Nezouh, a dreamlike story of a family under siege in Damascus, seeks to portray the difficult decision of all refugees as to whether to stay or leave the country they love When Soudade Kaadan embarked on the journey to make a film about her war-torn home city of Damascus, she was burdened by “certain expectations as to how a Syrian film should look”. “They want us to simplify the complexity of the Syrian war for western audiences,” she says. “I refuse to do that. They want films from Syria to be explanatory and informative and not a film with storytelling, with a personal point of view ..read more

For the first time Ukraine had the right conditions to make reparations to those subjected to crimes such as rape and sexual slavery. What would it take to replicate this globally? Across the world, women and girls continue to be plagued by gross human rights violations. One that is specifically targeted at them is conflict-related sexual violence. Living in conflict, for so many people, means the possibility of being subjected to life-altering crimes such as sexual torture, rape and slavery. Now, survivors of wartime sexual violations in Ukraine are to receive reparation payments. It is a lan ..read more

Soudade Kaadan’s second feature is a sweet-natured and beautifully photographed portrait of a grumpy middle-aged guy, his sceptical wife and their teenage daughter Here is the second feature from Syrian film-maker Soudade Kaadan, set in a Damascus suburb during the most brutal shelling of the civil war, among the remaining traumatised residents wondering whether to stay or leave as refugees heading for the Mediterranean. The resonant title means “displacement” and her images of the city, modified with some magic-realist effects, are very striking. A middle-aged guy, Motaz (Samer al-Masry) is g ..read more

Residents return to site in search of bodies of loved ones following withdrawal of Israeli forces last month. This live blog is closed Israel has yet to provide evidence of Unrwa staff terrorist links, Colonna report says Haaretz reports that Israeli security forces have arrested two people suspected of carrying out a car ramming in Jerusalem. Three people are reported to have been injured. Aharon Haliva, who was the general in command of the IDF’s military intelligence directorate on 7 October, has resigned over the failure of Israel’s military to prevent the attack inside southern Israel b ..read more

The country is on the defensive. While Israel has ironclad support from its allies, Tehran is vulnerable and isolated Tit-for-tat confrontation between Israel and Iran has sparked concerns about escalation dragging the Middle East into all-out war. Such a scenario remains unlikely because neither Israel nor Iran would benefit from full-on conflict. But while Israel is feeling emboldened, Iran is on the defensive. Iran’s main interest is self-preservation. It wants to protect its nuclear facilities inside Iran, and its assets in the Middle East, mainly the armed groups it supports, the most val ..read more

Israel launched a limited attack on Iranian soil on Friday morning, in the latest tit-for-tat between the two countries All our coverage of the Israel-Gaza war Israel launched an attack on Iranian soil on Friday, in a tit-for-tat battle between the two foes, days after Iran launched an unprecedented strike on Israel with a barrage of drones and missiles, most of which were shot down. The Iranian strike was a response to an Israeli airstrike on the Iranian embassy compound in Damascus on 1 April. The strikes have brought a long shadow war between the two sides into the open and also come agai ..read more

Report says thousands of people held in little-reported facilities where authorities are violating human rights on a large scale The US and UK are complicit in the detention of thousands of people, including British nationals, in camps and facilities in north-east Syria where disease, torture and death are rife, according to Amnesty International. In a report, the charity says the western-backed region’s autonomous authorities are responsible for large-scale human rights violations against people held since the end of the ground war against Islamic State (IS) more than five years ago ..read more

UN chief tells emergency security council meeting Middle East is ‘on the brink’ as US warns Israel it will not take part in counterattack against Iran Middle East crisis – live updates Global powers have called for restraint to avoid further escalation after Iran’s unprecedented missile and drone attack on Israel. The United Nations chief, António Guterres, told an emergency meeting of the UN security council on Sunday that the Middle East was “on the brink” and the could not afford more war. “The people of the region are confronting a real danger of a devastating full-scale conflict,” he sa ..read more

A war long fought through proxies, assassinations and strikes outside Israel has spilled into the open Middle East crisis – live updates The large-scale attack by Iran on Israel may have passed with relatively little damage, but it marks a significant transformation in the conflict between the two enemies. A war that has long been fought through proxies, assassinations and strikes away from Israeli soil – often in third countries – has spilled into the open ..read more

Interior minister says island’s facilities at breaking point and calls for aid to Lebanon similar to recent Egypt pact The EU must help Cyprus deal with record numbers of Syrian migrants from Lebanon, the island’s government says. Before a visit to Beirut to discuss the emergency on Monday, Cyprus’s interior minister appealed for support from Brussels, saying the country’s reception facilities were at breaking point ..read more