Israel
Area: 22,000 sq km. Population: 9.5m. Prime minister: Binyamin Netanyahu.
The State of Israel, founded as a homeland for Jewish people in 1948, is the strongest military power in the Middle East. It has occupied the Palestinian West Bank since 1967 and the Gaza Strip for much of that time. It has fought several wars. Though a “cold peace” exists with Jordan and Egypt, the Arab-Israeli conflict has profoundly shaped politics in the Middle East.
Israel’s current war on the Gaza Strip followed an attack on October 7th, 2023 by the Palestinian group Hamas that killed 1,195 Israeli citizens and captured more than 250. Since then, the Gaza health ministry says Israel has killed more than 55,000 Palestinians in Gaza. Israel has gone to war with Hizbullah in Lebanon, invaded Syria and bombed Iran.
Though supported by the United States, Israel’s actions in Gaza have been widely condemned, and the Irish Government has joined an International Court of Justice case against Israel under the Genocide Convention.
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Gaza and West Bank
Gaza – Area: 365 sq km. Population: 2.1m. West Bank – Area: 5,860 sq km. Population: 3.2m.
A 1947 UN resolution proposed dividing the then British-administered land of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states. Arabs did not accept the plan, and war ensued as soon as the state of Israel was declared. After decades of wars and paramilitary activity, Gaza and the West Bank are the remnants of those designated Arab territories. Israel occupied both areas in 1967, and 670,000 Israelis now live in West Bank settlements that are deemed illegal under international law. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, and Hamas – a Sunni Muslim political and paramilitary group – won an election the following year and took power. When Hamas launched its surprise attack on Israel on October 7th, 2023, Israel declared war. That war has claimed tens of thousands of Palestinian lives, devastated Gaza and destabilised the Middle East. There has been a simultaneous crackdown in the West Bank, where Israel has extended its settlements and killed more than 900 Palestinians, according to the United Nations.
Iran
Area: 1.65m sq km. Population: 92m. Supreme leader: Ali Khamenei.
Officially an Islamic republic since the 1979 revolution deposed its monarchy, Shia-Muslim-dominated Iran has in recent decades been the main agent of resistance to Israel’s regional power. It supported Hamas in Gaza, Hizbullah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen and militias in Syria and Iraq. This so-called “Axis of Resistance” has been hugely weakened by the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, Israel’s suppression of Hizbullah, and Israeli and US bombings of Iran’s nuclear sites. Iran is not thought to have developed nuclear weapons yet. Iran is close to Russia and China and has diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia and the European Union, though not the US. Its regime has faced international condemnation for its discrimination against woman and minorities, torture and arbitrary use of the death penalty.
Qatar
Area: 11,500 sq km. Population: 2.6m. Emir: Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.
The authoritarian regime has complicated relations with other countries in the region but is on speaking terms with most of them. Qatar has hosted (unsuccessful) peace talks between Israel and Hamas. Its state-owned media group Al Jazeera is influential across and beyond the Arab world. Qatar is home to the Middle East’s largest US airbase, which Iran attacked this week in response to US bombing of Iranian nuclear sites.
Lebanon
Area: 10,500 sq km. Population: 5.8m. President: Joseph Aoun.
One of the Middle East’s democracies, Lebanon is economically poor and militarily weak, and has a higher number of refugees per capita than any country in the world. The Shia-Muslim Hizbullah group, dedicated to the destruction of Israel, controls southern Lebanon through a quasi-army that has been funded and supported by Iran. After the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7th, 2023, Hizbullah launched its own rocket assault on Israel. In response, Israel invaded Lebanon and bombed its capital, Beirut. In late 2024, Israel severely disabled Hizbullah as a fighting force, wiping out the group’s leadership through targeted bombing and an audacious attack on thousands of individuals, 32 of whom died, using exploding pagers. It has dismantled much of Hizbullah’s military infrastructure, and an uneasy ceasefire remains in place.
Saudi Arabia
Area: 2.1m sq km. Population: 33.3m. Crown prince: Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud.
The largest country in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia is also among the richest, wielding great power as the world’s second biggest oil producer. A Sunni Muslim-majority country, Saudi Arabia is close to the US and has strained but peaceful relations with Shia-dominated Iran. The Hamas attack on Israel on October 7th, 2023, thwarted US-led talks that would have seen Saudi Arabia officially recognise Israel. Saudi Arabia has one of the world’s worst human rights records.
Syria
Area: 185,000 sq km. Population: 24m. President: Ahmed al-Sharaa.
The Assad family – backed by Iran and Russia – ruled Syria for half a century and fought a bloody civil war from 2011 to 2024. Bashar al-Assad fled to Russia in December 2024, ceding the country to Islamist rebels. His fall has weakened not only Syria’s own military heft, but also Iran’s power in the Middle East (Syria is a Shia-majority country). Israel took immediate advantage by occupying a buffer zone around the Golan Heights. The regime change has disabled Syria as a regional power. Countries including the US, EU, Qatar and Iraq are lifting sanctions and engaging warily with the new regime.
Yemen
Area: 455,000 sq km. Population: 40m. Presidential leadership council chairman: Rashad al-Alimi.
Ruined by civil war, poverty and a humanitarian crisis, Yemen is the opposite of a superpower. Yet it is influential due to its location and as the base of the Houthis – a Shia rebel group supported by Iran. The Houthis, who oppose both the Yemeni government and Israel’s war on Gaza, control western Yemen near the mouth of the Red Sea. From there they have attacked ships bound for Israel, reducing use of the Suez Canal and dealing a blow to world trade. The Houthis in turn have been subject to missile attacks by the US. The two announced a ceasefire in May, but after the US bombed Iran’s nuclear sites on June 22nd, the Houthis declared the ceasefire over.
