly, she has been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. We are raising money to help her family with medical bills for a truly special person. All money goes to them directly. www.justgiving.com/team/hajarharb

BREAKING: jury awards massive $167 million in punitive damages against spyware company NSO Group. Precedent-setting win against notorious #Pegasus spyware maker. Very consequential for victims to see this. Congratulations to #WhatsApp on sticking this case through since 2019. Some thoughts 1/

Israel plans to take control of — and severely restrict — the distribution of humanitarian aid inside Gaza, using US security contractors, as a condition for lifting its two-month blockade of food, water and fuel. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

We are honoured that our investigative coverage of Israel's military conduct in Gaza has been recognised as a Pulitzer Prize finalist. This award belongs most to our Palestinian colleagues, Hajar Barb and Hazem Balousha, whose quiet bravery has always been the engine behind the work.

Well done to the @washingtonpost.com staff for winning the Shireen Abu Akleh Award for their reporting in “Unchecked War.” Watch @leloveluck.bsky.social and Meg Kelly make acceptance remarks here: youtu.be/5cYM6yMYHnc #OPCAwards86

🧵 on the IDF's investigation into the slaying of 14 paramedics and a UN worker, alongside unanswered questions and findings from media investigations.

Israeli military changes story, takes responsibility for attack on UN guest house in Gaza which killed 51 year old Bulgarian UN staffer Marin Marinov. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

- Explosions at UN guesthouse in Gaza that killed a European aid worker were caused by Israeli tank shells. - Satellite imagery shows IDF tanks in range with clear line of site. - Site was known to the IDF. Senior UN officials stayed there on trips to Gaza. www.washingtonpost.com/investigatio...

IDF says it shot 14 Palestinian medics from afar, mistaking them for militants. Our investigation finds: - Shooters were close enough to see the crews: 40m at the start; later, just 12m. - Soldiers said they initially fired on a Hamas vehicle; dispatcher records indicate it was an ambulance.

How Palestinian first responders ended up in a mass grave in Gaza via the unstobble, brilliant team of Miriam Berger, @leloveluck.bsky.social, @imogenpiper.bsky.social, Hajar Harb, Hazem Balousha & @cheesemanab.bsky.social put it all together: wapo.st/4cowWMq

Honoured to be a part of this team and grateful to @opcofamerica.bsky.social for this award. The US claims it has been unable to ascertain the truth behind the cases we investigated. Yet the techniques we used are easily accessible to any gov that wants to know what its weaponry has been used for.

In the days after Assad’s fall, rescue workers began to receive calls about the trail of bodies that his loyalists had left in people’s homes. They had lived with them for years, scared they would be blamed for murder if they told the authorities. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

“They bombed again,” Isleem told him. 
“Who bombed?” the man asked. 
“Who do you think?” Isleem said. @leloveluck.bsky.social @cheesemanab.bsky.social @kareemf.bsky.social @washingtonpost.com www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

Uncertainty over US sanctions has caused Qatar to hold off from providing Syria's new rulers with badly needed funds, @reuters.com reports. Another indication of how the impact of sanctions is crippling attempts to improve the dire economic situation here. www.reuters.com/world/middle...

Fear of follow-up strikes jolted people awake even after they finally fell asleep. “We were so happy when the regime fell, but my children were so scared last night,” said one Kiswah resident. “We have nothing left to protect us.” www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

Syrians emerging from dictatorship bristle at new threat from Israel. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

Former @sternbryanfellow.bsky.social winners who did this early in their career...Could *you* be the next @leloveluck.bsky.social @gabrielpogrund.bsky.social @sebastianepayne.bsky.social @billykenber.bsky.social? Apply here: city.ac.uk/prospective-students/finance/funding/stern-bryan-fellowship

"For years, employees voted on which questions to ask Zuckerberg. This time, that did not happen. A side chat room where employees used to be able to comment on the live presentation was also removed, two people who attended the call said." www.nytimes.com/2025/01/30/t...

‘Drone footage published by an SNA-affiliated Telegram channel on January 22 shows two small air-dropped munitions explode in a crowd of men and women at Tishreen Dam, where they were protesting and doing a traditional Kurdish dance.’ www.hrw.org/news/2025/01...

It is one year to the day that 6yr old Hind Rajab was killed, alongside her family, by the IDF. The team of paramedics sent to save her was also killed. Biden administration was repeatedly asked for answers about her case, with no meaningful response. www.washingtonpost.com/world/intera...

Will defer to the munitions experts on what weapons were used, but they were almost certainly dropped from a U.S.-origin warplane. www.bbc.com/news/article...

Google spent much of the war in Gaza publicly distancing itself from reports that its tech was used by Israel's defence ministry there. Now, @gerritd.bsky.social reports that Google in fact worked to supply IDF with AI products from earliest weeks of the war. www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

“They said the sanctions were meant to hit the powerful, but look around here. Who is suffering the most?” www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0... by @leloveluck.bsky.social, Zakaria Zakaria and Emin Özmen

www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0... Very thoroughgoing piece about the sudden new life of Syrian children after more than a decade of war, grieving and traumas #Syria @leloveluck.bsky.social

Hard to hold back tears reading Dr Seema Jilani’s gut-wrenching account of saving a child’s life once in Gaza, only for the little one to return to the wards a second time, unsaveable. “I try over and over again to close your eyes.” www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

“One US diplomat offers a procedural argument: Biden has days left, and decisions about Syria should be left to his successor. But Trump will need time to nominate officials and get them confirmed. It could take months for meaningful relief.” www.economist.com/middle-east-...

"A study found that decreased life expectancy and reduced routine immunization coverage across Syria were linked, at least in part, to the restrictions — and that was before sanctions were tightened again in 2019." There is some urgent action needed: www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...