Gaza

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Analysis

Eyeing Turkey, Netanyahu boosts Greece, Cyprus ties ahead of US visit

Worried about the increasing empowerment of Turkey across the Middle East, Israel is making a show of neighborhood strength with Greece and Cyprus.

In Tel Aviv, reporting on national security, Israeli politics, defense

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu participates in a joint news conference with US President Donald Trump (not seen) in the State Dining Room at the White House on Sept. 29, 2025, in Washington.

Analysis

In 2025, Netanyahu saved his coalition but stalled on Gaza, Iran, Lebanon

With 2025 ending, Israelis are frustrated over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s refusal to fully end the Gaza war, solve the Hezbollah problem, reach a deal with Syria or find a way to constructively impact talks on the Iranian nuclear program.

Rina Bassist

By Rina Bassist

In Paris, reporting on Israeli politics and European affairs

US President Donald Trump speaks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, in Jerusalem on Oct. 13, 2025.

Analysis

Trump has upper hand over Netanyahu, but is it enough for Gaza?

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been stalling on the implementation of the second phase of President Donald Trump’s Gaza plan, but at the end of the day, Trump has much more leverage over Netanyahu.

Rina Bassist

By Rina Bassist

In Paris, reporting on Israeli politics and European affairs

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio gestures as he speaks during an end-of-year press conference in the State Department Press Briefing Room in Washington, DC on December 19, 2025. (Photo by Mandel NGAN / AFP via Getty Images)

Rubio hints US could accept Hamas keeping small arms

The top US diplomat told Al-Monitor the focus of disarmament should be on the "weaponries or capabilities" that Hamas would need to threaten Israel.

Latest News

Maersk resumes Red Sea passage after two-year halt amid easing Houthi threat

A ship sails along Egypt's Suez Canal near Ismailia, April 16, 2025.

Facing Israeli pushback, Turkey recalibrates public messaging on Gaza force

Saeed Jaras / Middle East Images / AFP via Getty Images

Analysis

How Netanyahu ceded to Trump, agreed to Egypt's $35B gas deal

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, EGYPT - OCTOBER 13: U.S. President Donald Trump and President of Egypt Abdel Fattah El-Sisi clasp hands as they speak to the press before their meeting on October 13, 2025 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. President Trump is in Egypt to meet with European and Middle Eastern leaders in what’s being billed as an international peace summit, following the start of a US-brokered ceasefire deal to end the war in the Gaza Strip. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

In Tel Aviv, reporting on national security, Israeli politics, defense

Qatar’s prime minister meets US officials as Gaza plan stalls

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio (R) shakes hands with Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani at the State Department in Washington, on Dec. 17, 2025.

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - FEBRUARY 04: Annie Lennox performs onstage during the 66th GRAMMY Awards at Crypto.com Arena on February 04, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)

Culture

Grammys feature Gaza cease-fire calls, keffiyeh & support for Israeli hostages

The devastation continues in Gaza despite international efforts to reach a cease-fire as the death toll surpasses 27,000.

Outgoing French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna (R) welcomes newly appointed Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne at the ministry before the handover ceremony in Paris, on Jan. 12, 2024.

France's Colonna to lead UNRWA investigation as Spain, Portugal donate $4.8 M

Former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna will lead a UN investigation into allegations that 12 UNRWA staffers participated in the Oct. 7 Hamas assault against Israel.

A vehicle of the Syrian Democratic Forces is pictured along a road as fighters deploy to impose a curfew in the town of al-Busayrah during a guided media tour organized by the SDF, in northeastern Deir ez-Zor province, Syria, Sept. 4, 2023.

6 Kurdish SDF forces killed in Iran-linked attack on Syria base housing US troops

The drone attack left at least six dead among the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.

Israeli right wing activists block the exit of Ashdod port to stop trucks they claim are carrying humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip, in the coastal city of Ashdod, on February 1, 2024, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. (Photo by Oren ZIV / AFP) (Photo by OREN ZIV/AFP via Getty Images)

Analysis

Undeterred, Israel's far right advocates for settlers' return to occupied Gaza

In preparation for the next elections, the Israeli far right is already campaigning to resettle the Jewish communities evacuated during the 2005 withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

Mazal Mualem

By Mazal Mualem

In Tel Aviv, reporting on politics

A Palestinian man walks alongside Israel's separation barrier painted with an image of jailed Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti, in the West Bank town of al-Azariya, on the outskirts of Jerusalem, Nov. 8, 2021.

