Clips

The death of sympathy

Pro-war demonstrators stand behind a police barricade in Tel Aviv, chanting, "Gaza is a graveyard." An elderly woman pushes a cart of groceries down the street in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon and asks a reporter, "Jewish or Arab? Because I won't talk to Arabs." A man in Sderot, a town that lies less than a mile from Gaza, looks up as an Israeli plane, en route to the Hamas-ruled territory, drops a blizzard of leaflets over the town. "I hope that's not all we're dropping," he says.

The false front of the Gaza invasion

The day started with a cease-fire, and ended with a ground invasion. Israeli troops moved across the border into the besieged Gaza Strip on Thursday night, the first large-scale ground offensive since a 2008-2009 war that killed more than 1,400 people and caused widespread destruction. The invasion, announced at around 10:30 p.m. local time, followed hours of heavy shelling aimed at clearing improvised explosive devices from the border.

Southern Israel frustrated under rocket fire

The Israeli cabinet is under mounting pressure to launch a ground invasion of Gaza, and much of it comes from towns like Sderot, where residents say they want an end to the bi-annual salvos of rocket fire from Gaza.

Is this Hamas' last war?

Down in the south there is a feeling of déjà vu: Israeli jets have dropped thousands of tons of bombs on Gaza, hundreds of rockets have been launched into Israel and troops are amassing along the border ahead of a possible ground invasion.

Siege mentality

As the sun sets on Shuafat and residents prepare to break the Ramadan fast, the Palestinian neighborhood goes dark and quiet. A once-busy main road is almost empty, littered with rocks and glass; streetlights and traffic signals are broken; and local men anxiously watch a contingent of black-clad border policemen.

High Court challenge to Israel's control of Area C

There are about 1,100 people in this hardscrabble farming village in the south Hebron hills, all of whom, according to the Israeli authorities, have to live in less than eighty homes.

Why Egypt hates Al Jazeera

Last summer, Mohamed Fadel Fahmy was one of thousands of protesters who took to Tahrir Square to give Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the Egyptian army chief, a mandate to "confront terrorism" -- the Egyptian government's euphemism for cracking down on the Muslim Brotherhood.Tomorrow, he will appear in court on the receiving end of that mandate: He stands accused of running a terrorist cell from a luxury hotel in Cairo.

Egypt's new dictator was made in the USA

The choreographed dance of Egypt's military-orchestrated politics inched closer to its climax on Monday, Jan. 27, as the country's popular army chief, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, moved a step closer to announcing his candidacy for president.

How to crush low-hanging fruit

The Egyptian government, after designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization last week, is now extending its crackdown to an ever-widening list of enemies. But even as the generals in Cairo prepare for a series of crucial elections, persistent terrorist attacks continue to undermine their attempts to restore a sense of normality to the country.

Jailed and released in Alexandria, young women plan to protest again

Ola Ezzat is already making plans to protest again, just two weeks after she and 20 other women were sentenced to 11-year jail terms for their activism.

Deadly shooting at Cairo University galvanizes campus protests

The police shooting of an engineering student at Cairo University has sparked demonstrations and strikes on campuses across the country, galvanising opposition to the interim government but also raising fears among some students that their protests will be "hijacked" by supporters of former President Mohamed Morsi.

Protests on Mohamed Mahmoud anniversary fail to find an audience

Crowds of protesters marched through downtown Cairo, chanting slogans against military rule ("killers!"), the Muslim Brotherhood ("killers!"), and just about every other organised political group in Egypt. A few metres away, a group of men watched Egypt's World Cup qualifier against Ghana, seemingly oblivious.

Cairo finds little to cheer as curfew ends

In a cafe along the Nile, a young couple lingered over cups of tea, the only customers in a venue that could seat hundreds. Bored vendors in a tourist market lamented the lack of business. The kitchen staff from an upscale sushi restaurant sat outside smoking cigarettes, gesturing at the empty tables: There’s nobody to cook for.

Egypt warms to Russia as US ties cool

Russia's defence and foreign ministers have ended a highly anticipated two-day visit to Cairo, with officials from both countries promising deeper ties but offering few specifics and making no mention of a much-rumoured multibillion-dollar arms deal.

Despondent scenes at pro-Morsi rally after president's ouster

The fireworks celebrating Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi’s removal by the military are visible a few kilometres away, where thousands of his supporters are holding a sit-in, a protest they plan to continue until Morsi is reinstated.

Morsi's hometown split over president's first year

Few people here expected their native son, President Mohamed Morsi, to bring many changes after he took office a year ago.

Lebanon's opposition adrift in wake of intelligence chief's funeral

The funeral today for Wissam al-Hassan, the intelligence official killed in a car bombing on Friday, was supposed to allow Lebanon's March 14 coalition of political parties a chance to show its strength after nearly two years out of power.

The political clash over Egypt's new constitution

If all goes according to plan, the committee drafting Egypt’s new constitution will produce a final draft within the next few weeks, and it will go before the public for a vote. But so far little about the process has run smoothly.

In the kingdom of tear gas

The talk of Bahrain at present is talk — the possible renewal of dialogue between the government and the opposition — but the reality is that street protests, after simmering in outlying villages for months, have begun to heat up in the capital of Manama.

Bahrain's opposition struggles with next steps

A nine-month crackdown by the government has not stopped Bahrain’s protest movement: Demonstrators still take to the streets to confront police, at times violently, and to denounce the government. As many point out, these anti-government protests have gone on, albeit on a smaller scale, for years.