Hello and welcome to Background Briefing, available 24-7 at Background Briefing.org. I'm Ian Masters,

and today we'll look into a number of stories and issues in the news.

We'll begin with Israel's killing of seven aid workers from the UK, Australia, Poland, and Canada

and the US, who were with Chef Jose Andres' World Central Kitchen, making food for the starving

gazins. Joining us to discuss this and Israel's attacks on UNRWA

and its apparent strategy of starvation is Sarah Lee Witson,

the Executive Director of Democracy in the Arab World,

now Dawn, who was formerly the Executive Director

of Human Rights Watchers,

Middle East and North African Division,

where she oversaw 19 countries

with staff located in 10 countries. She has led dozens of advocacy and investigative missions

throughout the region, focusing on issues of armed conflict, accountability, legal reform,

migrant workers, and political rights. Then we'll assess whether the Israeli strike on Iran's

consulate in Damascus, which killed top Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps officials, will provoke a

wider war and speak with the Nassi Kambanis, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation and

director of the Center for International Research and Policy.

Until recently, he worked as a journalist based in Lebanon, and his books include

a privilege to die inside Hezbollah's legions and their endless war against Israel,

once upon a revolution, an Egyptian story, and most recently, Shia power comes of age,

the transformation of Islamist

politics in Iraq 2003 to 2003. Then finally, we'll examine the results of municipal elections in Turkey,

...