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In a converted classroom-turned-emergency shelter at a public school in Sidon, a 72-hour-old newborn rests on a frayed, thin mattress pulled directly onto the concrete floor. The infant’s first days of life unfold surrounded by the quiet chaos of displacement, just a few feet from where an elderly man stirs a pot of lunch, separated from the new mother and child only by a rickety shelf stacked with donated canned goods and bundled clothing. Three separate families now crowd into this single classroom, all their worldly possessions tucked into dusty corners, as they wait for a chance to return to their homes in southern Lebanon’s Nabatieh district.

This newborn’s mother, 29-year-old Hala Loubany, had only just recovered enough from an emergency cesarean section to sit up and watch over her son, one hand still pressed instinctively to the throbbing surgical wound on her abdomen. Her labor began unexpectedly right here in the school shelter, and she was rushed to a local hospital at the last minute for the life-saving procedure. When Hala fled Nabatieh six months into her pregnancy alongside her husband, their two young sons, and her father, this Sidon school was already the second makeshift refuge the family had been forced to occupy.

Hala’s 54-year-old father, Ali Mahmoud Loubany, shared the family’s story with Middle East Eye, describing the terror of the initial Israeli bombardment that pushed thousands from their border communities. “Israel just started bombing everywhere and everyone at random, people who I know very well are not affiliated with Hezbollah. I kept thinking, ‘Where do we go? Or do we stay and try and fight back?’ I was scared as the Israelis were also targeting the cars as people were fleeing. It was terrible,” he recalled.

Ali first learned his childhood home in Zawtar, a village perched on a hillside overlooking the Litani River, had been completely destroyed when he checked satellite imagery on Google Maps. “On the map, you don’t know which pile of rubble is your house. All the land, all the trees… the whole village has been flattened. We have gone back 100 years,” he said. When the bombing began, he admitted, he had wished “for the ground to just open up and swallow me.” Just a day before speaking with reporters, Ali had attempted to travel back to Zawtar to survey what remained of his property, only to be fired on by Israeli occupying forces with a grenade, forcing him to flee back to the shelter.

This is not the first time Ali has lost everything to conflict with Israel. After the 2006 war, he rebuilt his home brick by brick and replanted his small farm, where he grew tobacco and fresh vegetables. He even joined local demining teams to clear the area of dangerous cluster munitions that contaminated the region following that earlier conflict. Now, after decades of slow, painstaking reconstruction, he faces the same catastrophic ruin. For the first time in his life, Ali is considering leaving Lebanon for good, though he has no idea where he might build a new life.

Poor living conditions add to the family’s constant stress. The shelter’s only women’s bathroom sits directly across the hall from their classroom, with just three laminate shower stalls that families must sign up to use by a shared schedule. Residents wash clothing in shallow, cramped sinks. For Hala, still recovering from major surgery, inadequate sanitation creates a constant, crippling worry that her surgical scar will develop a dangerous infection.

Rents for temporary housing near former border communities are far out of reach for most displaced families, Ali explained. “I know many people are somehow affording to rent houses near their homes… but it is really expensive. If I had the money, I would spend it on medicine that the family needs but we cannot afford. We are stuck here but at least we are alive and safe. There are mattresses to sleep on and NGOs bring us food,” he said. Still, Ali sees no long-term future for his family in Lebanon, adding: “There is no one by our side, the Lebanese government does not care about us. Lebanon is a country of war.”

Mina Jardali, a field worker with the humanitarian organization Action for Humanity, which provides funding for ambulance services, medical care, and community bakeries across the region, says Ali’s despair is shared by thousands of other internally displaced people (IDPs) across Lebanon. She has watched families arrive at shelters with nothing but a single bag of clothing, only to leave weeks later hoping to get closer to their homes, only to be displaced again. “Ali is not alone in looking elsewhere, like Europe, for an escape,” she noted.

In the same classroom, Hala’s husband Hassan Bisher, a 33-year-old former taxi driver from Nabatieh’s Kfar Tebnit, plays with his two young sons, six-year-old Jaffar and one-year-old Haydar. The boys take turns racing a plastic toy bicycle around the room, weaving between mattresses and folding chairs. Growing up in a crowded shelter is not the future Hassan imagined for his children, especially not with the arrival of their new baby brother. His own family home in Kfar Tebnit was destroyed in an Israeli air strike, just as it was first destroyed in the 2006 war. It took the family a full decade to rebuild it the first time.

“Their childhood memories are all gone,” Hassan said. “What is even harder is that I depended on my job to look after my children, but now I am unable to provide for their needs. Every parent strives to provide for their children to see them as happy as possible, to help them excel in life. And I cannot do that now.” Unlike his father-in-law, however, Hassan holds onto hope. His only wish is to return to Kfar Tebnit once the bombardments stop and start rebuilding again, even if he has to live in a tent pitched on the rubble of his old home in the meantime. “I just want to pitch a tent on my land and smell the fresh air of the town once again… I prefer that than being anywhere else,” he said.

