2025 Government Shutdown | Middle East Conflicts

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2025 Government Shutdown

Here are some useful terms when covering a U.S. government shutdown:

shutdown (n.) shut down (v.)

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furlough versus layoff (n.) lay off (v.)

When workers are furloughed, they are let go by an employer but are considered on a leave of absence and sometimes remain eligible for benefits such as health insurance. Employees who are laid off are considered permanently let go. Both categories of workers are eligible for unemployment benefits. Hyphenate as a modifier: laid-off workers.

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Office of Management and Budget

Capitalize office when it is part of an agency's formal name: Office of Management and Budget.

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tax credit (n.)

An amount of money that is subtracted from taxes owed. Example: Families with children in college will receive a tax credit this year.

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Affordable Care Act

Shorthand for the formal title of the health care overhaul that former President Barack Obama signed into law in 2010. On second reference, ACA or “Obamacare” (the latter in quote marks) are acceptable. Its full name is Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

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Middle East Conflicts Topical Guide

This topical guide provides definitions, background and guidance related to the current conflicts in the Middle East. It is compiled from Associated Press coverage, AP experts and the AP Stylebook.

See full AP coverage for updates and more background, context and terms.

This updates and edits the previous topical guide. Some entries have been shortened or split up for clarity. Also, outdated material has been removed, including information that is changing continuously and could quickly become incorrect. New in this version: guidance on ceasefires and famine.

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Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel from the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251 others. Israel launched a retaliatory offensive that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, displaced around 90% of Gaza's population and destroyed vast areas. Famine has taken hold in Gaza City and there is widespread hunger across the territory.

Most of the hostages have been released in ceasefire deals, some are still being held, some have died in captivity and a small number were mistakenly killed by Israeli forces.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the war will end only when all the hostages are returned and Hamas has been disarmed.

Hamas has said it will only free the remaining hostages in return for the release of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal.

Ceasefire agreements have been reached at several points but have not led to an end to the war.

The war has sparked worldwide protests and left Israel increasingly isolated. The International Court of Justice is considering allegations of genocide against Israel, and the International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants, including against Netanyahu.

Israel has adamantly rejected those allegations.

Nearly all of Hamas' leaders in Gaza have been killed and its military forces have been vastly diminished.

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balance

When approaching the decades-old Israeli-Arab and Israeli-Palestinian conflicts, it is important to understand the deep wells of anger, hurt and grievance built up over generations among Israelis and Palestinians who have lived with insecurity and conflict their whole lives, and who have seen the failure of peace efforts.

Words should be chosen carefully to reflect respect for different perspectives.

Palestinians are broadly divided between those who seek accommodation with Israel in the form of a two-state solution and those who seek its destruction through armed resistance. Similarly, Israelis are divided between those who are open to an agreement granting Palestinians independence or greater autonomy and those who oppose Palestinian statehood and seek continued control over occupied territories on security or religious grounds.

Avoid stereotyping, discuss nuance, and in broad ways maintain a balanced perspective.

When talking about attacks, keep in mind that in a conflict going back so many years, there are often many antecedents.

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ceasefire, ceasefires (n. and adj.)

Ceasefire is one word, without a hyphen as a noun or adjective.

The verb form is cease fire.

Do not refer to ceasefires as peace deals or peace agreements, as that would imply a lasting resolution to the conflicts.

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war

The AP refers to the Israel-Hamas war, the Israel-Hezbollah war and the Israel-Iran war, or the war between Israel and Hamas/Hezbollah/Iran. Lowercase the word war. AP capitalizes that word only as part of formal names, which as of now do not exist.

Do not use terms such as Israel-Palestinian war or Israel-Lebanon war, as major Palestinian and Lebanese factions did not take part.

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terrorism

The calculated use of violence, especially against civilians, to create terror to disrupt and demoralize societies for political ends. Israel, the U.S., the European Union and some other countries have branded Hamas and Hezbollah as terrorist groups.

The terms terrorism and terrorist have become politicized and often are applied inconsistently around the world. Because they can be used to label such a wide range of actions and events, and because the debate around them is so intense, detailing what happened is more precise and better serves audiences.

Instead of labeling an attack or attacker as terrorism or terrorist, AP describes the specific atrocity, massacre, bombing, assassination, and so on. We do not use the terms terrorism or terrorist for specific actions or groups, other than when attributed to authorities or others.

We continue to use the terms in broad references to terrorism as a threat and anti-terrorism efforts, terror financing, etc.

