Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan receives Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Turkish House in New York, on Sept. 19, 2023.

Analysis

What’s at stake for Turkey as Israel heads to the polls?

Israel’s Oct. 27 election could offer a chance to ease tensions with Ankara, but competing ambitions in Syria and beyond threaten to push the two US allies toward a dangerous confrontation.

Amberin Zaman

By Amberin Zaman

Reporting on geopolitics, minorities, human rights, culture

JACK GUEZ / AFP via Getty Images

Feature

50,000 Israeli expats fly home to vote in potential boon to Netanyahu rivals

Israel prohibits voting from abroad with limited exceptions, and Israelis who spoke to Al-Monitor said they are especially motivated to fly home this year.

Adam Lucente

By Adam Lucente

In New York City, reporting on regional news, militancy, climate change

Pedestrians cross a street in front of a banner featuring Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Analysis

How Israel opposition infighting is boosting Netanyahu days before election

Discord within the opposition, including its reluctance to name a single candidate for prime minister ahead of the Oct. 27 election, is working in Netanyahu’s favor.

Mazal Mualem

By Mazal Mualem

In Tel Aviv, reporting on politics

In first, Israel’s Netanyahu says he held call with Syria’s Ahmed al-Sharaa

It is the first publicly disclosed contact between the leaders of Israel and Syria, which lack formal relations and have fought several wars. Sharaa’s government began US-mediated talks with Israel in 2025.

Latest News

Sisi says Egypt has no ‘territorial ambitions’ after Israel’s Smotrich threatens Sinai

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi attends a joint statements and agreements during the EU and Egypt summit in Brussels, on Oct. 22, 2025.

Former Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar sues Netanyahu for nearly $1M over Oct. 7 claims

Israel's Chief of the Mossad David Barnea (R) and Security Agency director Ronen Bar, attend a ceremony marking the Hebrew calendar anniversary of the Hamas attack on October 7 last year that sparked the ongoing war in Gaza, at the Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem on October 27, 2024. (Photo by GIL COHEN-MAGEN / POOL / AFP) (Photo by GIL COHEN-MAGEN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Explainer

Israel-UK relations hit new low over settlements, Gaza: What to know

The British Consulate General in east Jerusalem represents the British government in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza during a protest against the recently announced British sanctions, aimed at economic activity in Israeli settlements in the West Bank, on Sept. 14, 2026, in Jerusalem.

West Bank olive harvest begins amid settler attacks on Palestinians, groves

Palestinian men sitting in and by a tractor look on after another man was injured by gunfire whilst being chased away by Israeli forces, in Aqraba in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Oct. 6, 2026.

Workers at Al-Arees sweets factory sort a batch of chocolate-covered biscuits in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, Feb. 5, 2020.

Israel seizes tons of chocolate it claims is being used to fund Hamas

Israel has confiscated 23 tons of chocolate bars on their way to the Gaza Strip.

A picture shows Gaza City and its Mediterranean Sea coastline, on July 27, 2021.

Israeli strikes on Gaza towers may amount to war crimes, HRW says

During the 11-day conflict with Hamas, Israeli airstrikes destroyed five high-rise towers in Gaza City that the Israeli military said were used by the militants.

Palestinians watch a film during the opening ceremony of the Red Carpet Human Rights Film Festival in Gaza-Karama Palestine, in front of the abandoned Cinema Amer building in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, Dec. 4, 2019.

Hamas, Islamic Jihad reject Human Rights Watch report on conduct of war

Palestinian resistance factions dispute charge of "indiscriminate attacks" on Israeli civilians.

Palestinian Mansour Abu Ghadyan and members of his family share a meal inside a classroom of an UNRWA-run school where they will be living temporarily after their home was damaged during the recent Israeli bombing in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, May 29, 2021.

UNRWA calls out Hamas, Israel for actions during Israel-Gaza war

UNRWA has called on Hamas and Israel to respect the sanctity of its installations in order to ensure that it continues to safely provide its services to refugees.

Israel's Prime Minister Naftali Bennett arrives for the weekly Cabinet meeting in Jerusalem on Aug. 1, 2021.

Ahead of Bennett’s visit to Washington, Israel tightens cooperation with Egypt

The invitation to visit Cairo and the agreement over the transfer of Qatari money to Gaza are important milestones for Prime Minister Naftali Bennett ahead of his visit to the White House.

Palestinians stand in line outside the post office to receive Qatari cash aid in Gaza City, Gaza, on Aug. 26, 2019. The aid was the latest in a succession of payments to needy families in the Gaza Strip from Qatar. Israel held up the payments this year in an attempt to ensure that Hamas could not use any of the cash for its military activities; payments now will be directly made into Gazans' bank accounts via the United Nations.

Israel, Qatar reach deal on resumed cash payments to Gaza

Families in the Gaza Strip will again receive monthly cash payments that were frozen in the wake of Israel's 11-day conflict with Hamas.

Baradar and Haniyeh

Hamas welcomes Taliban’s triumph in Afghanistan

Hamas published an official statement in which it congratulated its victory and praised its performance.

Palestinian security forces stand on guard as a truck carrying the first arriving shipment of doses of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine for COVID-19 coronavirus disease arrives on the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom border crossing south of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Feb. 17, 2021.

Israel tags Hamas as 'real enemy' of Gazans as Qatari aid remains cut off

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett tours the border with Gaza; Israel continues to seek guarantees that Hamas will not use money Qatar has targeted for poor Gazans for military activities.

A child looks on as a Palestinian family checks their belongings after Israeli machinery demolished their house located within Area C of the occupied West Bank.

Israeli decision to allow Palestinians to build in Area C spurs skepticism

Palestinians perceive the Israeli decision to allow them to build 1,000 residential units in Area C with skepticism, as they believe it is designed to mislead the public so as to construct new settlement projects in the West Bank.

A Lockheed C-130 Hercules aircraft releases fire retardant while attempting to extinguish a forest fire near Kibbutz Tzova, west of Jerusalem, central Israel, Aug. 17, 2021.

Israeli defense minister thanks Palestinian president for sending firefighters to Jerusalem

The cooperation on fighting the wildfires in Jerusalem is not the only recent evidence Israeli-Palestinian relations may be improving.

Palestinian artist Bilal Khaled draws on an unexploded device in Gaza City on May 20, 2021.

Gaza graffiti combines conflict, despair and hope for Palestinians

Graffiti artists in the Gaza Strip are painting murals across the besieged enclave after the latest Israeli war to send a different kind of message to the world.

The mother (R) of Raed Abu Seif, one of four Palestinians killed in clashes with Israeli security forces earlier in the day, mourns during his funeral in the Jenin refugee camp in the north of the occupied West Bank on Aug. 16, 2021.

Palestinians killed by Israeli forces, rocket intercepted over Israel

The rocket was the first since the end of the latest Gaza war in May.