Further down the dark school corridor, another displaced family tells a story marked by even greater loss. The Darwish family, originally from Nabatieh, saw their four-story family home flattened by an Israeli bomb during the 66-day 2024 war. Their relatives are now scattered across dozens of different shelters, and one of their sons, Samih, was killed in an Israeli strike on his motorbike in the Beqaa Valley two months after a 2024 ceasefire took hold. His 71-year-old mother Sobheya cries as she pulls out a photo of her son, saying simply: “Samih was driving on the motorway and was martyred, just like that. He left three children behind and we have no idea what is going to happen to them as he was the only provider.”

Sobheya and her 72-year-old husband Mahmoud spent 18 years building their home, creating an apartment for each of their three sons while the couple lived on the ground floor. Their 42-year-old son Hussein says what he misses most is gathering the whole family for dinner every night. Losing his brother and watching his parents’ life work turned to rubble has left him numb with grief and anger. “I have no feelings, I am numb. Losing his brother has caused him unbearable pain he cannot put into words, as has seeing his destroyed home, the result of 18 years of his and his family’s hard work,” Hussein said, his voice shaking as tears filled his eyes. “We did not know the house was targeted until we went back. Other houses around it were still standing… So why us? We don’t do politics, we don’t know anyone from Hezbollah.” The family still hopes to return to Nabatieh one day, but Hussein worries constantly about his elderly parents’ health, as they sleep on the floor with nothing but thin sheets and a flattened mattress between them and the cold concrete.

As of September 1, the International Organisation for Migration estimates roughly 856,000 internally displaced people have returned to their home communities across Lebanon, but the widespread humanitarian crisis remains far from over. Since the Loubany and Darwish families were interviewed for this report, the Sidon school shelter was shut down in late September, and all residents were transferred to other aid facilities, a forced new displacement that has only deepened the hardship for more than 329,000 IDPs still living in uncertainty across the country. For Hala’s newborn son, displacement has become the default of life before he is even old enough to remember having a home of his own. For his grandfather Ali, it is a fate that he fears will define the rest of his life.

A prominent French actress and longtime gender-based violence activist Adele Haenel has become the center of a fierce free speech controversy after her on-air remarks condemning Israeli actions in Gaza resulted in the full removal of her television appearance from public access.

Haenel’s September 9 guest slot on France 5, a public French television channel, was originally arranged to promote her debut book, which details her decades-long fight for accountability over sexual abuse she endured as a child minor at the hands of acclaimed French director Christophe Ruggia. Just months prior, in April 2024, a French court handed down a conviction against Ruggia for sexual assault, a landmark ruling that became a national flashpoint for conversations about systemic silence around sexual violence in the French film industry.

The talk show she joined is structured around open, unfiltered debate, with a core premise that invited guests are granted full latitude to share their perspectives. During her segment, Haenel read a prepared statement to the live studio audience, drawing a thematic connection between the culture of silence that protects perpetrators of sexual and gender-based violence and the global lack of accountability for what she described as widespread sexual violence against Palestinian people in Gaza perpetrated by Israeli forces.

In her unscripted closing remarks delivered live on air, Haenel stated plainly: “The State of Israel is committing genocide in Palestine, and France is complicit. Don’t accept the unacceptable; sanction Israel and liberate Palestine.” The statement was met with enthusiastic applause from the in-studio audience, but triggered immediate pushback from pro-Israel advocacy groups and far-right political actors, who filed formal complaints against the network.

Within 24 hours, on September 10, parent broadcaster France Televisions confirmed it had pulled the entire episode from its online replay platform, effectively erasing Haenel’s comments from public view.

In subsequent comments to French media, published in full by Middle East Eye, Haenel detailed how she intentionally altered her prepared remarks to name specific responsible parties. She explained that she had submitted a milder draft of her statement to producers ahead of the taping, because she was certain the full unedited text would be blocked from airing. That morning, she rehearsed the approved draft for production and technical teams, with no objections raised, even after sharing the modified script with the show’s lead producer that same day.

The key difference between the submitted draft and her live remarks, Haenel noted, was the explicit naming of the State of Israel as the perpetrator of genocide. “As long as there is no subject in the sentence, a genocide appears as an inevitable reality, a crime without a perpetrator,” she explained. “On the other hand, saying ‘the State of Israel is committing genocide’ points to this State as responsible for this ongoing crime against humanity.”

She further argued that naming the perpetrator forces Western governments, including France, to confront their own policy choices: namely, the decision not only to avoid acting to end the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, but to actively enable ongoing violence through arms sales to Israel. Haenel added that mainstream French media largely pushes a one-sided pro-Israel narrative that frames Palestinians as responsible for their own suffering, allowing Western governments to maintain a false veneer of innocence. This dynamic, she said, is what prompted the harsh media backlash and censorship of her comments.

The incident has reignited long-simmering debates in France over free speech, media bias and acceptable forms of protest against Israeli military action in Gaza, with free speech advocates decrying the removal of the episode as an act of overt political censorship.

