🧵1) Israel's killing of Hassan Nasrallah is hugely consequential for the Middle East. Hezbollah is the crown jewel of the Islamic Republic of Iran-the one effective enterprise Iran’s revolutionaries have built since 1979-and Nasrallah has been crucial to Iran’s power expansion.

Ayatollah Khamenei will lead the Friday prayer in Tehran this week and deliver a sermon that is expected to set the tone for Iran’s strategy against Israel and retaliation, He only does this under extraordinary circumstances, the last time was 2020 after killing Gen. Sulaimani.

This is bad — multiple huge ballistic missile impacts around #TelAviv tonight. #Israel will respond hard, that seems inevitable. Far more than was seen in April.

Senior Iranian official: U.S. was alerted by Iran through diplomatic channels 'shortly before the attacks'- Reuters wire.

This is what remains of the South Beirut apartment of the woman who helped raise me. She & her family were never affilaited with Hezbollah. In fact, they were once openly opposed. She now has no where to go. Real lives. Real people. Real heartbreak ❤️‍🩹

Inside Lebanon's only hospital burn unit - by Arezou Rezvani + Jawad Moussa, with 📸 by Ali Khara npr.org/2024/10/28/nx-…

Eighteen-month-old Ivana Likbiri was playing with her older sister on the balcony of their home one recent morning when Israel’s airstrikes came. In a flash, the wood terrace the two little girls were playing on went up in flames. ✍️🏽 Arezou Rezvani NPR npr.org/2024/10/28/nx-…

The Israeli enemy refuses to grant permission for ambulances to enter and rescue 20 civilians, mostly children and women, in the Wata al-Khiyam area. (Coordinates: 33.3059354, 35.6160007). These individuals have been trapped under the rubble for 72 hours, with no serious efforts

Israel has damaged or destroyed nearly a quarter of buildings in Lebanon’s south, impacting more than 5k structures, including at least nine religious sites demolished in controlled explosions, a WaPo analysis has found

📍 Beirut’s southern suburb, Lebanon. “The music.. the ash and burn..life is beautiful. This is our house and our shop, it’s all gone” They will never defeat my people.

UN humanitarian coordinator from northern Gaza: “This is not a place for humans to survive. This must end. This misery must end. This war must end. This is beyond imagination. trib.al/n1PZzQi

In Lebanon, residents fear #Hezbollah could be hiding among people displaced by war npr.org/2024/11/12/nx-…

Simply astonishing advances by Syrian rebels into Aleppo. In just a few hours they’ve overrun parts of the city they couldn’t take in 4 years of fighting a decade ago. It goes to show how much the Assad regime was depending on Hezbollah and Iran for its survival.

OK folks, here's what we know so far from #Syria - a 🧵: #Aleppo city has fallen, along with the entire western countryside & much of the south too -- including the international airport & Kuweiris Airbase. A few #Russia airstrikes, but little else.

A Syrian friend tells me regime officials going door to door in parts of Homs province trying to shore up local support - including from residents the regime has jailed (and tortured) for their opposition to Assad…

On the road to Damascus. In the final hours of Assad's rule, soldiers ditched their uniforms, their posts, and military IDs.

🚨#Caesar's photo smuggler reveals his identity For many years, the world only knew them by these two names: Caesar and Sami. The two names have been associated, since 2014, with the file of torture in #Syrian prisons. The ugliness of the photos they smuggled out of Syria shook

In other cells, prisoners had drawn in the walls - incredible art without pens, just scratching at the paint - decorations, messages of love and desperation and English lessons.

An Islamic State fighter I randomly met in Damascus on the kind of future he wants for Syria: "If they don't apply Sharia law, this war will never end." npr.org/2025/01/02/nx-…

1/10 The US bombing of Iran's nuclear facilities is an unprecedented event that may prove to be transformational for Iran, the Middle East, US foreign policy, global non-proliferation, and potentially even the global order. Its impact will be measured for decades to come. 🧵