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militant, militants

AP uses this term to describe Hamas, Hezbollah and other armed non-state actors.

Terms such as fighters, attackers or combatants are also acceptable depending on the context. Do not use the term soldiers or resistance with reference to such groups outside of direct quotations.

The Israeli army has soldiers. It also can be called the Israeli military. Use its official name, Israel Defense Forces, and the acronym IDF only in direct quotations.

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Palestine

Use Palestine only in the context of Palestine's activities in international bodies to which it has been admitted.

Do not use Palestine or the state of Palestine in other situations, since it is not a fully independent, unified state. For territory, refer specifically to the West Bank or the Gaza Strip, or the Palestinian territories in reference to both.

Many countries around the world have recognized a Palestinian state as the war has continued.

Palestinians are Arabs who live in, or whose ancestors lived in, the geographic area that comprises Israel, the Gaza Strip, the occupied West Bank, and east Jerusalem. These areas made up the British-ruled Palestine Mandate carved out of the Ottoman Empire after World War I.

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the Gaza Strip, Gaza

The Gaza Strip is an area of about 140 square miles (362 square km) and roughly 2 million people at the border of Israel and Egypt on the Mediterranean Sea. One of two Palestinian territories along with the West Bank, it is one of the most densely populated and impoverished areas in the world. Gaza is acceptable on second reference.

Palestinians seek Gaza, along with the West Bank and east Jerusalem — areas captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war — for a future state.

Do not use the term Gazans.

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Gaza Health Ministry

The Gaza Health Ministry, which is part of the Hamas-run government, maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts. We refer to it as the Gaza Health Ministry or the Health Ministry in Gaza. See this story for more detail.

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the wartime blockade

Israel has severely tightened the blockade of Gaza since the start of the war, causing widespread shortages of food, fuel, medical supplies and other essentials. It has eased the blockade on some occasions under U.S. pressure or during ceasefires and because of international pressure.

Israel says it allows enough aid to meet Gaza's needs and accuses Hamas of diverting it, allegations denied by the U.N., which plays a key role in most aid delivery.

The U.N. says it often cannot deliver the aid Israel allows to enter because of other Israeli restrictions and a breakdown in security.

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famine, hunger crisis

In August, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, the leading authority on global hunger crises, said for the first time that parts of Gaza are in famine and warned that it is spreading. For months, U.N. agencies, aid groups and experts had warned that Israel's blockade and ongoing offensive were pushing the territory to the brink.

A formal classification is made when three specific conditions exist: 20% of households have an extreme lack of food; at least 30% of children 6 months to 5 years old suffer from acute malnutrition or wasting; at least two people or four children under 5 per 10,000 are dying daily due to starvation or the interaction of malnutrition and disease.

There are unique challenges to gathering such data in Gaza. Israel heavily restricts access to the territory and its offensive has gutted the local health system.

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Gaza Humanitarian Foundation

The American contractor, backed by Israel and the U.S., began distributing aid at a handful of sites in Gaza in May 2025. Israel and the U.S. say it delivers food to Palestinians while preventing Hamas from siphoning if off.

The United Nations and major aid groups refuse to work with GHF, accusing it of violating humanitarian principles by forcing Palestinians to make long and dangerous journeys to receive aid and allowing Israel to use aid as a weapon for displacing the population.

The aid distribution points are surrounded by Israeli military zones and off-limits to independent media. Three are in the southernmost city of Rafah, which has been destroyed and is mostly uninhabited. The fourth is in central Gaza.

Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces while heading to the sites since they opened in May, according to witnesses, local health officials and the U.N. human rights office.

Israel says it has only fired warning shots, and GHF says its armed contractors have only used pepper spray and fired shots in the air on some occasions. Both say the death toll has been exaggerated.

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Hamas

The militant group was established in the late 1980s with the goal of destroying Israel through armed struggle and establishing a Palestinian state in what is now Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. It has an armed wing, a political party, charities and media outlets.

Hamas has carried out hundreds of deadly attacks over the years against Israelis, often targeting civilians. Israel, the United States, the European Union and others consider it a terrorist organization. Iran has supported Hamas militarily, while Qatar and Turkey maintain friendly relations with it while distancing themselves from its militant activities.

Hamas defeated its main rivals, the secular Fatah, in the last Palestinian national elections held in 2006. It seized power in Gaza the following year after months of factional violence and ran a government with ministries, courts, civil servants and a police force.

Israel and Hamas fought previous wars in 2008-2009, 2012, 2014 and 2021.