Widespread public demonstrations have broken out across multiple regions of Syria after the government implemented sharp, emergency increases to domestic fuel prices, with demonstrators blocking critical transportation arteries, setting tires ablaze, and demanding the immediate resignation of the country’s energy minister amid growing public fury over skyrocketing living costs. As of mid-September 2026, protests have been documented in major urban centers and rural areas including Idlib, Hama, Raqqa, Deir al-Zor, Hasakah, and the town of Khan Sheikhoun, with protesters blocking oil tanker access in multiple border and countryside locations.

The price adjustments were formalized by Syria’s Permanent Committee for Pricing Petroleum Products and Mineral Resources in a new temporary price order, which took effect at midnight on Sunday of this week. Under the new framework, 95-octane gasoline now retails at 195 Syrian pounds (approximately $1.60) per liter, while 90-octane gasoline costs 185 Syrian pounds ($1.52) per liter – marking a 28% jump from pre-hike rates. Diesel saw an even steeper proportional increase, climbing 40% from 125 Syrian pounds per liter to 175 Syrian pounds per liter.

One of the most high-profile disruptions occurred on the M5 international highway, the critical trade and travel route connecting Aleppo and Damascus, where footage shows protesters blocking the road for several hours, burning debris, and chanting for the government to reverse the unpopular price decision.

In an official public statement, Energy Minister Mohammed al-Bashir defended the price increase, attributing the move to a perfect storm of persistent international market volatility and crippling domestic supply chain constraints. Minister al-Bashir explained that Syria has a total national demand of roughly 300,000 barrels of crude oil and refined petroleum products per day, but domestic production only meets about one-third of that need, at approximately 100,000 barrels daily. As a result, the country is heavily dependent on imported fuel, with imports covering roughly 60% of the nation’s daily diesel consumption.

Syria’s reliance on foreign fuel has become far costlier in recent weeks amid ongoing geopolitical tensions between the United States and Iran, which have disrupted global energy supply chains and key international shipping lanes including Bab al-Mandab, the Red Sea, and the Gulf of Aden. Global crude oil prices have climbed above $100 per barrel amid continued shipping disruptions near the Strait of Hormuz, and repeated attacks on regional energy infrastructure and commercial vessels have amplified widespread concerns over fuel security across the Middle East.

Breaking down national diesel consumption, the Ministry of Energy reports Syria uses roughly 7.72 million liters of diesel per day: 4.63 million liters are imported, while only 3.09 million liters are produced domestically. Compounding domestic production shortfalls, much of the crude extracted within Syria is heavy crude, which is incompatible with the processing specifications of the country’s existing domestic refineries, further limiting the nation’s ability to replace imported fuel with local supplies.

Officials emphasized the price hike is a temporary emergency measure, and that rates will be re-evaluated regularly as global market conditions shift. They added that the current deficit has been worsened by scheduled ongoing maintenance at Baniyas Refinery, Syria’s largest fuel processing facility, which is expected to continue for approximately two months. Once the maintenance overhaul is completed, the refinery is projected to boost the country’s total domestic refining capacity, reducing long-term reliance on imports.

The widespread public unrest has pushed Syria’s national legislative body, the People’s Assembly, to summon Minister al-Bashir for a formal public hearing to answer questions about the fuel price decision. The hearing, requested by the chair of the Assembly’s Energy Committee, was approved under Article 30 of Syria’s constitutional declaration and Article 168 of the legislature’s internal rules. According to Syrian state outlet al-Ikhbariya, the hearing is scheduled for noon Thursday at the People’s Assembly headquarters in Damascus, where lawmaker will seek full clarification on the justifications for the increase and the policy considerations that shaped the government’s decision.

In a controversial move that has sparked global debate over free speech and accountability for military actions, Israeli Culture Minister Miki Zohar announced Sunday he will initiate legal action to strip citizenship from the creators of a hard-hitting new documentary that exposes an organized “system of killing” targeting Palestinian civilians in Gaza during Israel’s ongoing military campaign.

Titled NAZA, the film directed by Oscar-winning Israeli filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor took home the Special Jury Prize at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival on Saturday, a recognition Zohar has decried as “shocking” and labeling the work itself “despicable”. Writing on the social platform X, Zohar argued that the filmmakers’ work amounts to treason, claiming they are driven by self-hatred and eager to undermine the Israeli state for praise from what he called antisemitic audiences across the globe. “The creators’ burning self-hatred, and their willingness to harm their homeland in order to receive applause from antisemites around the world, is beyond comprehension and constitutes a betrayal of the state,” Zohar stated. He added, “I will act immediately to revoke the Israeli citizenship of these despicable creators on the grounds of treason against the state.”

