Beyond the Headlines

During a media conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House this week, US President Donald Trump said his country would take ownership of Gaza and turn it into the “Riviera of the Middle East”. It is not the first time Mr Trump has made provocative statements about Gaza since starting his second term in office, but this may be his most controversial yet. He also claimed that Palestinians did not want to live in Gaza because it was in such a dire state, suggesting that if they had an alternative option, they would leave. This came after earlier remarks that the enclave should be “cleaned out” and that its population should be displaced into Egypt and Jordan. But both countries, along with other Arab and western states, have strongly rejected any notion of Palestinians being pushed out of their homeland. Despite global condemnation of Mr Trump's proposal, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has since ordered the army to prepare a plan to allow for the “voluntary” departure of Gaza’s residents. In this episode of Beyond the Headlines, host Nada AlTaher speaks to Amr Hamzawy, director of the Carnegie Middle East Programme, and Jordanian geopolitical analyst Amer Sabaileh. They discuss the likelihood of Mr Trump executing his plan in Gaza and the challenges it poses for Palestinian statehood, as well as for Egypt, Jordan and the wider region.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, was this week ordered to stop its operations in occupied East Jerusalem, three months after Israel’s parliament voted to ban it. UNRWA is the main provider of humanitarian aid and other public services for Palestinians. In East Jerusalem, it runs 12 facilities that provide critical public services, including schools where more than 1,200 children are enrolled and free clinics that serve more than 70,000 people. But the impact of the ban would extend across the West Bank as well, where the organisation offers primary healthcare services and 47,000 children go to UNRWA schools. The move would also affect its work in Gaza. During Israel's war on the enclave, up to a million people at a time have sought refuge in UNRWA shelters. Pressure from the international community and pleas by UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini at the UN Security Council to stop the ban from being put into effect have failed so far. Israel insisted the ban would not be reversed and the US backed its “sovereign decision”, saying UNRWA is not the only provider of aid to Palestinians. Despite the legislation, UNRWA has stated it will continue to do its work for as long as it can, but fears are growing that the ban will have far-reaching consequences. In this episode of Beyond the Headlines, host Nada AlTaher speaks to Tamara Alrifai, UNRWA's director of external relations and communications, about the toll this could take on Palestinians in dire need of humanitarian assistance, and how the agency will be able to carry out its work going forward.

Days after the guns fell silent in Gaza, violence erupted less than 200km away in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin.   Israel’s military deployed tanks, snipers and special forces in the city on Tuesday, where it began an operation named “Iron Wall”, cracking down on what it described as terrorists within the Iranian axis. But videos have surfaced showing unarmed Palestinians being shot by Israeli forces. Twelve people have been killed in the raid so far and scores more injured.   At the same time, Israel has tightened security across the rest of the West Bank, drastically increasing the number of checkpoints and conducting mass arrests. This comes after 90 Palestinian detainees were released from Israeli prisons in exchange for three Israeli hostages being freed by Hamas in Gaza, as part of the first phase of the ceasefire that took effect there on Sunday.   Jenin had already been the site of another security offensive by the Palestinian Authority (PA) since December last year to root out what it called outlaws, drawing many questions about the back-to-back timing of these operations. The UN has said that Jenin’s sprawling refugee camp has become almost uninhabitable; Jordan’s foreign minister warned on the sidelines of Davos that Israel’s incursion could lead the West Bank to “explode”.   In this episode of Beyond the Headlines, host Nada AlTaher talks with Ahmed Fattouh, spokesperson for Fatah, the leading party within the PA, and with Palestinian political analyst Khalil Sayegh. They discuss whether the West Bank could be another flashpoint for long-term violence and what this escalation could mean for Gaza’s fragile truce.

Four years after his first term, Donald Trump will be sworn in as the 47th US president, marking his second inauguration as one of America’s most unpredictable leaders.   An ocean away in the Middle East, where war, regime changes and power shifts have altered the political landscape forever, all eyes will be on the new president to see how he will shape his foreign policy in the region.   Mr Trump walks into office with a Gaza ceasefire already in effect, earning him a great deal of credibility with both Arab Americans and Arabs abroad. Outgoing president Joe Biden and his Democratic party leave the White House with an unfavorable legacy in the eyes of many Arabs around the world, who had pinned their hopes on Mr Biden taking a more supportive approach to Palestinians. And now many are now choosing to invest their trust in Mr Trump instead.   But there are still many questions about how the new president will balance foreign policy in the Middle East with America-first positions, and even his own personal business interests. On this episode of Beyond the Headlines, host Nada AlTaher discusses Mr Trump’s role in the region with former US ambassador Douglas Silliman, president of the Arab Gulf States Institute, and Hala Rharrit, an American diplomat who resigned from the state department over Mr Biden’s policy in Gaza.

Cheers echoed through the streets of Gaza on Wednesday night, even before a temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was finally announced. Much-needed respite appears to be in sight after 15 months of almost uninterrupted bombing, death and destruction.   But the jubilant reaction of Gazans stands in stark contrast to the bleak environment that surrounds them – their homes destroyed, their loved ones maimed, killed or missing and their livelihoods crushed. Gaza, as it once was, no longer exists.   Across the border, the families of Israeli hostages are also conflicted. They wait anxiously for their relatives to return, dead or alive, but are frustrated that not all of the captives in Gaza will be released under the terms of the agreement.   The details of the 42-day truce, announced on Wednesday by Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman, include the return of a number of hostages held by Hamas in exchange for the release of Palestinian detainees from Israeli prisons. Israeli forces are expected to withdraw to border areas and humanitarian aid will start to flow into the enclave.   But the agreement does not come into effect until Sunday and, on Thursday morning, the ceasefire was plunged into doubt when Israel accused Hamas of creating a “last-minute crisis”. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said that would delay putting the deal to the security cabinet for approval.   Hamas refuted the claim and by Friday the agreement was back on track, after Mr Netanyahu said a hostage release deal was reached.   In this episode of Beyond the Headlines, host Nada AlTaher speaks to The National’s foreign correspondent Hamza Hendawi and Israeli former hostage negotiator Gershon Baskin. They discuss the fine print of the agreement and what comes after the initial truce.