Possessive form: Hamas' not Hamas's.

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Hezbollah

The Lebanese Hezbollah militant group was founded with Iranian support in 1982 after Israel's invasion of Lebanon that was launched against Palestinian militants.

Hezbollah began launching rockets at Israel the day after the Oct. 7 attack in solidarity with Hamas, drawing retaliatory Israeli airstrikes. The conflict steadily escalated.

In September 2024, Israel carried out a sophisticated attack on Hezbollah involving booby-trapped pagers and walkie-talkies, and airstrikes killed most of Hezbollah's leaders and destroyed much of its rocket arsenal. Israeli troops later invaded southern Lebanon.

The fighting ended with a ceasefire in November 2024, but Israel still holds some strategic locations just inside Lebanon and regularly carries out strikes against what it says are militant targets. Those strikes sometimes kill civilians.

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Houthis

Yemen's Houthi rebels emerged in the 1990s as an uprising against the central government by members of the country's Zaydi minority, a branch of Shiite Islam.

The Iran-backed rebels captured much of northern Yemen, including the capital, Sanaa, in 2014. Saudi Arabia intervened the following year on behalf of the internationally recognized government. A 2022 ceasefire in that war has largely held despite it no longer being formally in effect.

After the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, the Houthis began attacking commercial ships in the Red Sea along a major route for international trade. They portrayed it as a blockade of Israel in support of the Palestinians, but the vast majority of ships had no known ties to Israel or the conflict.

The Houthis have also fired dozens of long-range missiles and drones at Israel. Most have been intercepted or landed in open areas. Israel has responded with airstrikes targeting Sanaa's international airport, the Houthi-run port of Hodeida and other sites. The U.S. has also carried out airstrikes against the Houthis.

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Israel

The modern state was declared in 1948 after Arab countries rejected the United Nations' partition resolution — a plan that would have divided the region into two states with Jerusalem controlled by the U.N. The Palestinians would have gotten less than half the territory, even though they were the majority of the population and owned most of the land.

Israelis believed in creating a Jewish state in the biblical land of Israel as a guarantor of Jewish survival, an idea that gained strength internationally in the wake of the Holocaust.

The state was immediately recognized by the United States and admitted to the U.N. Israel was attacked by neighboring Arab countries and won the war. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians living in what would become Israel fled or were forcibly expelled before and during the war and settled in refugee camps in the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. This mass displacement is a source of tension to this day known to Palestinians as the Nakba, the Arabic word for catastrophe.

Later wars, including the 1967 and 1973 Mideast wars, further defined the de facto frontiers of Israel, which developed over the years into a regional power backed by the United States.

Israel and Egypt made peace in 1979; Israel and Jordan did so in 1994. The Abraham Accords of 2020 normalized relations or established ties between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan. The U.S. brokered the agreements.

The 1993 Oslo Accords and subsequent agreements between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization were meant to usher in an eventual two-state solution in which Israel would trade land for peace with the Palestinians.

Although the Palestinians achieved limited autonomy in the West Bank and Gaza, the process bogged down in acrimony and repeated rounds of violence. The return of Palestinian refugees, the status of Jerusalem, the growth of Israeli settlements, the drawing of final borders and recognition of Israel as a Jewish state have been among the thorniest disputes.

Israel has been subject to attacks from Palestinian militants and Hezbollah for years, including rocket attacks, suicide bombings and other violence against civilians. Israel's military operations in the Palestinian territories, which it says only target militants, often kill civilians. Israeli settlers have also attacked Palestinians in the West Bank and been the target of Palestinian violence.

Israel has invaded Lebanon on different occasions and occupied southern Lebanon from 1982 until 2000. It seized parts of Syria after the overthrow of President Bashar Assad.

Israel exercises security control of the occupied West Bank, leaving the Palestinian Authority with limited administrative authority over Palestinian population centers. Israel fully withdrew from Gaza in 2005, turning it over to the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority, while retaining control of most access to Gaza by land, air and sea. Even before the latest war, the United Nations considered Gaza to be occupied.

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Iran

Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution that toppled the Western-backed shah resulted in a Shiite theocracy that views the United States, Britain and Israel as hostile powers encroaching on the Middle East.

Iran supports armed groups across the region that seek Israel's destruction and refer to themselves as the "Axis of Resistance." It champions the Palestinian cause, and its leaders have openly called for Israel to be destroyed.