Hussein, Rajoub or Barghouti: Fatah leadership as key to Palestinian future

While Fatah has lost its liberation role over the past decades, the movement is also struggling with how to prepare for the day after Mahmoud Abbas.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi speaks during the funeral ceremony for victims of twin explosions near the cemetery where the grave of Iran's former top military commander Gen. Qassem Soleimani is located on Jan. 05, 2024, in Kerman, Iran.

Iran-Israel intel war rages as Tehran says it identified Israeli spies worldwide

The announcement came in the wake of a chain of Israel-blamed targeted assassinations of senior Iranian officers in Syria, which have left Tehran in a tight spot for revenge.

French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne chairs a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) meeting on the Middle East, including the situation in Gaza and Israel on Jan. 23, 2024, in New York City.

France's new FM Sejourne makes first visit to Egypt, Lebanon, Israel & Jordan

French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné is set to visit the Middle East, meeting with almost all the parties involved in the Gaza war, except Qatar.

Yahia al-Sinwar (C), Gaza Strip chief of the Palestinian Islamist Hamas movement, shakes hands with a masked fighter of Hamas' Qassam Brigades during a rally marking the 35th anniversary of the group's foundation, in Gaza City on December 14, 2022. - Hamas will end talks on securing a prisoner exchange with Israel unless there is progress soon, the militant group's leader in the Gaza Strip said on December 14. Since Israel's 2014 invasion of the Gaza Strip, the Islamist group has held the bodies of Israeli

Why Gaza's future will still include Hamas in a larger Palestinian deal

With the day after the war approaching, the Palestinian leadership in the West Bank needs Hamas in Gaza as much as Hamas needs the Palestinian Authority.

Smoke billows during Israeli shelling on the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Kila near the border with Israel on January 31, 2024, amid ongoing cross-border tensions as fighting continues between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas group in Gaza. (Photo by Rabih DAHER / AFP) (Photo by RABIH DAHER/AFP via Getty Images)

Analysis

Hochstein back in Israel: Can he bring Lebanon cease-fire alongside Gaza's?

Israel may have to accept low-key conflict with Hezbollah as the "new-old normal" on its northern border even as a cease-fire appears close with Hamas.

In Tel Aviv, reporting on national security, Israeli politics, defense

French marines patrol the area around the French navy frigate, the FS Languedoc.

Analysis

Despite internal discord, EU to launch Red Sea naval mission within 3 weeks

Internal disagreements within the European Union are why Brussels announced only this week that it will set up a naval military mission in the Red Sea to protect the maritime route.

Rina Bassist

By Rina Bassist

In Paris, reporting on Israeli politics and European affairs

The children of Palestinian Mahmoud Al-Durra, 32 years old, from Gaza City, who was displaced to the city of Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip after Israeli raids destroyed his house and his wife was killed, play in the ruins on Jan. 31, 2024 in Rafah, Gaza.

Hamas claims stir debate over UN’s aid lifeline to Gaza

The Biden administration is under mounting pressure to urgently resume funding for UNRWA, without which aid agencies say humanitarian conditions will further deteriorate in the Gaza Strip.

amlies of hostages and supporters hold signs and photos of hostages during a protest calling for an hostages deal with Hamas near the Israeli Prime Minister's residence on January 22, 2024in Jerusalem Israel. According to Israel, 132 hostages are still held by Hamas in Gaza since the October 7 attack. As the conflict between Israel-Hamas conflict rages on, the IDF focused the military offensive on Khan Younes, now the epicenter of the clashes in southern Gaza. For their part, families of hostages in Israel

Analysis

What's holding up Israel-Hamas hostage release, cease-fire deal?

Reports indicate that Israel would have to release thousands of Palestinian prisoners, including those convicted of murder, in exchange for the release of the roughly 136 hostages held in Gaza.

Rina Bassist

By Rina Bassist

In Paris, reporting on Israeli politics and European affairs