Protesters chant slogans during a pro-Palestinian demonstration outside the Byzantine-era Hagia Sophia Mosque in Istanbul, Aug. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra, File)
The Associated Press’ top photos from the Middle East and the surrounding region in 2025 capture conflict, resilience, and moments of quiet wonder. Taken across Gaza, Israel, Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Turkey, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the United Arab Emirates, the 35 images reveal a turbulent year.
Photographers documented the human toll of war and violence: civilians affected by the Israeli crackdown in the occupied West Bank, devastation and death in Gaza, and hostages returning from Gaza. In Lebanon, a child injured by an exploding pager in an Israeli attack targeting Hezbollah members shows the intimate cost of conflict. In Syria, the aftermath of a bomb attack on a church and a fallen statue of late Syrian President Hafez Assad are juxtaposed with the exuberance of a night out at a bar.
Glimpses of everyday life and culture also emerge: children studying the Quran in an Afghan madrassa, a bull race in Pakistan, cyclists in the UAE, and an Afghan child in a refugee camp in Pakistan. Moments of joy and wonder appear too — children enjoying an amusement park ride in the moonlight in Iraq, and a couple about to board a ferry in Istanbul.
A special tribute honors Palestinian photographer Mariam Dagga, who was killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza in August. A 2023 photo of her smiling as she snaps a selfie with children at a school housing displaced people in southern Gaza appears beside one of her own images — the funeral of a 5-year-old child who died of malnutrition — highlighting the risks journalists face while documenting the conflict and life in the region.
These photographs offer a vivid record of 2025: a year of contrasts, of hardship and courage, of resilience and endurance, and of the people who continue to adapt and hope.
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This is a photo gallery curated by Benjamin Snyder and Enric Marti.
Fatima Rehan carries her 2-year-old son Mohammed as she and other members of the Rehan family search amid the rubble of their home destroyed by the Israeli army’s air and ground offensive against Hamas in Jabaliya, Gaza Strip, Feb. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana, File)Israeli captive, Eli Sharabi, who has been held hostage by Hamas in Gaza since October 7, 2023, stands on a stage escorted by Hamas fighters before being handed over to the Red Cross in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Feb. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana, File)President Donald Trump leaves the airport after he was greeted by UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan at Abu Dhabi International Airport, May 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri, File)Members of an Israeli military band listen to a live broadcast showing the first group of hostages being released from Hamas captivity in Gaza, ahead of a welcoming ceremony for U.S. President Donald Trump’s arrival at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, Israel, Oct. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit, File)Riders from different tribes compete during “Al-Mermah”, a traditional equestrian fencing competition and cultural heritage event in Qena, 457 kilometers (284 miles) south of Cairo, Egypt, Oct. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil, File)A half-moon sets behind the Sultanahmet Mosque during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan in Istanbul, Turkey, March 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel, File)Syrian Civil Defense teams and volunteers battle wildfire flames for the tenth consecutive day near the town of Kasab, in Syria’s Latakia countryside, July 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed, File)People enjoy a ride at an amusement park during Eid al-Adha in Baghdad, Iraq, June 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban, File)Members of a team shout and push a pair of bulls to start running during a traditional bull race competition in Malal, a village of Attock district, in Pakistan, May 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed, File)A Palestinian woman walks past the historic Pasha Palace in Gaza City after an Israeli airstrike badly damaged the building during war in the Gaza Strip, Nov. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi, File)A statue depicting late Syrian President Hafez Assad is seen destroyed on the top of a mount in Dayr Atiyah, Syria, Jan. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa, File)People gather at a bar as they enjoy the first night of the weekend in Damascus, Syria, Oct. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla, File)Ali Abbas, 11, who was wounded in the pager attacks carried out by Israel on Sept. 17, 2024, poses for a photograph in the southern village of Barish, Lebanon, April 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar, File)People react as they gather to watch a live broadcast of Israeli hostages released from Gaza at a plaza known as hostages square in Tel Aviv, Israel, Oct. 13, 2025. The release took place as part of a cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty, File)Freed Israeli hostage Omer Wenkert, gestures from a military helicopter as he arrives at Beilinson hospital in Petah Tikva, Israel, after he was released from Hamas captivity in the Gaza Strip, Feb. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit, File)Bicyclists ride along Sheikh Zayed highway during the annual Dubai Ride event in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Nov. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/ Fatima Shbair, File)Clergy speak beneath a damaged cross-shaped window inside the Mar Elias Greek Orthodox Church in Dweil’a, on the outskirts of Damascus, Syria, June 23, 2025, during a memorial service a day after a suicide bombing. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki, File)A Christian pilgrim rests her head while praying during Easter Sunday Mass at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the site where according to tradition Jesus was crucified and buried, in Jerusalem’s Old City, April 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean, File)The Israeli Iron Dome air defense system fires to intercept missiles over Tel Aviv, Israel, June 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa, File)A man looks at flames rising from an oil storage facility after it appeared to have been struck by an Israeli strike in Tehran, Iran, June 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)A person shines a light inside a tent while spending the night in a public shelter as a precaution against possible Iranian missile attacks in Tel Aviv, Israel, June 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg, File)Residents of the West Bank refugee camp of Nur Shams, Tulkarem, evacuate their homes as the Israeli military continues its operation in the area on Feb. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed, File)The body of 5-year-old Jamal al-Najjar is placed on the ground atop bricks before a funeral prayer after he died at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Aug. 12, 2025. The head of Nasser’s pediatrics unit said Jamal, who was born with rickets, died from severe malnutrition. (AP Photo/Mariam Dagga, File)Palestinians rush to collect humanitarian aid airdropped by parachutes into Zawaida in the central Gaza Strip, Aug. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana, File)Mourners carry the coffins of five Hezbollah fighters killed in Israeli strikes in recent days, during their funeral procession in the southern town of Nabatieh, Lebanon, Nov. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Mohammad Zaatari, File)An Afghan refugee girl peers through a torn curtain at the entrance of her home at the Kababayan Refugee Camp in Peshawar, Pakistan, April 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Muhammad Sajjad, File)Mohammed Abed, center, mourns his sister Massa Abed, 4, who was killed in an Israeli army airstrike on the Gaza Strip, at the morgue of Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, April 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana, File)Israeli settlers take pictures of foreign activists and farmers while they attempt to disrupt the harvest of olive groves by Palestinian farmers, in the West Bank town of Silwad, Oct. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser, File)A man pulls a sack full of discarded cartons and plastic items to be separated in Istanbul, Turkey, March 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco, File)Buildings destroyed by the Israeli military are in ruins around the Shijaiya neighborhood of Gaza City, during an army-organized tour for journalists, Nov. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg, File)Mourners gather around the flag-draped coffins of unknown Iranian soldiers who were killed in the 1980-88 Iraq-Iran war whose remains were recently recovered from the battlefields, during the funeral ceremony in Tehran, Iran, Nov. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)Afghan boys attend a Quran class at the Abdullah Ibn-Masoud religious school on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan, May 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi, File)Israeli right-wing activists watch the northern Gaza Strip during a rally calling for the re-establishment of Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip, near the border in southern Israel, July 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg, File)Passengers wait to board a ferry at the Besiktas terminal on the European side of Istanbul, Turkey, May 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco, File)
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