Members of the the Druze Military Council, paramilitary group in Sweida, Syria on the 8th of March, 2025. Emily Garthwaite for NPR hide caption
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Ahmad Dwikat, a Palestinian worker, inspects bars of soap stacked to dry before packing them at a soap factory in the West Bank city of Nablus, on March 1. Abed Omar Qusinis for NPR hide caption
Nablus soap gets UNESCO recognition in Israeli-occupied West Bank
Kifah Zainie, 34, co-owns and manages Sugar Man, a popular nightspot in Damascus, on March 27. Zainie says he's uncertain about the future of the alcohol industry, under Syria's new conservative Muslim rulers. Hasan Belal for NPR hide caption
What happened when Syria’s conservative new leaders tried to shut 60 Damascus bars
In this photo released by the Iranian Presidency Office, President Masoud Pezeshkian speaks during a rally commemorating anniversary of 1979 Islamic Revolution that toppled the late pro-U.S. Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and brought Islamic clerics to power, in Tehran, Iran, Monday, Feb. 10, 2025. AP/Iranian Presidency Office hide caption
Hamdan Ballal, Oscar-winning Palestinian director of No Other Land, is released from a police station in the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba a day after being detained by the Israeli army following an attack by Jewish settlers, on Tuesday. Leo Correa/AP hide caption
Palestinians celebrate Ramadan in Gaza City, Gaza on March 6, 2025. Anas Baba/NPR hide caption
Israel's Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has threatened to collapse Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's governing coalition if the war doesn't continue in Gaza. Menahem Kahana/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
Why did Israel restart the war? One answer: Bezalel Smotrich.
Palestinians celebrate breaking the fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, on March 6. Anas Baba/NPR hide caption
Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike on Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Friday. Hassan Ammar/AP hide caption
Palestinians receive bags of flour and other humanitarian aid distributed by UNRWA, the U.N. agency helping Palestinian refugees, in Jabaliya, Gaza Strip, on Tuesday. Jehad Alshrafi/AP hide caption
Children carry signs in Arabic that read, "We refuse to die," during a rally calling for an end to the war, in Beit Lahia, in the northern Gaza Strip, on Wednesday. AFP/Getty Images hide caption
Hamdan Ballal, an Oscar-winning Palestinian co-director of No Other Land, is released from a police station in the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba on Tuesday, a day after being detained by the Israeli army following an attack by Jewish settlers. Leo Correa/AP hide caption
Hamdan Ballal, a Palestinian director beaten by Israeli settlers, is now released
People take part in a protest demanding the immediate release of hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday. Ohad Zwigenberg/AP hide caption
Hamdan Ballal, Palestinian co-director of Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land, is detained by the Israeli military from his home in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Monday. Raviv Rose/AP hide caption
Israeli Minister of finance and leader of National Zionism, Bezalel Smotrich, speaks to the press during a party meeting on February 5, 2024 in Jerusalem. Amir Levy/Getty Images hide caption
Displaced Palestinians, who flee from Rafah amid ongoing Israeli military operations following Israel's renewed offensive in the Gaza Strip, arrive in Khan Younis, Gaza, on Sunday. Abdel Kareem Hana/AP hide caption
Israel weighs plans for a full-scale ground invasion of Gaza
Mohammed Nabil Abu Naser holds a handwritten list of family members killed in an October 2024 Israeli strike in northern Gaza. Mahmoud Rehan/NPR hide caption
Palestinians walk amid the rubble of destroyed homes and buildings in Jabaliya, northern Gaza Strip, March 14. Jehad Alshrafi/AP hide caption
People take part in a protest demanding the immediate release of hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, March 22, 2025. Ohad Zwigenberg/AP hide caption
Smoke billows from the site of Israeli artillery shelling that targeted the area of the southern Lebanese village of Yohmor on Saturday. Rabih Daher/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
Healy Hall, the flagship building of Georgetown University's main campus in Washington, D.C., is seen in 2011. Mladen Antonov/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
Palestinian children walk amid rubble of destroyed houses after Israeli attacks in Jenin camp, the occupied West Bank, on Feb. 26. Nidal Eshtayeh/Xinhua News Agency via Getty Images hide caption
Fayez Abu Halima, 39, (right) and his brothers cry over the body of their mother killed in Israeli airstrikes on homes in northern Gaza's Beit Lahia. He tells NPR from the hospital morgue: "We did not expect the war to restart with such ferocity… We are living in hell." At least 25 members of the family were killed in the pre-dawn airstrikes Mar. 20, 2025. Anas Baba/NPR hide caption