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Beirut

The ritzy waterfront tourist hub was a safe haven – until a drone blasted the Ramada hotel

The strike shows Israeli forces will intensify their campaign in any part of Lebanon to hunt down Hezbollah militants and their allies from Iran, even if that risks civilian casualties.

  • David Crowe and Kate Geraghty

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The US-led attack on Tehran has put Australia’s nuclear safety watchdog on alert.

Australia’s nuclear emergency centre ‘on alert’ after Iran attack

The Melbourne-based nuclear incident room monitors global radiation threats and can model how radioactive material could spread.

  • Annika Smethurst
Flames and smoke rise following Israeli airstrikes on Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, on Monday.

What is Hezbollah and why is Israel attacking Lebanon?

Israel began striking southern Lebanon on Monday in response to rockets being fired into its north. Now it says a Lebanese party chief is an assassination target. Here’s what to know.

Anthony Albanese says “Well, we are doing nothing to repatriate or to assist these people. I think it’s unfortunate that children are caught up in this”.

Suddenly, Albo’s a hard-nosed patriot (with an acute scent for votes)

Lo and behold, the PM doesn’t want the ISIS brides or their children to return to Australia. Labor’s U-turn is highly suspect.

  • Parnell Palme McGuinness
Kirsty Rosse-Emile, pictured with son Yahya in 2019, is expected to eventually be resettled in Melbourne.

Too dangerous to return? What we know of the ISIS brides

Some call for the families to be rescued from the camps in Syria. Others, haunted by their own suffering at the hands of Islamic State, are afraid of their return.

  • Michael Bachelard and Anthony Segaert
Australian girls in al-Roj camp on Wednesday.

ISIS brides prepared to go to jail to get their children to Australia

ASIO has cleared this cohort of security concerns but the government still insists it will not bring back anyone – women or children.

  • Michael Bachelard and Andrew Probyn
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If the ISIS women and children come home, Australia will be safer

I’ve been dealing with these mothers and children since 2015. Some of them have known nothing but the barbed-wire enclosure of the camps.

  • Jamal Rifi
Jamal Rifi.

Doctor working to bring home ISIS brides carrying extra passport for ‘lost’ boy jailed in Iraq

In his first public comments, Jamal Rifi, the Sydney doctor organising the families’ return, said the prime minister’s tough talk was “the biggest obstacle”.

  • Michael Bachelard and Brittany Busch
An Australian child hoping to escape al-Roj camp in Syria on Monday, February 21.

How PM’s tough line on IS brides has left 34 women and children in no man’s land

Buried in the fine print of Anthony Albanese’s harsh words is a caveat: almost all of these people are entitled by law to come back to Australia from Syria.

  • Michael Bachelard
An unidentified boy on Wednesday in a section of the Al Roj camp in Syria housing Australian family members of suspected Islamic State militants.

Bring these Australian children home, PM. They did not make their own beds

Preventing the return of women and children trapped in Syria will not make Australia safer.

  • Fionnuala Ni Aolain and Ben Saul