Iran maintains that its nuclear program is peaceful; Israel has disputed this. Iran today is the only non-nuclear state enriching uranium to near-weapons grade levels. The International Atomic Energy Agency has warned that Iran has enough highly enriched uranium to make several nuclear bombs if it chooses to do so.

Israel is widely believed to be the only nuclear-armed state in the Middle East but does not acknowledge having such weapons.

Iran and Israel have long waged a shadow war of covert attacks. They traded fire directly for the first time in April 2024 and again in October of that year, each time after Israeli strikes that killed Iranian generals or senior Iran-backed militants. In June 2025, the two nations fought a 12-day war after Israel launched a surprise attack on Iran's military and nuclear sites. That war ended after the U.S. launched its own airstrikes on Iranian nuclear sites and negotiated a ceasefire.

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settlements

Over 500,000 Israelis live in well over 100 Israeli settlements built across the occupied West Bank, in addition to more than 200,000 settlers in east Jerusalem. Israel considers the settlements in east Jerusalem to be neighborhoods of its capital.

The international community overwhelmingly considers all settlements to be illegal. Palestinians believe that the settlements, built on lands they claim for a future state, make it increasingly difficult, or even impossible, to reach a two-state solution.

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the West Bank

Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war, and the Palestinians want it to form the main part of their future state. Israel views the West Bank as the religious and historical heartland of the Jewish people and has considered annexing it or formally incorporating it into its sovereign territory.

The West Bank is occupied territory and cannot be referred to as part of Israel.

The over 500,000 Jewish settlers in the territory have Israeli citizenship. The West Bank's 3 million Palestinians live under Israeli military rule, with the Palestinian Authority administering population centers.

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the Palestinian Authority

The Palestinian Authority exercises limited autonomy in cities and towns in the West Bank and is barred from operating in 60% of the territory, including all the settlements and most rural areas.

The Palestinian Authority was created out of agreements in the 1990s between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, which is considered the international representative of the Palestinian people.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his secular Fatah movement — political rivals of Hamas — dominate both the Palestinian Authority and the PLO. The Palestinian Authority refers to itself as the "state of Palestine," but that should only be used in quotes or when referencing activities in international bodies to which Palestine has been admitted.

Abbas seeks a two-state solution with Israel. He is opposed to armed struggle, and his security forces cooperate with Israel to maintain security. Israel says he is not fully committed to peace and has not done enough to crack down on militancy and incitement.

Many Palestinians view the Palestinian Authority as a corrupt entity that helps maintain the occupation. Polls in recent years have found the vast majority want Abbas to resign. Abbas has repeatedly postponed national elections since his term expired in 2009, blaming divisions with Hamas and Israeli restrictions.

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the Golan Heights

Israel captured the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau overlooking northern Israel, from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war and later annexed it. In 2019, President Donald Trump became the first world leader to recognize Israel's control of the Golan.

The United States remains the only country to consider the Golan part of Israel. The rest of the international community considers it occupied Syrian territory.

Spell out in stories that the Golan was annexed by Israel and is considered by most of the world to be occupied. Do not use the shorthand Israeli-annexed or Israeli-occupied.

Refer to it as the Golan Heights on first reference; the Golan thereafter. In datelines: KATZRIN, Golan Heights.

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Jerusalem

Israel captured east Jerusalem, along with the West Bank and Gaza, in the 1967 war. Israel has formally annexed east Jerusalem and considers the entire city to be its capital. The Palestinians want east Jerusalem to be the capital of their future state.

Most countries consider east Jerusalem to be occupied territory and locate their embassies in Tel Aviv. President Donald Trump upended decades of U.S. foreign policy when he moved the American embassy to Jerusalem in his first term. Several small countries have followed suit.

East Jerusalem is home to some of the holiest sites in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, most of which are within walking distance of one another in the Old City. Its fate is one of the most sensitive issues in the Middle East conflict.

Do not refer to Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Do not refer to the Israeli government as "Jerusalem" or "Tel Aviv."

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Al-Aqsa Mosque, Temple Mount

These terms are used to identify a walled, hilltop compound inside Jerusalem's Old City revered by Jews and Muslims.

Jews call the site the Temple Mount, home to the ancient Jewish temples that were destroyed in antiquity. It is the holiest site in Judaism.

The compound now houses the centuries-old Dome of the Rock shrine and Al-Aqsa Mosque and is known to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary. Muslims also sometimes refer to the whole area as the Al-Aqsa Mosque or simply Al-Aqsa. Muslims believe the Prophet Muhammad made his night journey to heaven from the site. It is the third-holiest site in Islam — after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia.