The feature-length documentary, which has earned unprecedented acclaim at major international film festivals, pulls back the curtain on the institutional structures that the filmmakers say enable the mass killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza. Drawing on on-the-record interviews with 24 anonymous current and former Israeli military and intelligence insiders, the film details how AI-powered tools are used to select bombing targets, even when commanders know the strikes will result in massive civilian casualties. One unnamed insider interviewed for the project recounted a single operation where the assassination of one high-profile Hamas figure was approved despite the expectation that it would kill up to 500 Palestinian civilians.

Following its world premiere at Venice on September 10, NAZA received a historic 24.5-minute standing ovation from audiences, marking one of the longest reception in the festival’s history. In comments after the award win, Abraham emphasized the urgent core of his work: “The core of the film is a system of killing that has killed more than 70,000 Palestinians in Gaza,” he said, adding that independent estimates put the actual death toll far higher. He has called on the Israeli public to hear the testimonies directly, noting all insiders spoke in Hebrew so fellow citizens can understand firsthand what unfolded during military operations in the enclave.

The documentary has triggered fierce backlash from Israeli political and military leadership even as it gains international acclaim. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has issued a formal rejection of the film’s claims, arguing that the outlet cannot verify the identities or service backgrounds of the anonymous sources, questioning whether they actually served in the IDF or had direct knowledge of the operations they described. Prominent right-wing Israeli figures have doubled down on criticism: former defense minister and sitting member of parliament Avigdor Lieberman labeled Abraham and Szor “haters of Israel”, while Yoseph Haddad, a member of a new right-wing party that advocates for the permanent expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza, called the film an “appalling” work that falsely accuses Israeli troops of genocide.

The debate over NAZA unfolds against the backdrop of a years-long military campaign in Gaza that has been widely condemned by the international community. Since the campaign began in 2023, Israeli military operations have killed more than 73,000 Palestinians and wounded an additional 174,000 people, according to latest official counts from Gazan health authorities. Israeli forces have also imposed a total blockade on aid and commercial trade into the enclave, triggering widespread famine that was formally declared in Gaza City in August 2025. More than 70% of residential buildings, schools, and medical facilities across Gaza have been destroyed, pushing the 2.3 million-person population into what the United Nations describes as one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes in modern history. Multiple high-level international bodies, including a United Nations Commission of Inquiry, have issued formal findings concluding that Israel’s military actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide.

This documentary is far from the first account of systemic war crimes to emerge from the conflict; dozens of Israeli soldiers and intelligence officers have given anonymous testimonies to Israeli media outlets since the war began, detailing widespread violations of international law. Just last week, a reserve Israeli drone operator told leading Israeli newspaper Haaretz that senior commanders frame the entire population of Gaza as legitimate military targets. When the operator requested a formal list of approved targets earlier this year, he was told, “You have two million targets in Gaza.”

A major breakthrough by Houthi forces has upended military control along Yemen’s Red Sea coast, after a week-long offensive that began on September 3 captured key strategic sites including the vital Bab al-Mandab Strait and the coastal city of Mocha. The assault targeted multiple districts across southern Hodeidah — Hays and Al-Khawkha — and western Taiz governorate: Jabal Habashi, Maqbana, Mowza’a, and Al-Wazeyaha. These districts form a critical geographic link between Taiz’s mountainous interior and the Red Sea coastal plain, making them a high-priority objective for advancing forces.

Initially, troops aligned with Yemen’s internationally recognized government successfully repelled Houthi advances across both governorates, halting the group’s push toward Mocha for nearly seven days. But a surprise rapid overnight assault on Wednesday broke government lines, allowing Houthi fighters to seize Mocha in less than 24 hours. Pro-government units including the National Resistance Forces (NRF), the Nation’s Shield Forces (NSF), and the Giants Brigades (Al-Amaliqah) launched counterattacks to retake the city, but were ultimately forced to withdraw, falling back toward the Bab al-Mandab Strait and neighboring Lahj governorate.

By the following morning, Houthi forces had extended their gains to capture the Bab al-Mandab Strait itself and Mayyun Island, the strategic outpost that overlooks the critical waterway. Government troops pulled back further to the Ras al-A’ara area of Lahj, ceding full control of the strait to the Houthi movement. Throughout the fighting across Hodeidah and Taiz, Houthi forces held the initiative, leaving pro-government troops largely on the defensive, able to hold ground only in scattered sectors while ceding key territory elsewhere. Since the capture of Bab al-Mandab, Houthi forces have launched multiple missile strikes against remaining government positions past the strait, with the most intense clashes continuing to center on western Taiz, where fighters are pushing to secure additional territory across the governorate.

A pro-government fighter who escaped Mocha for Aden and spoke to Middle East Eye outlined the structural challenges that led to the government retreat. “We fought the Houthis for a week, but they received continuous reinforcements and relentless support from ground and air forces,” he explained. “We were divided into separate units, with each group taking orders from its own commander, leaving us scattered across the battlefield.” The fighter emphasized that his unit held its position for a full week before withdrawing, pushing back against public criticism of pro-government forces. “I am deeply hurt by the criticism directed at us. We were accused of fleeing by people who have no idea what actual battle entails,” he said. “When communication broke down amid the heaviest fighting, the retreat began. I am not trying to blame anyone, but when one group pulled back, the rest followed suit. We retreated to Mocha, and from there toward Bab al-Mandab and Ras al-A’ara.”

