Israeli-Palestinian conflict

JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images

As phase 2 looms, Netanyahu insists no Turkish or Qatari troops in Gaza

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a Tuesday address that his country would not completely withdraw from the Gaza Strip under the next phase of the ceasefire, which the Trump administration is pushing to advance.

Truck carrying aid enters Gaza through the border crossing on Oct. 12, 2025, in Rafah, Egypt.

Israel recovers final Gaza hostage, Rafah crossing set to reopen: What to know

The Rafah crossing is expected to allow Palestinians to exit and reenter the Gaza Strip, primarily for those seeking medical treatment.

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Analysis

Under fire at home over Board of Peace, Netanyahu hints Trump could OK Gaza war restart

According to diplomatic sources, Netanyahu believes that at some point Israel will receive a green light from the Trump administration to resume fighting in Gaza, though his coalition partners do not seem reassured.

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

Palestinian Hamas militants secure the area as Egyptian workers, accompanied by members of the International Committee of the Red Cross, search for the last two remaining bodies of hostages from under the rubble of the Jabalia refugee camp, in the northern of Gaza Strip on Dec. 1, 2025.

Analysis

Trump's Board of Peace faces first test: Disarming Hamas

President Donald Trump’s plan for a Gaza Strip lined with beachfront resorts and glitzy high-rises hinges on Hamas' disarmament.

Elizabeth Hagedorn

By Elizabeth Hagedorn

In Washington, DC, reporting on diplomacy, regional politics, human rights

Latest News

Putin offers $1B in frozen assets for Gaza Board of Peace — will US unfreeze them?

Ramil Sitdikov / AFP via Getty Images

Middle East leaders join Trump’s Board of Peace despite mandate concerns

YOAN VALAT/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

Russia to host PA’s Abbas as Putin mulls joining Trump's Gaza Board of Peace

Russia's President Vladimir Putin (L) and Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abbas (R) arrive for their talks in Moscow on May 10, 2025.

Turkey, Israel, Pakistan to join Trump's Board of Peace as Italy hedges: What to know

US President Donald Trump greets Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during a world leaders' summit on ending the Gaza war on Oct. 13, 2025 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.

Smoke rises from buildings hit in an overnight Israeli airstrike that targeted the neighbourhood of Al-Jamous in Beirut's southern suburbs on October 3, 2024. Israel kept up its bombardment of Beirut after Iran launched its second, and largest, attack on Israel in months, which prompted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to warn Tehran would pay. (Photo by AFP) (Photo by -/AFP via Getty Images)

Live Updates

Israel defense chief postpones US visit as differences over Iran response grow

Israel's premier has reportedly barred the defense minister from traveling to the United States until he speaks with the US president and his security cabinet approves a response to an Iranian missile attack.

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant stand during an honor cordon at the Pentagon on June 25, 2024 in Arlington, Virginia.

Biden treads fine line on Iran as Israel's Gallant heads to Washington

The Pentagon likened the current crisis in the Middle East to that in Europe prior to the First World War, as the Biden administration seeks to restrain an Israeli counterattack against Iran.

US President Joe Biden speaks during a news conference in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on Oct. 4, 2024, in Washington.

Analysis

Gaza looms large over Biden’s foreign policy legacy as diplomacy falters

As the war continues into its second year, the Biden administration appears no closer to de-escalating in Gaza and laying a framework for a lasting Middle East peace.

Elizabeth Hagedorn

By Elizabeth Hagedorn

In Washington, DC, reporting on diplomacy, regional politics, human rights

Iranian Quds Force commander Ismail Qaani.

Iran says IRGC Quds Force chief Qaani alive, offers few details

The commander was reportedly in Beirut at the time of an Israeli strike targeting a senior Hezbollah official.

This picture shows closed shops in an alley of Jerusalem's Old City, on Sept. 11, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Palestinian militants.

Analysis

A year after Oct. 7, Israel’s economy battered by endless multifront wars

A year after the deadly attack on southern Israel by the Hamas militant group and the ensuing war in Gaza, the direct cost to the Israeli economy has been more than 100 billion shekels ($26.3 billion), according to the Israeli Finance Ministry.

