Beyond the Headlines – Details, episodes & analysis

Four years after the Taliban’s return to power, Afghanistan remains in the shadow of that chaotic August day in 2021 when US troops finally withdrew, ending two decades of war.

The images from Kabul’s airport are still etched in global memory, as crowds of desperate Afghans clung to departing planes as the US backed government collapsed and the Taliban took full control.

Since then, the country is going through a deepening economic crisis and the end of an active conflict. All of this has been worsened by US aid cuts ordered by President Trump’s administration.

In this episode of Beyond the Headlines, host Nada AlTaher explores what Afghanistan looks like today and examines the impact of America’s policies on its people. She speaks to CNN’s International Correspondent Isobel Yeung who was in Afghanistan recently to investigate this, and Sulaiman bin Shah, the former deputy minister of commerce who is currently in Kabul.

Nearly two decades after Israel withdrew from Gaza, dismantling settlements and military posts under Ariel Sharon’s leadership, the Israeli government has now approved a plan to take over the Palestinian enclave again, following 22 months of its war there.

What began as speculation this week quickly became official policy after a 10-hour security cabinet meeting, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gained approval to take full control of northern Gaza.

The plan includes displacing up to a million people and reshaping governance in the strip under an as yet undefined “civilian authority”.

Mr Netanyahu claims this move will restore Israel’s security and free Gazans from Hamas rule. But critics, including top military officials and former security leaders, warn this could destroy prospects for a ceasefire, worsen the humanitarian catastrophe and endanger remaining hostages.

In this episode of Beyond the Headlines, host Nada AlTaher speaks to two Israeli figures on opposite sides of the debate: Yossi Kuperwasser, head of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security think tank and former head of the research division in the Israeli military intelligence; and Ami Ayalon, a former commander of the Israeli Navy and former director of the Israel security agency Shin Bet. One defends reoccupation as a necessary strategy, the other calls it a dangerous step that could cost Israel its identity, security and future.

The toll of war is often measured in figures: the number of people killed, injured or displaced. But how do we calculate the cost of ending a war?

In the case of Gaza, where Israel continues to pursue a 20-month military offensive, the sacrifices will be difficult to quantify.

US President Donald Trump had been confident that a ceasefire would be reached this week as Israel and Hamas negotiate through mediators in Doha. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited and left the White House without a deal being reached.

It’s not the first time such talk talks have dragged on, but the collapse of the previous truce brings caution in its wake. Between the lines of any potential agreement are conditions that could be catastrophic for Gaza. What would aid distribution look like after the war ends? Will the entire population be “concentrated” into camps, as Israel's defence minister stated? Is reconstruction an option at all at this point? Will the strip be militarily occupied? Meanwhile, what impact will all this have on the West Bank?

In this episode of Beyond the Headlines, host Nada AlTaher discusses the painstaking efforts to end the war in Gaza and how a ceasefire could impact security, aid and governance in the enclave. She speaks to Tahani Mustafa, senior Palestine analyst at the International Crisis Group, and Michael Milshtein, head of the Palestinian Studies Forum at the Moshe Dayan Center at Tel Aviv University.

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The US is feeling the pressure of the war in Gaza because of the way President Joe Biden is deemed to be handling the conflict.

In the days after the October 7 Hamas attacks, Mr Biden visited Israel and expressed his staunch support for the country.

But as civilian casualties rise in Gaza, the Biden administration has begun to call for temporary pauses in hostilities and for more humanitarian aid to be allowed into the enclave, although it has, so far, rejected calls for a ceasefire.

Thousands of protesters held a rally in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza earlier this week amid a background of rising public anger towards policymakers.

In this episode of Beyond The Headlines, host Thomas Watkins, The National’s Washington bureau chief, examines the Gaza conflict from the US perspective.

A month ago, the military wing of Hamas attacked the Israeli border on October 7th, killing more than 1,400 Israelis and igniting a brutal war.