While minor clashes have erupted across six Yemeni governorates — Al-Jawf, Al-Bayda, Marib, Al-Dhale, Hodeidah, and Taiz — the most severe fighting remains concentrated in Taiz and the adjacent Red Sea coast. In response to the Houthi advance, the Yemeni Armed Forces announced it would deploy all available ground and air assets to target Houthi movements across an operational zone covering the Taiz–Mocha road, Jabal al-Nar, and Mocha itself, releasing a public target map alongside its statement. On September 10, official military spokesperson Colonel Majed al-Nuzaili urged civilians to avoid the Taiz–Mocha road until further notice and steer clear of all Houthi military concentrations. Since the announcement, government forces have launched air strikes against Houthi positions in Mocha and along the western coast to support a planned counteroffensive to retake the city, though no territorial gains have been reported to date.

Houthi officials have accused the Saudi-led coalition of conducting more than 100 air strikes across Yemen within a 48-hour period following the Houthi advance, though Saudi authorities have not yet claimed responsibility for the operations. The human cost of the offensive has already been severe: the NRF has confirmed more than 500 of its fighters were killed and over 1,500 wounded in the clashes. For civilians, the fallout has been even more widespread: the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reports that more than 82,000 people have been displaced from their homes since fighting resumed on the west coast in early September. Thousands have fled beyond Yemen’s borders, with IOM confirming that over 2,000 people have reached the northern coast of Djibouti, landing at scattered sites near the town of Obock.

Despite the Yemeni government’s plans for a counteroffensive, morale among pro-government forces that retreated from the west coast remains severely damaged, creating major barriers to halting further Houthi advances in the near term. Yemeni political analyst Professor Abdulsattar al-Shamiri, CEO of the Johood Center for Studies and Research, attributed the government’s military setback to deep-rooted coordination failures among competing pro-government factions. “There are no explicit disagreements in the literal sense, but there are clear discrepancies in coordination methods,” al-Shamiri explained. “As for the setback that occurred in Mocha and the rest of the coastal areas, it stems from central factors — chief among them weak command and control, as the command structure within the Yemeni army units was not functioning as it should.”

Al-Shamiri added that multiple additional factors undermined government defenses, including a lack of effective air support. Today’s air operations do not match the scale and impact of the Saudi-led coalition’s support for ground forces a decade ago, he noted. Other contributing factors include critical supply shortages, rapid depletion of ammunition stockpiles, poor battlefield communication, and a complete lack of unified central oversight. Despite these challenges, al-Shamiri said he remains confident that Yemeni government forces can eventually recapture the lost territory, though the process will be long and difficult. “Recapturing areas is possible, but it will not be easy or quick. It will require organised effort, high readiness, and more time — especially given that these areas were previously under Houthi control before they were forcefully expelled,” he said. The coming phase of conflict will likely follow a strategy of deep attrition, he predicted, relying on targeted air strikes and small-scale surgical ground operations to weaken Houthi control. “This attrition may force them to withdraw from certain areas, despite Iran having secured a major strategic gain and potentially pushing further support to the Houthis,” al-Shamiri said. “The government forces are, therefore, facing a long-term war of attrition.”

Dr Mohammed al-Shuaibi, a professor of strategic planning at the University of Aden, echoed al-Shamiri’s assessment, noting that recapturing the Red Sea coastal areas remains achievable if pro-government forces implement structural reforms. “The government forces can unify their leadership and militarily recapture Mocha,” he said. “To achieve this, it requires forming a unified operations room, a single political decision, and subsequently selecting a unified field command — specifically from among those leaders who enjoy acceptance and possess sufficient battleground experience there.”

By seizing key sites along Yemen’s Red Sea coast including Mocha, Dhubab, the Bab al-Mandab Strait, and Mayyun Island, the Houthi movement — officially known as Ansar Allah — has gained unprecedented leverage over one of the world’s most critical maritime chokepoints, which connects the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, and Suez Canal, carrying roughly 10 percent of global trade annually. Al-Shuaibi noted that control of Bab al-Mandab is an intermediate strategic objective, not the group’s final goal. “If the Houthis manage to consolidate their presence in Mocha and Bab al-Mandab, they will gain massive strategic leverage against Saudi Arabia, the United States, and international powers,” he explained. Beyond local military gains, the offensive is part of a broader push to reshape regional power dynamics, al-Shuaibi said, as the Houthis recognize the strait’s enormous global economic and political significance. “The more capable they become of threatening the strait, the more enabled they are to transform Yemen from an internal battleground into an influential player in global energy security and trade,” he added.

In response to growing international concern over maritime security in the region, Houthi spokesperson Mohammed Abdulsalam sought to reassure global powers in a post on X. “As for the freedom of navigation and international trade movement in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab, it is safe and orderly, and there is no cause for any international concern regarding it,” he wrote.

