The Year in Photos: Middle East

In 2018, Associated Press photographers in the Middle East, Afghanistan and Pakistan captured searing images from relentless armed conflicts, but they also found moments of levity and offered a glimpse into daily life in a constantly changing region.

In Yemen, they captured haunting images of emaciated children, the victims of a devastating civil war that has pushed the Arab world's poorest country to the brink of famine. They photographed mothers who are starving themselves in order to feed their children, and families reduced to eating leaves from a local vine, boiled into a sour, acidic paste.

In the Gaza Strip, thousands of Palestinians took part in weekly demonstrations orchestrated by Hamas to protest against an Israeli and Egyptian blockade of the impoverished territory. Every week they gathered by the thousands at the heavily guarded frontier, burning tires and hurling rocks and firebombs at Israeli soldiers on the other side. Every week several were shot by Israeli snipers, and every week the protesters returned.

A Palestinian protester wears a plastic bag on his head as a protection from teargas, waves a national flag during a protest at the Gaza Strip's border with Israel, Aug.10, 2018. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

Thousands have been wounded by Israeli fire, with most struck in their lower limbs. AP photographer Felipe Dana took portraits of some of the wounded at a clinic in Gaza City.

On a lighter note, Israeli and Palestinian bodybuilders took part in competitions held on both sides of the frontier. At an event held in Tel Aviv, Jews and Arabs, men and women, and young and old competitors worked together ahead of the big show. At a similar competition held in Gaza City, Hamdi Wadi said he was determined to pursue the sport "despite the difficulties and tragic circumstances."

In Cairo, AP photographer Nariman El-Mofty photographed giant billboards advertising luxury housing in newly built desert communities — signs that fail to conceal the worsening neglect and decay in the city of 20 million. The government is planning a vast new administrative capital, which could soon lead to an even greater exodus of Cairo's well-heeled residents, raising questions about the city's future.

NEWS

The Damascus sky lights up missile fire as the U.S. launches an attack on Syria targeting different parts of the capital on April 14, 2018. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Homeless children stand on the road from Khoukha to Taiz in Yemen on Feb. 12, 2018.(AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty, File)

Umm Mizrah, a 25-year-old Yemeni woman, holds her son Mizrah on a scale in Al-Sadaqa Hospital in the southern Yemen city of Aden in this Feb. 13, 2018 photo. The woman, who is nearly into the second trimester of her pregnancy, weighed 38 kilograms (84 pounds), severely underweight. Mizrah, who was 17 months old, weighed 5.8 kilograms (12.8 pounds), around half the normal weight for his age. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

Saudi-led coalition backed forces patrol Mocha, Yemen, Feb. 12, 2018. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

Injured men receive treatment at a hospital after a suicide bombing in Kabul, Afghanistan, Nov. 20, 2018. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

Raed Abu Khader, right, holds a wet cloth on the forehead of his 12-year-old son Mohammed in Gaza City, Sept. 12, 2018. Mohammed was shot in the leg at one of the demonstrations on Gaza strip's border with Israel. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

A malnourished boy sits on a hospital bed at the Aslam Health Center, Hajjah, Yemen on Oct. 1, 2018. (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed, File)

Palestinians pray by the body of Mohammed Habali 22, during his funeral in the Tulkarem refugee camp near the West Bank city of Tulkarem, Dec. 4, 2018. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

A Palestinian receives medical attention in a hospital after being injured during a protest at the Gaza Strip's border with Israel, east of Gaza City, Sept. 14, 2018. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

An elderly Palestinian man falls on the ground after being shot by Israeli troops during a deadly protest at the Gaza Strip's border with Israel, east of Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, May 14, 2018. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

An Israeli soldier stands near a burning bus after it was hit by a mortar shell fired from Gaza near the Israel Gaza border, Nov. 12, 2018. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)

Inside of a wedding hall in Kabul, Afghanistan, is seen, Nov. 21, 2018, a day after a suicide attack. A suicide bomber was able to sneak into the wedding hall where hundreds of Muslim religious scholars and clerics had gathered to mark the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

Monir al-Sharqi walks to his bed after nurses changed the dressings on his burns, at the Marib General Hospital in Yemen in this July 25, 2018 photo. Al-Sharqi, a lab technician, disappeared for a year, until he was dumped in a stream, half-naked, emaciated and bearing horrific marks of torture. He had burns from acid over his head, back and shoulders, so severe that his jacket stuck to his melted skin. Some members of his family believe he was detained and tortured by Yemen’s Houthi rebels because of his past political activism. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

