Israel considers costs of escalation in Gaza

Gaza residents bear the costs of war; Israel weighs its option with Hamas; Al-Monitor interviews Iraqi political leaders; the forgotten war in Syria.

Palestine

Global jihad benefits from Gaza crisis

As Arab states do little to intervene in Gaza, militant jihadism continues to spread throughout the region.

Palestine

Aleppo rebels caught between Islamic State, regime

Rebels in Aleppo say they will struggle to prevent both the Syrian regime forces and a resurgent Islamic State from sweeping through the city and its countryside.

Syria

Islamic State moves to capture another Turkish border crossing

The Islamic State is attacking Kobani canton, or Ain al-Arab, in an attempt to encircle the Kurdish autonomous region in Syria and capture a third crossing to Turkey.

Iraq

Turkey faces threat from returning jihadists

Having lost the proxy war it waged against Syria, Turkey now faces a potential threat to its own peace and stability by Turkish jihadists returning from Syria.

Iraq

Aleppans set up money transfer offices within the city

The division of Aleppo has separated families and made transferring money from east to west near impossible, prompting locals to take matters into their own hands.

Syria

Lebanon: The summer when everything went wrong

Political, constitutional, livelihood and weather problems are happening simultaneously in Lebanon.

Iraq

Syrian refugees aggravate Turkey’s unemployment problem

Syrian refugees working illegally at low wages are exacerbating already severe unemployment in Turkey.

Syria

Turkish truckers try to get on the road again

With the dangers and difficulties now inherent in transiting in Iraq and Syria, the Turkish transportation sector is looking for alternative routes to Middle Eastern markets.

Legacy: Gulf

Did nostalgia for Islamic caliphate become a reality?

The Islamic State has exploited ideological tendencies of Salafist jihadists to establish its "Islamic caliphate."

Iraq

Lebanese Hezbollah unlikely to intervene in Iraq crisis

Although some have expressed concerns that Hezbollah could intervene in Iraq to protect Shiite holy sites from Islamic State militants, a number of Lebanese politicians and sources close to Hezbollah dismiss this possibility.

Iraq

Iraq events cause Hezbollah to go on full alert

The fall of western Iraq to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) has cut the contiguous bridge from Iran to Lebanon, and Hezbollah fears that ISIS may try to sneak through to Lebanon.

Iraq