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.

An Israeli farmer tries to extinguish a fire caused by inflammable material attached to a helium balloon flown by Palestinian protesters from across the border, in a wheat field near the Nahal Oz kibbutz, along the border with the Gaza Strip, Israel, May 15, 2019.

After cease-fire, Israel prepares for next round of Gaza conflict

Seniors in the political and security echelons are convinced that the current cease-fire with Hamas does not mean quiet for a very long time.

Egypt's Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukry speaks during a joint press conference following a meeting on the Middle East Peace process, at the quai d'Orsay, in Paris, on March 11, 2021.

Israeli-Egyptian cooperation grows following end of Gaza conflict

Israel has been quiet on its contacts with Egypt throughout the latest security crisis, but the agreement on the cease-fire with Hamas, Friday's phone call between the two foreign ministers and the reopening yesterday of two Gaza crossing points for humanitarian aid reflect growing cooperation between Jerusalem and Cairo.

Palestinians sit in a tent that has been set up on top of the ruins of a building destroyed in recent Israeli airstrikes, in Gaza City, on May 24, 2021. A cease-fire was reached late last week after 11 days of deadly violence between Israel and the Hamas movement, which runs Gaza.

The heavy toll of Israel-Hamas war, by the numbers

A look at the destruction wrought by more than a week of fighting between Hamas and Israel.

Moroccans demonstrate, calling for an end to violence in Gaza and against the normalization with Israel, in the capital, Rabat, on May 16, 2021.

Moroccan PM congratulates Hamas for 'victory' against Israel

Saadeddine Othmani's support for the Palestinians during the recent conflict with Israel followed Morocco and Israel agreeing to normalize relations late last year.

AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty Images

Israeli soldier, civilian stabbed in east Jerusalem

Israeli police shot and killed a Palestinian man after he allegedly stabbed a soldier and civilian in east Jerusalem Monday.

Stefani Reynolds/Getty Images

Blinken visits Middle East to bolster Israel-Hamas cease-fire

Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit Jerusalem, Ramallah, Cairo and Amman this week for discussions on maintaining the fragile cease-fire between Israel and Hamas.

US President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the conflict in the Middle East from the White House on May 20, 2021 in Washington, DC.

Israeli-Palestinian conflict forces Biden to put Mideast on agenda

Egyptian and Palestinian Authority leaders are back at center stage of US regional diplomacy.

Netanyahu briefing

A ‘new level of force’: Netanyahu warns against further Hamas attacks

“If Hamas thinks we will tolerate a drizzle of rockets, it is wrong,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said after the cease-fire took effect.

A picture taken on May 20, 2021, from the northern Israeli town of Metula near the border with Lebanon, show people raising Palestinian, Lebanese and Iran-backed Hezbollah flags during a rally in solidarity with the Palestinians, on the outskirts of the southern Lebanese village of Kfarkila, near a United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) armored personnel carrier. The Israeli-Palestinian ongoing military conflict has many eyes trained on the Lebanese border for a reaction from the Iran-backed Hezbo

Did Iran instigate latest Gaza escalation?

Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip deny reports that Iran pushed for the latest round of escalation, despite Tehran's close ties to both Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Palestinian women sit in the rubble of a building, destroyed by Israeli strikes, in Beit Hanun in the northern Gaza Strip on May 21, 2021.

Cease-fire between Israel and Palestinian factions enters into force

The cease-fire between Israel and Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip entered into force at 2 a.m. May 21, ending a round of fighting that lasted 11 days, claimed the lives of more than 240 people and destroyed many properties.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi speaks during a press conference with French President following their meeting at the Elysee presidential Palace on Dec. 7, 2020 in Paris, as part of al-Sisi's three-day controversial state visit to France, with activists warning Paris not to turn a blind eye to Cairo's rights record with a red carpet welcome.

Why Egypt is lending its support to the Palestinians

Egypt's support for the Palestinians in the latest conflict — in which Cairo helped broker a cease-fire — has drawn attention among observers who see it as a policy shift.

A Palestinian child who was wounded in overnight Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip, receives treatment at Al-Shifa Hospital on May 19, 2021 in Gaza City, Gaza.

Israeli campaign against Gaza further strains already fragile health sector

The Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip announced that the only COVID-19 laboratory in the coastal enclave has gone out of service as a result of the Israeli aggression that wreaked havoc on the health sector.