A severely malnourished boy rests on a hospital bed at the Aslam Health Center, Hajjah, Yemen, Oct. 1, 2018. (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed)

A distraught man is carried following a suicide attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, Dec. 28, 2017. Authorities say attackers stormed the Shiite Muslim cultural center in the Afghan capital Kabul, setting off multiple bombs and killing dozens. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

Supporters of Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri ride a scooter past a road block, during a protest against Lebanese Foreign Minister Gibran Bassil, in Beirut, Lebanon, Jan. 29, 2018. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Houthi Shiite mourners chant slogans as they attend the funeral of Saleh al-Samad, a senior Houthi official who was killed by a Saudi-led coalition airstrike on April 19, in Sanaa, Yemen, April 28, 2018. (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed)

A Syrian 19-year-old former member of the Islamic State group, who declined to be identified, sits opposite a panel of judges in the courtroom of a Kurdish-run terrorism court, in Qamishli, north Syria on April 3, 2018. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

U.S. President Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump, left, and U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin unveil an inauguration plaque during the opening ceremony of the new US embassy in Jerusalem, Monday, May 14, 2018. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)

Palestinian children suffering from teargas inhalation recover in a medical tent during a protest near Beit Lahiya, Gaza Strip, May 14, 2018. (AP Photo/Dusan Vranic)

Jordanian security forces are on high alert in the capital of Amman, early Tuesday, June 5, 2018. (AP Photo/Raad al-Adayleh)

People inspect the scene after blasts in Baghdad's Sadr City, Iraq, Thursday, June 7, 2018. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)

Muslim Shiite women mourn during the holy day of Ashoura, at the Sadat Akhavi Mosque in Tehran, Iran, Sept 20, 2018. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

A firefighting plane passes over a fire started by a balloon with attached burning cloth launched by Palestinians from Gaza Strip in Karmia nature reserve park near the Israel and Gaza border, Oct. 11, 2018. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)

Men walk among the ruins after a fire devastated an electronic appliances market, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Nov. 2, 2018. (AP Photo/Massoud Hossaini)

Palestinian protesters run from teargas fired by Israeli troops during a protest at the Gaza Strip's border with Israel, east of Gaza City, Aug. 31, 2018. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

Palestinians mourn over the body of 11-year-old Shady Abdel-al during his funeral in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip Sept. 15, 2018. Though the Health Ministry initially reported Abdel-al was shot by Israeli fire, the Israeli army claimed he was accidentally struck by a rock thrown by protesters. Two Gaza rights groups say he died after being hit "with a solid object." (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

Protesters try to storm and burn the governor's building during protests demanding better public services and jobs, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, in Basra, 340 miles (550 kilometers) southeast of Baghdad, Iraq. (AP Photo/Nabil al-Jurani)

Palestinian medics carry a wounded protester during a protest at the Gaza Strip's border with Israel, Oct. 5, 2018. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

Hessah al-Ajaji drives her car down the capital's busy Tahlia Street after midnight for the first time in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, June 24, 2018. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

Displaced women who fled the Syrian war wait near the Lebanese-Syrian border as they prepare to return to their village of Beit Jinn in Syria, in Shebaa, southern Lebanon, April, 18, 2018. Hundreds of refugees are headed back to Syria in what they say is a voluntary decision to return to homes in the war-torn country. (AP Photo/Ziad Choufi)

An explosion caused by Israeli airstrikes on the building of Hamas' Al-Aqsa TV station in Gaza City, Nov. 12, 2018.(AP Photo/Adel Hana)

A child injured in a deadly Saudi-led coalition airstrike on Thursday rests in a hospital in Saada, Yemen, Aug. 12, 2018. Y(AP Photo/Hani Mohammed)

Palestinians inspect the damaged building of Said al-Mis'hal cultural center after it was hit bombed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, Thursday, Aug. 9, 2018. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

A Palestinian protester hurls stones at Israeli troops during a protest at the Gaza Strip's border with Israel, Friday, April 20, 2018.(AP Photo/ Khalil Hamra)

A soldier and a civilian lie low at the site of a suicide attack after the second bombing in Kabul, Afghanistan, April 30, 2018. (AP Photo/Massoud Hossaini)

Eritrean migrants wear chains to mimic slaves at a demonstration against the Israeli government's policy to forcibly deport African refugees and asylum seekers from Israel to Uganda and Rwanda, outside the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in Jerusalem, Jan. 17, 2018. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Men carry the coffin of a relative who died in Saturday's deadly suicide attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, Jan. 28, 2018. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