Across Latin America, a growing wave of right-wing governments has turned to increasingly militarized, technology-focused strategies to combat organized crime — and Israel has moved quickly to position its powerful cybersecurity sector as a go-to source of specialized expertise, surveillance infrastructure, and national security solutions. This expanding cooperation has unlocked lucrative new export markets for an Israeli industry deeply intertwined with the country’s military and intelligence networks, where core technologies are first developed and field-tested during Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestinian territories before being marketed to global buyers.

Recent high-level agreements across the region underscore this growing partnership. Colombia’s new hardline right-wing president, Abelardo de la Espriella, has publicly identified Israeli artificial intelligence and cybersecurity know-how as a critical tool to deliver on his campaign promise of a sweeping crackdown on organized criminal groups. “A collaboration with Israel would allow these resources to be applied directly to combating criminal structures within the national territory,” de la Espriella stated. In neighboring Ecuador, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and Ecuadorian counterpart Roberto Kury signed new counterterrorism and cybersecurity cooperation pacts during an August 4 state visit. Israel and Argentina have also finalized new deals to deepen collaboration on artificial intelligence development and joint action against what they frame as “terrorist” cyber threats.

These agreements mark a major new opening for Israel’s cyber sector in Latin America, riding a regional political wave that has prioritized tech-driven responses to organized crime. But digital rights advocates warn that the line between defensive cybersecurity and intrusive mass surveillance can quickly blur when technologies refined in Israel’s military and occupation apparatus are sold to governments with weak regulatory safeguards and documented histories of human rights abuse.

Pepe Flores, program director at independent Mexican digital rights nonprofit R3D Mexico, notes that Latin American governments overwhelmingly prioritize a risk-focused approach to security, rather than a human rights-centered framework. “There is an illusion of control with technology,” Flores explained in an interview with Middle East Eye. This push for expanded security cooperation with Israel also aligns with growing U.S. efforts to leverage cyber capabilities against transnational criminal networks. On August 12, former U.S. President Donald Trump signed a National Security Presidential Memorandum granting U.S. federal law enforcement agencies broad authority to use cyber tools “to disrupt transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) that operate in foreign jurisdictions to attack Americans.”

The turn toward closer Israeli security ties comes as part of a broader rightward political shift across Latin America, where multiple new administrations have aligned more closely with Washington and adopted hardline stances on organized crime, migration, and national security. Juan Diego Castaneda, co-director of Bogota-based digital rights and civil society group Fundacion Karisma, points out that new right-wing presidencies led by figures including Daniel Noboa, Antonio Kast, and de la Espriella represent a political pendulum swing away from the left-leaning governments of leaders like Hugo Chavez, Gustavo Petro, and Lula da Silva. In this context, Castaneda argues that selecting Israel as a security partner is not merely a choice based on technical quality. “Nothing particularly special” sets Israeli cyber tools apart from competing offerings, he noted. Instead, “the choice of Israel is ideological, meaning that when faced with two equal suppliers, they pick the one that aligns better with their values, or one that reinforces their own stance.”

Israel has long positioned itself as a global leader in defense, cybersecurity, and counterterrorism expertise for Latin American governments. But Castaneda cautions that the official framing of “defense” rarely stays limited to protection from external threats. “That is the official narrative but clearly it also involves defending against whatever is strategic. In other words, defending oneself can become a form of attack.” The language of defense has been repeatedly used to justify expanding state power, from the U.S.-led global “war on terror” to the decades-long “war on drugs” in the Western Hemisphere. In contemporary Latin America, this rhetoric and these hardline tactics are increasingly merging into campaigns against what governments label “narco-terrorism” — a shift that rights groups warn has already led to widespread militarization and severe human rights violations in countries including Ecuador and El Salvador. Critics note that Israel has used identical “defensive war” rhetoric to justify its ongoing military campaign in Gaza, framing the operation as a defensive action against Hamas rather than a conflict targeting the Palestinian people.

International criticism of Israel’s cyber industry has long centered on well-documented offensive tools such as Pegasus, the notorious Israeli spyware that has been used by governments worldwide to target journalists, human rights activists, and political opponents. But Flores and other digital rights advocates emphasize that even firms that market their products as purely defensive maintain deep institutional and operational ties to Israel’s military and security apparatus. “That is part of the selling point,” Flores said. He added that the U.S. has pushed a widespread narrative that cyber technology can dismantle transnational cartels, creating pressure on Latin American governments to deliver quick security results. In this environment, governments are often tempted to adopt Israeli security tactics, creating “a complex matrix where US interests, Israel’s interests and big-tech interests align.”