An entire month has passed since Syria’s Bashar Al Assad was overthrown by rebel groups and much has happened since. Prison dungeons of the former regime were unlocked, freeing political prisoners held by Assad enforcers. Families torn apart by war were reunited. Refugees have begun to return home and commercial flights to and from Damascus have eventually resumed. But there’s also much anxiety over what comes next as Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS) takes charge as the de facto temporary power. Its leader Ahmed Al Shara and his newly appointed interim government have no shortage of challenges ahead. How will they dissolve all of Syria’s armed factions, run essential services and pave the way for accountability and justice? At the same time, there are already concerns that the caretaker government may be overstepping its mandate and making institutional changes that it should not be making until a constitution is drafted and free elections are held, but this could take years. In this episode of Beyond the Headlines, host Nada AlTaher speaks to Mutasem Syoufi, executive director of The Day After, and Rahaf Aldoughli, a lecturer in Middle East and North African studies at the UK's Lancaster University, to examine the decisions of the interim HTS authority as it navigates the transition towards a new Syria.

On a tense Saturday night in Jenin in the occupied West Bank, Shatha Al Sabbagh went over to the grocery store with her mother, neighbour and nephews. On her way out, she was shot in the neck and killed. She was a young journalist, only 21 years old. Her family has blamed her death on the Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces. But the PA rejects the accusation, saying instead that she was killed by militants in the area. About a dozen people have died so far amid clashes in the Jenin refugee camp since PA security forces began a raid there last month that they say clamps down on outlaws with outstanding arrest warrants for murder, theft and other crimes. But on the inside, another version of events comes to light. The PA’s crackdown has stirred anger among some of the residents who say authorities are trying to crush their so-called “Palestinian resistance”. The PA has dismissed this, telling The National that they are only targeting Iran-linked militants hiding under the umbrella of legitimate resistance. Critics of the PA have been frustrated over its inaction as the war rages on in Gaza and Israeli military and settler violence rises across the West Bank. So why is the PA cracking down on Palestinians in their darkest hour? On Beyond the Headlines this week, host Nada AlTaher looks back at how and why the raid on Jenin began a month ago. She speaks to Palestinian political analyst Khalil Sayegh and senior Palestine analyst at Crisis Group Tahani Mustafa, about who the PA is targeting and why now. They discuss how the events in Jenin will affect the PA’s role in the West Bank and its survival in a future Palestinian state.

There’s no doubt that the events of 2024 have changed the Middle East. Israel’s continued war in Gaza has caused a ripple effect across the region. Multi-front conflicts over the past year have stoked the rise and fall of non-state actors backed by Iran. The geopolitical impacts of this are already starting to materialise, some concerning and others promising. The question of Palestine – unresolved for decades – has become an international priority as more countries recognise it officially as a state. In Lebanon and Syria, power dynamics are shifting after the weakening of Hezbollah and the fall of president Bashar Al Assad. At the same time, Israel is seizing territories across its border in unprecedented land grabs. And Iran’s role in the region has arrived at a critical crossroads as its proxy project begins to falter. For the millions in the Arab world, a sense of apprehension is overshadowed only by the extreme fatigue of bearing witness to unbearable human suffering. But there’s also hope, dim as it may be, as talks inch closer to a ceasefire in Gaza. In the last episode of Beyond the Headlines this year, host Nada AlTaher speaks to The National’s foreign editor Mohamad Ali Harisi to reflect on the most significant events in the Middle East that defined 2024 and how they might shape the region in 2025.

When Dr Mohamed Abdou joined Columbia University, he was thrilled to be in the company of renowned scholars of the Middle East. What he did not expect was that he would learn of what Columbia called his termination through a congressional hearing broadcast on live TV, only a few months later. Now, he is suing Columbia University and its former president – and his case is not isolated. Dr Abdou is among several professors and faculty at various universities across the US who say they have faced disciplinary action for their stance on Palestine. One legal aid group focusing on cases related to Palestine activism told The National it has received nearly 3,000 requests related to the suppression of Palestinian rights advocacy on campuses across the US since October 7 last year. On this episode of Beyond the Headlines, we are peering into a lingering remnant of anti-war protests that shook college campuses in the US and around the world last spring.

Syria's Bashar Al Assad has fled the country after rebels took over Damascus. Prisoners who had been kept in the dark for decades were finally freed from notorious and brutal jails. People were reunited with loved ones who had disappeared years ago. Syrian embassies around the world raised what were once opposition flags. And officials close to Assad made their first public criticisms of his rule. Now, the future of the country is at stake. And because of long-held international interests in Syria’s political assets – Iran in the Assad regime, Turkey in Kurdish strongholds, the US in ISIS positions. Israel on the border – all eyes are on how Hayat Tahrir Al Sham is going to handle this delicate moment in its history. In this week’s Beyond the Headlines, host Nada AlTaher looks at what’s next in Syria after Assad, and how this will impact the Middle East as the balances of power shift, featuring views from Hussein Ibish, senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, and Kobi Michael, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies in Israel.