Girls and boys wave flags for Indonesian President, Joko Widodo, at the presidential palace in Kabul, Afghanistan, Jan. 29, 2018. (AP Photo/Massoud Hossaini, Pool)

Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops following a protest to mark the Land Day in the West Bank city of Ramallah, March 30, 2018. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

Alexanda Amon Kotey, left, and El Shafee Elsheikh, who were allegedly among four British jihadis who made up a brutal Islamic State cell dubbed "The Beatles," sit on a sofa during an interview with The Associated Press at a security center in Kobani, Syria, March 30, 2018. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Shiite pilgrims march to their holy shrines for Arbaeen, outside Karbala, Iraq, Oct. 29, 2018. The annual commemoration, called Arbaeen, brings more pilgrims each year than the Hajj, in Saudi Arabia, yet it is hardly known outside Islam. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

Israeli warplanes fly behind the Statue of Martyrs in Martyrs Square in downtown Beirut, Lebanon, Oct. 29, 2018. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Palestinian protesters hurl stones during a demonstration at the entrance of Erez border crossing between Gaza and Israel, in the northern Gaza Strip, Oct. 3, 2018. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

The father of Mohammad Taha Eghadami, a 4-year-old boy who was killed in Saturday's terror attack on a military parade, mourns over his coffin during a mass funeral ceremony for the victims, in southwestern city of Ahvaz, Iran, Sept. 24, 2018. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

Families of victims of a terror attack on a military parade in the southwestern city of Ahvaz, that killed 25 people attend a mass funeral ceremony, in Ahvaz, Iran, Sept. 24, 2018. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

Mourners carry the body of Palestinian Muhammed al-Sadiq, 21, into the family home during his funeral in Gaza City, Sept. 25, 2018. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

Palestinian protesters cover their faces from teargas fires by Israeli troops during a protest on the beach at the border with Israel near Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip, Oct. 22, 2018. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

A Palestinian protester carries a boy as he runs from tear gas fired by Israeli soldiers during a protest on the beach near the border with Israel in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip, Sept. 10, 2018. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

A young man removes rubble in front of his shop in the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk in the Syrian capital Damascus, Syria, July 16, 2018. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

An injured Palestinian youth receives treatment in a field clinic after being shot by Israeli troops during a protest at the Gaza Strip's border with Israel, July 20, 2018. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

FEATURES

Emirati women takes a selfie at an exhibition called Edge of Government at the Museum of the Future of the World Government Summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Feb. 12, 2018. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili)

A man runs as he arrives a few minutes late for the afternoon prayer in a mosque in Gaza City, Sept. 14, 2018. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

APalestinian bodybuilder prepares himself before giving a performance during a local bodybuilding competition, in Gaza City, Oct. 26, 2018. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

Girls sit inside a classroom at an UNRWA school during the first day of a new school year in Gaza City, Aug. 29, 2018. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

Afghan musicians Hakim Ebrahimi, left, and Soraya Hosseini, members of the Arikayn rock band, play music at a furniture workshop on the outskirts of Tehran, Iran on July 26, 2018. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

Members of the Eritrean and Ethiopian Christian Orthodox community from Tel Aviv baptized in the waters of the Jordan River during a baptism ceremony as part of the Orthodox Feast of the Epiphany at Qasr el Yahud, the spot where John the Baptist is said to have baptized Jesus, near the West Bank town of Jericho, Jan. 19, 2018. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Paratroopers drop into the Mediterranean Sea before an air show during Independence Day celebrations marking 70 years since the founding of the state in 1948, in Tel Aviv, Israel, April 19, 2018. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

People wait for an early morning bus on the ring road, in Cairo, Egypt, Oct. 23, 2018. A city of 20 million people that combines charm and squalor, Cairo may soon witness an exodus by some of its well-heeled residents, state employees and foreign embassies to a new capital. The government argues that Cairo is already bursting at the seams and will grow to 40 million by 2050. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

A contestant has his body painted backstage during the National Amateur Body Builders' Association competition in Tel Aviv, Israel, Oct. 18, 2018. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

In this combination of 10 photos taken on Sept. 19, 2018, Palestinians shot in the legs during demonstrations at the Gaza strip's border with Israel pose as they await treatment at a Gaza City clinic run by MSF (Doctors Without Borders). Israeli forces deployed along the volatile border have fired live rounds at rock-throwing Palestinian protesters since demonstrations began in March against Israel's long-running blockade of Gaza. Israeli snipers have targeted one part of the body more than any other: the legs. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

