7-Minute Briefing: Ongoing conflicts and reasons to hope

Welcome to the 7-Minute Briefing podcast – your monthly roundup of news from the Middle East and North Africa, brought to you by SAT-7.

As many of us pack away the final trappings of Christmas and step with positivity back into a new year, the Middle East and North Africa begins 2024 dominated by the war in Gaza and an under-reported conflict in Sudan. Gaza has now seen war for over 100 days. A tired, frightened population is retreating into an ever-smaller, increasingly uninhabitable enclave, as intense fighting continues between the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and Hamas. The threat of further conflict also looms north on Israel’s border with neighbouring Lebanon, as tensions mount with the Islamic political group Hezbollah. And in Sudan, the fierce struggle for territory between the Sudanese army and the paramilitaries known as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) intensifies as both parties resist international calls for a negotiated peace.

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