Settlements

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Oscar-winning Palestinian director freed from Israeli detention after night in custody

Hamdan Ballal, a co-director of the Oscar-winning documentary "No Other Land," was assaulted by Israeli settlers and later detained by Israeli forces in the West Bank as the Israeli army continues its raids in the Palestinian territory.

Yair Golan in Tel Aviv on Feb. 2, 2025.

Interview

Amid Israel's rightward shift, left struggles for relevance

In a special interview with Al-Monitor, Yair Golan, leader of center-left party the Democrats, insists that the Palestinian Authority must play a pivotal role in the future administration of Gaza.

Yair Golan

Yair Golan

Chair of the Democrats Party

Israeli soldier and kids use binoculars during a Sukkoth gathering, calling for resettling Gaza with Jewish communities near the border with the Gaza Strip on Oct. 21, 2024 in Southern Border, Israel.

Why Israel's far right is embracing Trump’s Gaza displacement plan

Israel's far right is elated by President Donald Trump's calls to drive Gazans away from the Strip and resettle them in other Arab states.

A car belonging to Palestinian villagers set on fire during clashes after the Israeli settlers stormed the village of Qusra in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Saturday, April 13, 2024. (Photo by Wahaj Bani Moufleh / Middle East Images / Middle East Images via AFP) (Photo by WAHAJ BANI MOUFLEH/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)

Trump revokes sanctions on Israeli settlers in West Bank: What we know

On his first day in office, President Donald Trump signed a flurry of executive orders from withdrawing from the World Health Organization to reversing one that sanctioned violent Israeli settlers in the West Bank.

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Analysis

As Gaza deal looms, will Netanyahu choose Trump or Israel’s far right?

Trump and Netanyahu

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

Israeli settlers vandalize Palestinian property across West Bank: What we know

A man stands by burnt vehicles at the site of a reported attack by Israeli settlers in a residential area on the outskirts of Ramallah city in the occupied West Bank, on November 4, 2024. (Photo by Zain JAAFAR / AFP) (Photo by ZAIN JAAFAR/AFP via Getty Images)

Analysis

Israel euphoric over Trump's cabinet: Will he pick annexation or Saudi deal?

WASHINGTON, DC - SEPTEMBER 15: Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu waves as he arrives outside the West Wing of the White House September 15, 2020 in Washington, DC. Netanyahu is in Washington to participate in the signing ceremony of the Abraham Accords. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

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

Israel's Smotrich calls for annexation of occupied West Bank: What we know

Israel's Finance Minister and leader of the Religious Zionist Party Bezalel Smotrich attends a meeting at the parliament, Knesset, in Jerusalem, on March 20, 2023.

This picture shows a view of the West Bank settlement of Har Bracha near the occupied West Bank city of Nablus on January 22, 2024. (Photo by Jaafar ASHTIYEH / AFP) (Photo by JAAFAR ASHTIYEH/AFP via Getty Images)

Israel to reward new immigrants for settling in periphery, West Bank

Israel's Immigration and Finance Ministries unveiled a new scheme offering economic incentives for immigrants who settle in peripheral northern or southern communities or in the occupied West Bank.

JAAFAR ASHTIYEH/AFP via Getty Images

Analysis

France leads EU in sanctioning violent Israeli settlers

France has become the first European Union member state to enact sanctions against extremist Israeli settlers.

Rina Bassist

By Rina Bassist

In Paris, reporting on Israeli politics and European affairs

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

Israeli ambassador to the US Michael Oren arrives to address the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) annual policy conference in Washington on March 3, 2013. AFP PHOTO/Nicholas KAMM (Photo credit should read NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP via Getty Images)

Analysis

'Multiple clocks' are ticking on Gaza, warns former Israeli ambassador to US

Michael Oren told Al-Monitor that Israel must appreciate the efforts by the Biden administration to support the country and its Gaza military campaign, and urged the Israeli government to curb West Bank settler violence.

Rina Bassist

By Rina Bassist

In Paris, reporting on Israeli politics and European affairs

Israeli settlers gather on a hill next to the Palestinian town of Halhul, north of Hebron in the occupied West Bank on June 30, 2020, as they attend a rally against US President Donald Trump's peace plan which might create a Palestinian state and also the Israeli annexation of some parts West Bank.

Breaking | Last Updated: December 5, 2023, 4:29 pm

US announces visa ban policy for Israel's extremist West Bank settlers

The US visa restrictions come as the United Nations and rights groups have documented an uptick in settler violence against West Bank Palestinians since Oct. 7.

People pass a pro-Palestinian mural on the Republican Falls Road in Belfast on October 23, 2023. Northern Ireland may be thousands of miles from the Middle East but signs of the current heightened conflict can be seen on the streets of the British province. Palestinian and Israeli flags flutter in pro-Irish and pro-UK neighbourhoods in Northern Ireland, tapping into its own history of conflict and division that still affects everyday life despite a 1998 peace deal that largely ended violence. (Photo by Paul

Analysis

Israel-Ireland relations take another dive over Gaza war, PM statements

Israel's Foreign Ministry has summoned Ireland's ambassador over Prime Minister Leo Varadkar saying that nine-year-old hostage Emily Hand was "lost and found" when she was freed from Hamas captivity.

Rina Bassist

By Rina Bassist

In Paris, reporting on Israeli politics and European affairs

A child mourns over the body of one of five people killed in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin during an overnight Israeli incursion, at the morgue of a hospital on November 26, 2023. Five people were killed by Israeli army fire in Jenin, the Palestinian health ministry said, during an incursion by a large number of armoured vehicles into the city, which was recently the scene of the deadliest Israeli raid in the West Bank in almost 20 years. (Photo by Zain JAAFAR / AFP) (Photo by ZAIN JAAFAR/AFP via Get

Two Palestinian children killed in Israeli raid in Jenin as West Bank tensions soar

The truce between Israel and Hamas in Gaza has not calmed the situation in the West Bank with at least 240 Palestinians killed since Oct. 7.

Israeli soldiers stand guard as police check a car damaged in a reported ramming attack at the Bell checkpoint near the settlement of Beit Horon, on the occupied West Bank, east of the central Israeli city of Modiin, November 2, 2022.

Israeli-Palestinian tensions rise with fresh attacks in Jerusalem, West Bank

With tensions high in Israeli and the West Bank following attacks against Israelis, Hamas is threatening to launch protests on the Israel-Gaza border.

Palestinian militants march during the funeral of Palestinians killed in clashes the previous day in the Israeli military operation in Jenin in the occupied West Bank on July 5, 2023.

What's behind rare intra-Palestinian clashes in West Bank

The rare clash between the Palestinian Authority and local Palestinians came amid increased Israeli security raids in the territory.

Itamar Ben Gvir, Israel's national security minister and leader of the far-right Jewish Power party, addresses supporters in Jerusalem, November 2, 2022.

US condemns Israel’s Ben-Gvir over 'racist rhetoric'

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who said his right to move freely in the West Bank was more important than that of Palestinians, has faced growing international criticism, including from US model Bella Hadid.

Mourners carry the body of 19-year-old Palestinian Qusai Jamal Maatan.

In shift, US labels Israeli settler violence a 'terror attack'

The State Department described the killing of a 19-year-old Palestinian as a "terror attack," using a term it typically reserves for attacks on Israeli civilians.

Israeli settlers march toward the outpost of Eviatar, near the Palestinian village of Beita, south of Nablus, West Bank, April 10, 2023.

Analysis

Israeli security chiefs helpless as government ignores settler violence

Heads of the security agencies fear that without a clear backing of the government to fight Jewish nationalist attacks, settler violence against Palestinian villages would only increase.

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