Travel security threats across the Middle East and North Africa have intensified amid deepening geopolitical tensions and associated security challenges in Israel, the Palestinian Territories, Lebanon, Iran, Yemen, and Syria.
Neutral countries, such as Egypt and Jordan, have not been entirely immune from the second order impacts of conflict. Some of Jordan’s largest tourist attractions, for instance, have experienced a vast drop in foreign visits over conflict-related concerns. In 2025, tensions in the Middle East will continue to make business and leisure travel increasingly complex and uncertain, raising concerns around wrongful detention and personnel safety, but also highlighting the need to plan for emergency evacuations, as many companies and travellers had to do in Lebanon in late 2024.
The ongoing proxy conflict and tensions between Israel and Iran have resulted in a rise in perceived politically motivated detentions. Israel has increasingly targeted journalists documenting the conflict in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, and in Israel itself. According to the non-profit organisation, Committee to Protect Journalists, Israel arrested 71 journalists across the Palestinian Territories of Gaza and the West Bank between October 2023 and November 2024, and 45 remained in Israeli detention as of December 2024. In a notable development in October 2024, Israel arrested four journalists, including Jewish American independent journalist, Jeremy Loffredo, at a checkpoint in the West Bank. The others were soon released, but Loffredo was charged with endangering Israeli national security and sharing information with the enemy, carrying a prison sentence of at least 25 years. Loffredo was released on 20 October and permitted to return home, likely due to political pressure from the US.
Additionally, as tensions escalated between Israel and Iran in 2024, both sides stepped up their monitoring for foreign espionage. Over the month of October 2024 alone, Israeli police arrested a group of seven Israeli nationals in Haifa suspected of carrying out hundreds of espionage missions for Iran; a second group of seven Palestinians in East Jerusalem, accused of planning attacks on Israel on behalf of Iran; and, an Israeli couple from Lod, suspected of passing sensitive information to Iran. Meanwhile, in Iran, security forces arrested an Israeli national in June 2024, on suspicion of working for Israel’s intelligence agency, Mossad; and in September 2024, police arrested 12 people, allegedly thwarting an intelligence network that reported to Israel and the US. Arrests of this nature are likely to continue in 2025, perpetuated by longstanding tensions between the two countries.
Iran has long used detention as a means of political leverage in broader tensions with the West. As of June 2024, for example, at least 10 European passport holders were held in Iranian detention. That month, Sweden and Iran agreed to a prisoner swap; two Swedish nationals – including a diplomat – detained in Iran for alleged spying, in exchange for an Iranian deputy prosecutor sentenced to life in a Swedish prison for his role in the execution of hundreds of political prisoners in the 1980s. The threat of politically motivated detention of Western or dual nationals in Iran will persist in the foreseeable future.
Organised crime, extortion and associated violence have increased in Israel over the past year, with Palestinian and Arab communities being the worst affected. According to local experts, violent crime disproportionately affects Israeli Arab communities over Jewish ones, and 75 percent of homicides in these communities are linked to organised crime. Organised criminal groups are particularly active in northern Israel, with car bombings, shootings and extortion a near daily occurrence. In the city of Nazareth, extortion demands against businesses average around USD 14,000 per month, and reprisals take the form of shootings, theft, vandalism and increased demands should a business owner refuse to pay. These groups are also increasingly well-armed. Since December 2022, homicides more than doubled in Israel, and the rate of case closure dropped from 37 percent in 2022 to 28 percent in 2023. In the first nine months of 2024, that rate dropped further, to 25 percent. This is partly due to the security establishment being preoccupied with the conflict in Gaza – and to a lesser extent, Lebanon – over that period; a dynamic likely to extend into the coming year.
Freight companies operating in Iraq face rising extortion at checkpoints along the country’s inter-provincial roads. Thousands of drivers fall victim to demands for payment at both legitimate and illegitimate checkpoints each year, perpetrated both by corrupt state actors and the multitude of non-state armed groups that control swathes of territory across the country. Extortionists may threaten lengthy delays of up to several days, seizure of the vehicle or cargo, damage to goods, and/or physical assault. Bribes to bypass arbitrary inspections can total up to USD 1,000, while fees for prohibited or restricted goods – like alcohol – reach up to USD 5,000. In May 2024, transport companies reported billions of Iraqi dinar in losses annually, and hundreds of drivers protested countrywide to demand increased action from the government.
Extortion is particularly prevalent along inter-provincial routes linking Baghdad with the northern Kirkuk, Saladin and Diyala governorates. In Diyala, truckers are targeted along the road between Baqubah and Khanaqin, a strategic trade route that links Baghdad with Iran. These checkpoints are extremely lucrative and government officers reportedly pay their seniors large sums of money to be appointed to one, signalling the deep institutional nature of the corruption. Meanwhile, for trucking companies, widespread extortion, and the state’s inability to address the problem, will continue to push up the cost of freight in the coming months, with wider implications for the price of imported goods across the country.