Any reference to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound/Temple Mount should note both names and its importance to both Muslims and Jews. These conflicting claims have repeatedly raised tensions and sparked violence between Israelis and Palestinians.

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pro-Israeli, pro-Palestinian

These shorthand descriptions can be misleading in that people can be critical of the current leadership or policies on either side and still support Israel or the Palestinian people. When possible, try to say exactly what the individual believes.

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antisemitism

Antisemitism is defined as prejudice or discrimination against Jews. There is considerable dispute over when and whether the term is applicable to criticism of Israel or its leaders.

The Israeli government regularly accuses its opponents of antisemitism, while critics say it uses the term to silence opposition to its policies.

Be careful using the term outside of quotes unless it is beyond dispute. It is generally better to specifically describe words or actions.

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Some key players

Benjamin Netanyahu: Israeli prime minister. He is Israel's longest-serving leader and was sworn in for his sixth term in 2022. He has built Israel's most hard-right government ever, dominated by ministers who adamantly reject Palestinian statehood.

Israel Katz: Israeli defense minister since Nov. 8., 2024; previously was the foreign minister. Katz is a longtime Netanyahu loyalist and veteran Cabinet minister.

Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich: Israeli far-right leaders who support continuing the war in Gaza and relocating much of the territory's population to other countries through what they refer to as voluntary emigration. They are strong supporters of West Bank settlements and want to re-establish settlements in Gaza. They are key coalition partners of Netanyahu.

Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir: Israel's military chief of staff was appointed in February 2025 after his predecessor resigned over the failures surrounding the Oct. 7 attack.

Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin: Chief Israeli military spokesman.

Mahmoud Abbas: Palestinian president and the leader of Fatah, the PA and the PLO. He is opposed to armed struggle and favors a two-state solution with Israel. He is deeply unpopular among Palestinians and viewed with suspicion by many Israelis.

Mohammed Deif: The shadowy longtime leader of Hamas' armed wing was one of the masterminds of the Oct. 7 attack. He was killed in an Israeli airstrike in July 2024 that killed more than 90 people, according to local health officials.

Yahya Sinwar: A Hamas leader formerly imprisoned by Israel who helped mastermind the Oct. 7 attack. He was appointed Hamas' top leader after the killing of Ismail Haniyeh. Sinwar was killed by Israeli troops in Gaza in October 2024.

Ismail Haniyeh: Hamas' supreme leader before Sinwar. He lived in exile in Qatar but was killed in a July 2024 blast in Iran carried out by Israel.

Hassan Nasrallah: One of Hezbollah's founders and its leader from 1992 until an Israeli airstrike killed him in September 2024. Nasrallah has been linked by Israel to numerous deadly attacks on Israeli and Jewish targets.

Naim Kassem: A cleric chosen by Hezbollah to lead the Lebanese militant group after the killing of Nasrallah. Kassem had been Nasrallah's deputy leader for over three decades and was also a founding member of Hezbollah.

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Some key locations

Gaza City: Gaza's largest city. Most of the population was displaced in the opening months of the war, but many returned during a ceasefire in early 2025. Since then, many people have again fled. Large parts of the city have been destroyed.

Deir al-Balah: The central city is one of the only parts of Gaza that has not seen major Israeli ground operations and has suffered much less damage in the war.

Khan Younis: The southern Gaza city suffered extensive destruction during a large Israeli ground operation in early 2024.

Rafah: The southernmost city on the border with Egypt was a refuge for hundreds of thousands during much of the war. Israeli forces seized the border area in May 2024 and have since destroyed much of the city, which is largely uninhabited today.

Muwasi: A sprawling cluster of tent camps along the coast in southern Gaza. It has been declared a humanitarian zone by Israel but still sees regular airstrikes. Hundreds of thousands of people live in tents with little in the way of basic services.

Kerem Shalom: The main cargo crossing into Gaza and the primary delivery point for aid entering the territory.

Netzarim corridor: An east-west military zone running from the Israeli border to the Mediterranean Sea that divides northern and southern Gaza. Israel has used it to prevent Palestinian movement from south to north for much of the war.

Morag corridor: An Israeli military zone bisecting the territory between Khan Younis and Rafah carved out in 2025.

Philadelphi corridor: A zone along the Gaza-Egypt border seized by Israel in May 2024. It used to be the site of an extensive network of smuggling tunnels used to bring in basic goods and — according to Israel — arms. Egypt says it destroyed or blocked the tunnels years ago. Israel says it must maintain control to prevent Hamas from rearming.