In Bristol, reporting on regional business, climate change, AI, tech

Displaced people ride on a donkey-drawn cart through a muddy puddle in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on Sept. 30, 2024.

Feature

Palestinians long for life before Oct. 7 as Gaza war upends lives, future

One year into the Israeli war on Gaza, as winter approaches, Gazans feel hopeless and trapped in an endless cycle of conflict amid tragic living conditions.

Rasha Abou Jalal

By Rasha Abou Jalal

In Gaza City, reporting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Israelis sit in a coffee shop in the Israeli coastal city of Netanya, on April 14, 2024, one day after Iran launched its first-ever direct attack on Israeli territory.

Analysis

Post Oct. 7 Israel: Divided, veering right and embracing Jewish identity

A divided, polarized and more right-wing-than-ever Israeli Jewish society marks the first anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre.

Mazal Mualem

By Mazal Mualem

In Tel Aviv, reporting on politics

Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert attends a demonstration against the Israeli government's controversial justice reform bill, in Tel Aviv on March 1, 2023. (Photo by JACK GUEZ / AFP) (Photo by JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images)

Exclusive

A way forward, ex-Israeli PM Olmert says Gaza cease-fire only road for solution

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the plan he recently presented with former Palestinian official Nasser al-Kidwa for ending the Gaza war does not have buy-in from the current Israeli or Palestinian leadership.

Rina Bassist

By Rina Bassist

In Paris, reporting on Israeli politics and European affairs

Nasser al-Kidwa, former minister for foreign affairs of the Palestinian Authority, ex-member of the Fatah movement's central committee, and nephew of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, gives an interview in Gaza City on Sept. 24, 2022.

Exclusive

A way forward, ex-Palestinian FM Nasser Kidwa calls for Arab security presence in Gaza

In an exclusive interview with Al-Monitor, former Palestinian Foreign Minister Nasser al-Kidwa said that Palestinians must be serious and practical in order to reach an agreement to end the war in Gaza and establish a Palestinian state.

Daoud Kuttab

By Daoud Kuttab

In Amman, reporting on Palestinian politics

The flags of Israel, United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain are projected on the ramparts of Jerusalem's Old City on September 15, 2020 in a show of support for Israeli normalisation deals with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signed landmark accords normalizing the Jewish state's relations with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, as part of a peace push brokered by US President Donald Trump. (Photo by Menahem KAHANA / AFP) (Photo by MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP via Getty

Analysis

Israel-UAE trade to hit $3.3B in 2024 as wars in Lebanon, Gaza continue

Despite a growing Arab public backlash against economic ties with Israel, and politically strained ties between the UAE and Israel since the Gaza war, bilateral trade has continued across the technology, tourism and agriculture sectors.

Jennifer Gnana

By Jennifer Gnana

In Dubai, reporting on Gulf energy policy and politics

TOPSHOT - US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and former US Representative Liz Cheney (R) arrive for a campaign event at Ripon College in Ripon, Wisconsin, October 3, 2024. (Photo by KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI / AFP) (Photo by KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI/AFP via Getty Images)

Arab Americans are evenly split between Harris and Trump. Will it matter?

As the US weighs its response to escalations in the Middle East, a new poll finds Arab American support for Harris and Trump virtually tied.

Megan Mineiro

By Megan Mineiro

In Washington, DC, reporting on US Congress

People inspect the remains of an Iranian missile that fell into the home of a Bedouin family in the Negev desert near Arad on October 2, 2024, in the aftermath of an overnight Iranian missile attack on Israel.

Analysis

As world awaits Israel's response to Iran, can US help stave off ‘all-out war’?

Benjamin Netanyahu mulls four options to respond to Iran, the US moves goalposts on containing the war, the Gulf looks for assurances on oil assets and more.

Andrew Parasiliti

By Andrew Parasiliti

In Washington, DC, reporting on diplomacy, regional politics, national security