Mikel Ayestaran Aierra (Beasain, Guipúzcoa, 1975) is a Spanish journalist and writer specialized in the Middle East. Correspondent in Israel for the newspaper ABC, Vocento group, and the television network EiTB
Mikel Ayestaran was born in Beasain, Guipúzcoa province in 1975. From a young age, he combined his studies with his passion for traveling. He took his first steps as a media professional at El Faro de Ceuta. In 2005, he decided to leave the newsrooms after spending a decade at El Diario Vasco and began his adventure as a freelance journalist focusing on the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East. His baptism by fire was in 2006 when the Israeli invasion of Lebanon occurred, also covering Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.
He has traveled to Israel and the Palestinian Territories during crises, covering three Israeli offensives against the Gaza Strip between 2008 and 2014. In 2011, with the arrival of the "Arab Spring," he traveled through Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, and Syria.
Since 2015, he has been living in Jerusalem with his family, working there as a multimedia journalist and covering the entire region.
He collaborates with the Basque public television and radio EiTB, with the Vocento group, and is part of the founding team of the international news journalism platform 5W. He covers areas including: Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Yemen, India, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Iran, Egypt, Georgia, and Syria.
At the beginning of 2022, facing the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Ayestaran traveled to Kiev to carry out journalistic reports.
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