A core feature of Israel’s cyber industry that is rarely highlighted in global marketing is its direct origins in the occupation of Palestine. For decades, Israeli authorities have developed and deployed mass surveillance and digital tools on the Palestinian population, which has no ability to opt out of or challenge these systems. The commercialized expertise Israel sells is not generic intelligence capability — which many countries possess — it is hands-on experience running population-scale surveillance on a disenfranchised population that cannot resist, explained Lama Nazeeh, advocacy manager at 7amleh, the Arab Center for Social Media Advancement. “That is the intellectual property, and every Palestinian is an unconsenting contributor,” Nazeeh said. She detailed that since 2017, Israeli authorities have used predictive policing algorithms that scrape social media data to generate detention recommendations, leading to thousands of arrests based on flawed, error-prone systems. The use of these surveillance tools is part of a broader system of digital repression against Palestinians: 7amleh’s 2025 documentation recorded 3,452 digital rights violations against Palestinians, including 538 cases of censorship and 2,910 incidents of hate speech and incitement. “The absence of consent is not an unfortunate side effect, it is a design requirement,” Nazeeh emphasized.

This system of mass surveillance in occupied Palestinian territories has even expanded into biometric facial recognition, part of an official push for what Israeli officials describe as a “frictionless” occupation that reduces direct interactions between soldiers and Palestinian civilians by handing over identity verification to automated systems. Israeli firms including Corsight AI, Oosto, and Mabat 2000 have all integrated their facial recognition tools into Israel’s extensive surveillance network across Gaza, the occupied West Bank, and occupied East Jerusalem. “Anywhere else deploying a biometric system at scale involves a procurement process, a data protection authority, legal basis, courts that enjoin you, journalists with access and a population that can refuse. In the West Bank and East Jerusalem there is none of that,” Nazeeh noted. It is these very technologies, refined in the occupation context, that are then marketed globally as defensive or civilian security solutions. For example, Corsight AI’s facial recognition software is already in use at Mexican hospitals and Brazilian schools, even as the Israeli military’s elite Unit 8200 cyber intelligence division uses the company’s technology to identify and track Palestinians in Gaza. While commercial deployments in Latin America may not currently serve the same military purposes as in Palestine, rights advocates warn that their shared technological and institutional origins raise urgent questions about oversight, data safeguards, and how these tools could be abused by governments seeking to expand intrusive surveillance powers.

The deep ties between Israel’s military and its cyber sector are no coincidence. Approximately 80 percent of founders of Israel’s 700 cyber technology companies are veterans of Unit 8200, the country’s elite cyber intelligence division, according to research cited by Israeli newspaper Haaretz. Unit 8200 is widely viewed as a foundational training ground for Israel’s multi-billion dollar cybersecurity industry. Leading Israeli cyber firms such as Check Point, whose founder Gil Shwed and CEO Nadav Zafrir are both Unit 8200 veterans, now actively market their services to Latin American governments and businesses. Check Point says it is committed to “empowering Latin America businesses and governments with cutting-edge security solutions to combat rising cyber threats.” The company recently held talks with a delegation from Honduras’ National Telecommunications Commission to discuss plans for a national cybersecurity strategy, and has partnered with Israel Aerospace Industries — one of Israel’s largest weapons manufacturers — through the Israeli Cyber Companies Consortium (IC3). Established in 2016 with Israeli government backing, IC3 brings together leading domestic cyber firms to deliver full-scale national cyber defense systems to government clients worldwide. In 2017, the consortium announced it had secured a tens-of-millions-of-dollar contract to build a national cyber center for an unnamed Latin American country, including national threat monitoring, intelligence sharing, forensic tools, cyber training, and attack detection systems. Israeli firm Cellebrite, another company staffed heavily by Unit 8200 veterans, announced in 2023 that it would supply a digital intelligence system to federal forces in an unnamed Latin American nation.

This current expansion of Israel’s cyber sector in Latin America builds on a decades-long history of military and security cooperation between the two regions. In the second half of the 20th century, Israel supplied weapons, training, and security assistance to multiple Latin American governments and armed forces that carried out violent campaigns against Indigenous communities and left-wing political movements. As journalist Antony Loewenstein wrote in his book *The Palestine Laboratory*, these tools and tactics were “conveniently tested on occupied Palestinians, then marketed as ‘battle-tested’.” As researcher Bishara Bahbah noted in his 1988 seminal work *Israel and Latin America: The Military Connection*, the significance of Israeli arms exports to the region extends far beyond the volume of equipment sold. “The significance lies in what has become Israel’s absolute imperative to export arms. From this dependence on arms exports, all else is derivative,” Bahbah wrote, pointing to Israel’s longstanding close cooperation with authoritarian regimes and its integration into U.S. global strategic goals.

Castaneda notes that this long history of trilateral relations between Latin America, the U.S., and Israel sets the context for today’s expanding cyber partnerships. “The history of relations forms the broader context in which we find ourselves today,” he said. “In other words, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that these threads are converging again.” The left-wing government of former Colombian president Gustavo Petro, which broke diplomatic relations with Israel over the Gaza war, represented a rare break from this long-running pattern. “What we’re seeing now is [a return to] the norm,” Castaneda added.