Children play soccer in the war-damaged Bab Dreib neighborhood of the old city, in Homs, Syria, Jan. 16, 2018. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Hagar Yahia holds her 5-year-old daughter Awsaf, who is suffering from malnourishment from living mainly off of bread and tea, in this Feb. 9, 2018 photo in Abyan, Yemen. Yahia, her husband and eight children fled from their hometown on Yemen’s western Red Sea coast to escape the war, eventually ending up more than 200 miles away in the village of Red Star in the south. Ever since, they've struggled to find enough food. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

A boy sits in a car damaged during the ongoing three year conflict in Mocha, Yemen, Feb. 10, 2018. Young men, some as young as 12, have served on the front lines throughout Yemen’s 3-year-old war and as the fight drags on, they now are shattered generation. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

Osama Ahmed, left, and Ahmed Saleh, who both fought during the '2015 battle of Aden' chew Qat by the beach, in Aden, Yemen on Feb. 18, 2018. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

The sun sets behind a mosque and buildings in the Gaza Strip, May 15, 2018. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Nahal, a 19-year-old transgender woman smokes cigarette on her balcony in Tehran, Iran, April 22, 2018. Nahal had hardly started high school before being forced to leave over her classmates’ instance she dress as a man. Her manicured fingernails, painted pink, brush away her long brown hair as she looks through old photographs of her childhood, recounting how even her own family has struggled to accept her. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Spanish singer Enrique Iglesias performs on stage in Tel Aviv, Israel, May 27, 2018. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

A girl pulls water from a well in the home of Ahmed al-Kawkabani, leader of the southern resistance unit in Hodeida, in al-Khoukha, Yemen on Feb. 12, 2018. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

Sand drifts over an empty highway from Abyan to Aden in Yemen on Feb. 15, 2018. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

Swimmers compete at FINA World Junior Open Water Swimming Championships in Eilat, Israel on Sept. 7, 2018 (AP Photo/Gilad Kavalerchik)

Palestinian students march during sunset in a display of their military skills at Al-Rebat College for Law and Police Science in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Sept. 23, 2018. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)

Israelis enjoy the day in Zikim beach, near kibbutz Zikim, on the Israel and Gaza border, as in the background black smoke rises from the tires set on fire by Palestinian protesters near Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip, Oct. 8, 2018. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

A contestant exercises backstage during the National Amateur Body Builders' Association competition in Tel Aviv, Israel, Oct. 18, 2018. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Crocodiles rest at a a farm in the Jordan Valley, West Bank, Aug. 6, 2018. (AP Photo/Dusan Vranic)

A Syrian soldier who lost his legs while fighting in Syria's war, helps his comrade after a physical therapy session, at the Ahmad Hamish Martyr hospital in Damascus, Syria, Oct. 7, 2018. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Palestinians wait for their turn to enter the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, in the southern Gaza Strip, Feb, 8, 2018. (AP Photo/ Khalil Hamra)

An ultra-Orthodox Jewish man holds a chicken during the Kaparot ritual in Bnei Brak, Israel, Sept. 16, 2018. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Muslim women walk in the courtyard of the 7th century Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, Syria, Oct. 3, 2018. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Holocaust survivor Hannah Beker, 79, has fingernail polish applied during a Beauty Heroines event in Ramat Gan, Israel, April 9, 2018. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

‏Christians walk to the traditional Epiphany baptism ceremony at the Qasr-el Yahud baptism site, in the Jordan river near the West Bank town of Jericho, Jan. 18, 2018. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

A rainbow appears over Damascus, Syria, Jan. 15, 2018.(AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Two Iranians walk in Laleh Park in central Tehran, Iran, Jan. 28, 2018. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

An Iraqi actor performs during a play titled "The strongest" in Baghdad National Theater, Jan 23, 2018. The play is about the negative legacy of the Islamic State group. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

A super blue blood moon rises over Michmoret, Israel, Jan. 31, 2018. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Dish, an item used in celebrating Iranian New Year, are for sale ahead of the holiday of Nowruz, meaning "New Day," at the Tajrish traditional bazaar, in northern Tehran, Iran, March 19, 2018. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Visitors tour The Experimental Theater, designed in the early 1960s by the late Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer, at the Rashid Karami International Fair, in the northern city of Tripoli, Lebanon, Oct. 20, 2018. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Palestinian boy scouts march during a protest on the beach near the border with Israel in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip, Sept. 10, 2018. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

38-year old Nubian Reesha swims in the Nile River on Heisa Island, in Aswan, Egypt on May 10, 2018. The village of Heisa offers a glimpse into what life was like for Nubians in their homeland before the upheavals of the last century. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

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Curated by Middle East Regional Photo Editor Maya Alleruzzo

 

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