Israel retaliated through a relentless bombing of Gaza and its people, saying Hamas militants were its only targets. However, the civilian death toll has passed 10,000.

A mass attack by Israeli armoured divisions was predicted as a response. However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government appears to be preparing for a long war. Officials say it could last from four to six months, but analysts say it could stretch for a year.

On this episode of Beyond the Headlines, host Thomas Harding looks at how effective the Israeli offensive has been against Hamas so far.

Life in Gaza has been nothing but harrowing for a month now. Fighting between Hamas and the Israeli military has intensified, with Israel saying the war has now entered its second phase, as its army surrounds Gaza.

But civilians are still paying the highest cost of this war. More than 9,000 people have been killed in Gaza, including more than 3,600 children, since October 7, which has seen an attack from Hamas that killed more than 1,400 in Israel.

People in Gaza are facing non-stop bombardment. Those who have lived through war after war are saying this is the worst they’ve ever seen.

This week on Beyond the Headlines, host Nada AlTaher takes a closer look at the condition of hospitals in Gaza by speaking to one of the doctors on the front line. We also explore how Gaza reached this point and what is expected of Hamas with the war entering its second phase.

There is a whiff of war in Lebanon. Haunted by memories of previous conflicts, many Lebanese are worried about a major escalation, and preparing for the worst.

Families have packed emergency bags in case they need to suddenly be evacuated. People have begun stockpiling medicine and water. In Tyre, the urban soundscape is occasionally interrupted by the sound of bombardment coming from the frontier. And elsewhere in southern Lebanon, which shares a border with Israel, some towns are deserted.

The border has been the site of a so far contained conflict between the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Israel – with nevertheless dozens of fatalities - in a splinter of the broader Israel-Gaza war.

On this episode of Beyond the Headlines, host Nada Homsi from The National’s Beirut bureau asks how Lebanon’s Hezbollah is involved in the current conflict - and where it could go from here.

The world’s attention has turned to a corner of the Sinai region of Egypt.

The location is the Rafah Crossing, where for days lorries laden with aid have queued to enter the Palestinian territory from Egypt. On the other side of the crossing, Palestinians and dual nationals trapped in Gaza wait under Israeli rocket fire in the hope of being able to leave.

But Egypt finds itself in an impossible situation – should it offer civilians from Gaza a safe route out of the territory and welcome them as refugees? Or should it keep its border closed and leave 2.3 million people at the mercy of Israel’s retaliation for Hamas’s attack on October 7.

In this week’s Beyond the Headlines, host Ismaeel Naar talks to The National’s Cairo correspondent, Hamza Hendawi, about the predicament facing Egypt.

In September, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stood in front of world leaders at the UN General Assembly and displayed two maps: one showing Israel’s isolation at the time of its creation in 1948, and another showing the Arab countries that have normalised relations with it. He referred to a “new Middle East”.   That came amid US-led talks aimed at Israel and Saudi Arabia establishing formal ties.   But today, as we record on October 18, we’re in a different reality. The Israel-Gaza war has created a dangerous potential turning point for the region - and the world - putting peace on the back burner.   On this episode of Beyond the Headlines, host Sulaiman Hakemy asks whether the Israel-Gaza war is the start of something much bigger – and even worse.

The world is now witnessing a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Thousands of residents have been killed or injured by 10 days of airstrikes. Hospitals and medical facilities are struggling to operate, and the enclave has no access to food, fuel, electricity or a clean water supply.

Ambulances and lorries full of humanitarian supplies are currently queuing on the Egyptian border with Gaza, waiting for a ceasefire to allow them in.

This is happening while hundreds of thousands of families have been internally displaced from northern Gaza to the south of the strip after an Israeli evacuation order. They are still struggling with the continued bombardment of airstrikes and often have nowhere to stay.

In this episode of Beyond The Headlines, host Nada AlTaher looks at the humanitarian crisis gripping Gaza.