From northern Mexico to southern Argentina, digital rights advocates warn that the combination of militarized security policies and increasingly intrusive surveillance technologies creates significant risks of widespread abuse and targeted repression. For Castaneda, Colombia’s new de la Espriella administration will serve as a critical test case for how this partnership plays out in practice. “We have to keep watching how the Abelardo de la Espriella administration evolves and how it reconnects with Colombia’s long history of asserting that national security requires exceptional solutions,” he said. “That history justified secrecy. It justified the use of weapons, violence, killing of people and the notion that we should not complain.”

Authorities in Bali, Indonesia have launched a full investigation into the tragic deaths of an Australian national and his two young children, whose bodies were discovered inside a rental bungalow in the island’s busy tourist hub of Kuta. The deceased have been identified as 56-year-old Damien John Shaw, originally from Fremantle, Western Australia, his 6-year-old son and 4-year-old daughter.

The sequence of events that led to the discovery began when Shaw’s wife, who was not present in Bali at the time, reached out to local neighbours to check on the family. According to police statements, the woman had been on a phone call with her husband when she heard one of her children crying in the background, before the call cut off unexpectedly. After she was unable to re-establish contact with Shaw in subsequent attempts, she alerted neighbours to the potential emergency. It has been confirmed that the woman had traveled to Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital, several days before the incident.

When neighbours arrived at the property and received no answer to repeated knocks on the door, they forced entry alongside other local residents, and made the grim discovery of the three bodies inside the bungalow on Sunday. Local police have dispatched teams of investigators and forensics officers to process the crime scene, but have so far not confirmed the official cause or manner of death. Further forensic examinations are currently underway to establish a clear timeline and determine how the three victims died.

While Australian media outlets have cited law enforcement sources describing the case as a suspected murder-suicide, Indonesian police have pushed back on premature conclusions, saying they will not confirm any motive or cause until all evidence has been reviewed. Western Australia Premier Roger Cook has publicly responded to the tragedy, describing it as deeply distressing. “This is a very sad situation; our hearts go out to everyone involved. We hope we can get to the bottom of what’s gone on as soon as possible,” Cook told reporters.

A sharp escalation of armed conflict between Yemen’s internationally recognized government forces and Houthi fighters has triggered a massive new humanitarian displacement crisis, the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration (IOM) confirmed in an official statement released Sunday. The total number of people forced to flee their homes since the resumption of major clashes has reached nearly 86,000, marking an increase of roughly 10,000 displaced people in just 24 hours.

Many of those uprooted by the violence have been forced to abandon their homes multiple times over years of ongoing conflict, the agency emphasized. In a stark appeal for global action, IOM Director General Amy Pope highlighted the human cost hidden behind the raw displacement figures. “Behind every number is a family who’s lost everything,” Pope said. “People are crossing the sea with nothing because they have no other choice left.” She warned that Yemen, already shattered by decades of instability and crippling extreme poverty, cannot bear the weight of this growing crisis without urgent international support.

Since Thursday evening alone, more than 2,000 displaced people — a large share of whom are women and young children — have crossed the Red Sea by boat to reach neighboring Djibouti, IOM data shows. All new arrivals in Djibouti have been moved to a dedicated reception site in the northern town of Obock, where they are currently receiving emergency life-saving aid. The organization, however, cautioned that new waves of displacement are expected as fighting intensifies across western Yemen, and called for significantly increased international assistance to meet growing needs.

The latest escalation of hostilities dates back to September 3, when clashes between Saudi-backed government forces and Houthi fighters reignited across multiple frontlines. The resumption of violence has already killed hundreds of people on both sides. The conflict has spilled across borders, with Houthi forces launching cross-border attacks targeting Saudi territory, while Houthi media outlets confirm that Saudi aviation continues to carry out frequent air strikes on population centers and military positions held by the group in northern and western Yemen.

In a rapid, large-scale offensive launched earlier this week, Houthi fighters captured a broad stretch of Yemen’s Red Sea coastline along the Arabian Gulf, including several strategically vital islands and control of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait — a critical global shipping chokepoint that connects the Mediterranean Sea to the Indian Ocean via the Red Sea.

Local human rights group the Yemeni Network for Rights and Freedoms (YNRF) has documented widespread abuses against civilian populations in the newly captured coastal areas following Houthi fighters’ entry into local cities. The group has recorded more than 950 separate violations against civilians on western frontlines. Among the documented abuses are more than 150 unlawful killings of civilians. Preliminary investigation gathered by YNRF also confirms that Houthi fighters have looted private residences and seized personal property across the seized regions.

Additionally, the rights organization reported that Houthi authorities have launched a widespread mass arrest campaign targeting both civilian residents and former government military personnel. The detainees are being held as leverage to pressure their relatives to surrender themselves, turn over any privately held weapons, and align with Houthi rule, YNRF said.

This report was originally published by Middle East Eye, a media outlet that provides independent, in-depth coverage of political, social and humanitarian developments across the Middle East, North Africa and surrounding regions.