The anxiety in the Middle East has been palpable since Tuesday night. The killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran happened only hours after Israel struck a south Beirut suburb, claiming to have killed Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukr.

Mr Haniyeh was on a trip to Iran for the inauguration of president Masoud Pezeshkian when he was killed, provoking vows of punishment against Israel by the country’s supreme leader, although Israel has yet to claim the attack. The strike in Lebanon came days after a rocket hit a football field in Majdal Shams in the Israeli occupied Golan Heights, killing 12 children, for which Israel and Hezbollah blamed each other.

In the aftermath of a deadly week, we look at what happens when two major players in the so-called “Axis of Resistance” are attacked and how these escalations will affect ceasefire talks in Gaza. In this episode, host Nada AlTaher speaks to MENA programme director at Crisis Group Joost Hiltermann and Palestinian analyst Taghreed El-Khodary.

Residents in the Yemeni city of Hodeidah woke up last Sunday to plumes of black smoke filling the skies. Israel had just struck the port, a main artery for the city, killing nine people and injuring more than 80 others after hitting a fuel depot. The attack came a day after a Houthi drone hit Tel Aviv, killing one person.

For months the international community has been cautioning against further spillovers from the war in Gaza. The Houthis have been routinely launching drone strikes at southern Israel and attacking commercial ships in the Red Sea. At the same time, Israel is engaged in cross-border attacks with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and has also locked its targets on Syria.

But this latest attack on Hodeidah is the first time Israel has hit Yemen directly, marking an unprecedented escalation between the two sides.

In this week’s Beyond the Headlines, Nada AlTaher hosts a discussion with Abdul Ghani Al-Iryani, senior researcher at the Sana'a Centre for Strategic Studies, and Kobi Michael, a senior research fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, and asks, will the latest attacks provoke a full-scale war in the region?

Hundreds of rioters were arrested at the start of July after angry mobs in Turkey vandalised cars and shops belonging to Syrian refugees. Fuelled by reports that a Syrian man had assaulted a young girl, nationalist Turks violently protested about their government’s alleged inaction towards the Syrian refugee crisis in their country.

But it’s part of a much wider story. Earlier this week, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made the most direct statements yet that he’s willing to reinstate ties with Syria’s Bashar Al Assad. This shift in tone would mark a breakthrough since Ankara and Damuscus severed diplomatic ties following Syria’s 2011 uprisings and subsequent civil war.

Today more than 3 million Syrians who fled the violence and crackdowns at home reside in Turkey. But growing discontent and xenophobic sentiments toward them, alongside the possibility of normalised relations with Assad, have led to fears that refugees might have to return to a divided and dangerous Syria.

For insight into what’s going on and what may happen next, host Nada AlTaher speaks to The National’s Istanbul correspondent Lizzie Porter, Senior Researcher at TRENDS Research and Advisory Serhat Cubukcuoglu and Syria analyst Sam Heller.

The intense heatwaves sweeping across the Middle East this summer is taking a high toll on people. Temperatures have soared to unprecedented levels, causing widespread discomfort and significant challenges in many countries that might even be unequipped to face the impacts of climate change.

During this year's Hajj season, which took place in mid-June, temperatures soared sometimes to almost 52°C in Makkah, leading to over 1,300 deaths.

Many Arab countries are experiencing extreme heat this year. In Egypt, daily life has become uncomfortable and has also strained the country's power grid, leading to occasional blackouts. In Lebanon, many people are struggling to cope with limited access to electricity and cooling. And in Iraq, the government has taken an unprecedented step of cutting working hours to help citizens deal with the extreme temperatures.

In this episode of Beyond The Headlines, host Ismaeel Naar looks at how life in some Arab countries has been affected because of the heat crisis.

Eight months into the war in Gaza, as two million people there struggle for survival and more than 36,600 have lost their lives, the fate of Israel and Hamas themselves also hangs in the balance.

Israel has said it will not stop the war until it eradicates Hamas, but it is also struggling internally as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fights for power – and what his army can realistically achieve on the ground as pressure mounts for him to stick to the rules of military combat and international humanitarian law.

Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden outlined a ceasefire plan to move from a limited exchange of hostages for detainees to broader discussions about a permanent end to the war. The plan includes ending hostilities, releasing hostages and reconstructing Gaza in the long term.

Mr Biden has acknowledged this transition will be challenging, as a point of contention is that Mr Netanyahu wants the hostages released first before a ceasefire begins and Hamas wants the opposite.

In this week’s Beyond The Headlines, host Nada AlTaher looks into the dynamics that influence the prospects of ending the war, why previous attempts at negotiation have failed and how much internal and external pressures can influence Israel.

A series of deadly Israeli strikes launched on May 26 at a camp for displaced people in Rafah, targeting two senior Hamas members, caused a fire and killed 45 people.

It came only days after global leaders urged Israel to adhere to a ruling by the International Court of Justice ordering it to halt its military operations in the city.

This incident has prompted an international outcry and widespread condemnation. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it was a “tragic mishap” that would be investigated.

In related developments this week, three European countries - Spain, Norway and Ireland - formally recognised the state of Palestine, in a symbolic move meant to show a way out of the war in the Middle East.

In this week’s Beyond The Headlines, host Nada AlTaher looks at May 26, why Rafah has become the main focus of military operations in Gaza, and the reaction in Israel to the ICJ order and the moves to recognise Palestine.