Middle East Eye

Houthis clash with Yemeni government in Taiz

Footage released by the Houthis in Yemen shows clashes with Saudi-backed government forces near Taiz.

They key province has long been a flashpoint in Yemen's war, with Houthi forces having effectively encircled the government-controlled city.

Renewed escalations have worsened the existing humanitarian crisis, with over 200,000 people displaced due to fighting and air strikes.

Massive International Day for Palestine march fills London

A massive International Day for Palestine march is taking place in London to mark three years of Israel's genocide in Gaza. Demonstrators are calling on the UK government to stop arming Israel, impose sanctions, and end its complicity in Israel's crimes.

Navi Pillay reacts to Nobel Peace Prize win

Navi Pillay, the eminent South African jurist who co-authored the United Nations report accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, has expressed disbelief and gratitude after officially receiving confirmation from the Norwegian Nobel Institute that she was awarded the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize. Speaking in a personal phone call, Pillay told Kristian Berg Harpviken, Secretary of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, that she could barely credit the news until hearing it directly from him.

Pillay described the award as a massive recognition for the global human rights community and international legal institutions rather than just an individual honour.

Pillay, 85, is one of the most influential figures in international criminal justice and human rights law, and is South Africa’s most prominent international judge.

Trump says Nobel snub leaves 'indelible stain' on Norway

US President Donald Trump has launched a fierce attack on the Norwegian Nobel Committee after being passed over for the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize, which was awarded to former United Nations official Navi Pillay. Speaking at a rally, Trump claimed never to have heard of the recipient and insisted that his own administration deserved the honour for settling multiple global conflicts without UN assistance.

Denouncing the decision as an indelible stain on Norway, Trump accused the committee of being anti-democracy ideologues and enemies of civilisation. He declared that his diplomatic record warranted multiple peace prizes, framing the snub as yet another instance of foreign institutions taking advantage of the United States.

Monday 13 April started as a normal day for Yousof Azizi, a PhD student at Virginia Tech University in America.

A vocal opponent of the war on Iran, he had been living in the US for nearly 13 years and was recognised as a prominent political commentator on Persian-language media platforms and on his YouTube channel, which has more than 68,000 subscribers.

When he arrived back home that April morning, a number of FBI vehicles were parked outside his residence.

Upon exiting his car, Azizi found himself surrounded by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, their rifles pointing straight at him.

Azizi was taken to a detention centre in Baltimore.

“The first thing they said to me was that they believed I had been part of the student Basij between 2007 and 2010 when I was studying my master's at Sharif University of Technology in Iran,” Azizi told Middle East Eye.

🔗 Read more https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/yousof-azizi-iranian-american-scholar-pressured-fbi-return-iran

How billionaire donors like the Adelsons shaped Trump's Israel outlook | Real Talk

‘By the time summer rolls around… you see Donald Trump flip’ 

Eli Clifton, co-author of Israel's Lobby: America in the Grip of a Foreign Power, breaks down how US billionaires like the Adelsons helped shape Trump's positions on Israel in 2016.

He recently joined Mohamed Hashem on Real Talk.

Watch the episode early by joining Middle East Eye's YouTube membership: https://youtu.be/q-1AJFfGXXo

#BREAKING: The Trump administration imposed institutional sanctions on the ICC on Friday, hours after one of its founding judges won the Nobel Peace Prize

🔗 Click for the latest updates from this developing story: https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/us-sanctions-international-criminal-court-major-escalation-after-former-judge-awarded-nobel

Mamdani asks Trump to withdraw ICE following shooting of New Yorker by agent

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has called for ICE to be withdrawn from the city after federal immigration agents shot a man in his car in Marble Hill on Thursday.

A five-year-old child was in the back seat and was physically unharmed. Mamdani said the agents surrounded the vehicle before opening fire, wearing construction vests and masks that hid their faces.

He said negotiations with President Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Mullin to release the man failed.

Judge Navi Pillay who led commission that found Israel committed genocide wins Nobel Peace prize

Navi Pillay, a former ICC judge and chair of the UN commission that concluded Israel committed a genocide in Gaza, won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday "for her efforts to promote peace and international law".

October 7th: The day after | MEE Live

It has been three years since October 7th. But what about what came after?

MEE's Mathilda Mallinson breaks down what has happened since October 8th, and asks the question: What comes next?

Watch the latest episode on MEE's YouTube channel.

Being a mother in Gaza | The Gaza Podcast

"I felt guilt for bringing them into this world."
 
How does a mother keep her children feeling safe during a genocide? In the latest episode of The Gaza Podcast, Hussam Tannera sits down with writer and translator Rasha Ghabayen who describes having to make split-second decisions to keep her children safe and her dreams for their future.
 
The Gaza Podcast, which airs weekly, is Middle East Eye’s Gaza-based podcast, and the first English podcast from Gaza.

Gaza doctor describes emergency room chaos | The Gaza Podcast

In this first episode of MEE’s The Gaza Podcast, Palestinian doctor Maryam Youssef says films can never convey the reality of Gaza's hospitals, failing to capture "the heavy silence" of a room full of dead families. Recalling her time at Nasser Hospital, she describes the emergency department as constantly overwhelmed, particularly after attacks near American aid points, which healthcare workers called "death traps" due to predictable influxes of patients shot by snipers.

Youssef says that mass casualty situations force staff to follow strict triage protocols, prioritising those most likely to survive over non-survivable "blue cases" to save limited supplies. Recalling one patient's brother who begged her to help his sibling, she describes the agony of having to confirm his fear that his brother was dying.

"The decision to launch the 7 October attacks requires serious examination as a strategic choice. It cannot be reduced to an inexplicable eruption of violence, but neither should it be placed beyond criticism"

✍️ Opinion by Sami Al-Arian

🔗 Read more: https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/why-hamas-believed-status-quo-was-more-dangerous-its-7-october-gamble

Three years into Israel’s genocide in Gaza, Palestinian families are still searching for answers about thousands of relatives who vanished during the war.

Some disappeared during Israeli ground attacks on their neighbourhoods or displacement camps. Others went missing while searching for aid, checking on their homes or travelling near the so-called Yellow Line.

For their families, the absence of any definitive answer has left them suspended between hope and grief, unsure whether to keep waiting or begin mourning.

🔗 https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/agonising-wait-gazas-missing