Israel - AL-MONITOR: The Middle Eastʼs leading independent news source since 2012

Israel cover image

Israel

May 13, 2026

Tel Aviv 4:59 am

20°C

Artillery units are positioned near the Lebanese border in northern Israel, May 4, 2026.

Analysis

Israel’s drone dilemma: Hezbollah’s low-cost threat reshapes Lebanon front

While Israeli and Lebanese delegations are set to meet in Washington for the third time, the Israeli military faces a growing threat from Hezbollah’s cheap yet highly lethal drones.

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

Two men stand next to the burned remains of a Palestinian vehicle in the Wadi al-Rakhim area of Susya village in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, on May 1, 2026.

EU ministers agree to sanction violent West Bank settlers: What to know

European foreign ministers have agreed to sanction extremist West Bank settlers, but are still discussing the list of names.

Ronen Zvulun / AFP via Getty Images

Netanyahu fears being left out as Trump pursues Iran diplomacy

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was not surprised by President Donald Trump’s suspension of Project Freedom and move toward talks with Iran, but analysts say Washington may not be fully weighing Israel's concerns in negotiations with Tehran.

Latest News

Analysis

CIA report on Iran missiles undercuts Netanyahu as war euphoria dissipates

Traffic passes a billboard depicting Iranian ballistic missiles in service, with text in Arabic reading "the honest [person's] promise" and in Persian "Israel is weaker than a spider's web," Valiasr Square, Tehran, April 15, 2024. ATTA KENARE/AFP via Getty Images.

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

Israel strikes Beirut in breach of Lebanon ceasefire

People gather at the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted Beirut's southern suburbs neighborhood of Haret Hreik on May 6, 2026.

Analysis

Israel fears Trump seeking Hormuz win while sidestepping Iran nuclear issue

Amirhossein KHORGOOEI / ISNA / AFP via Getty Images

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

Samuel Wendel

Senior Market Research Analyst

In Washington, DC, reporting on regional business and tech

Adam Lucente

News and Business Correspondent

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

Jack Dutton

Chief Business Correspondent

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

Ben Caspit

Israel Columnist

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

Francesco Schiavi

In Bologna, reporting on security, defense, economy, governance

Rina Bassist

Associate Editor (Israel)

In Paris, reporting on Israeli politics and European affairs

A picture taken from the northern Israeli kibbutz of Manara on August 26, 2020 shows United Nations peacekeeping force (UNIFIL) patrolling along the border with Israel in the southern Lebanese village of Houla. - Israel said it had launched air strikes against Hezbollah observation posts in Lebanon after shots were fired from across the border towards its troops the previous evening. (Photo by JALAA MAREY / AFP) (Photo by JALAA MAREY/AFP via Getty Images)

Israel retaliates after Hezbollah shoots at IDF from Lebanon

Israel is worried that a security incident late Aug. 25 on the border fence with Lebanon means that Hezbollah intends to escalate tensions.

<<enter caption here>> on September 11, 2018 in Uman, Ukraine.

Israeli ultra-Orthodox cry persecution over Ukraine's ban on pilgrimage

The ultra-Orthodox community has united behind a small, unpopular sect after Ukraine forbade this year's traditional pilgrimage.

Israeli protesters, wearing protective masks due to the COVID-19 pandemic, hold placards as they take part in a demonstration in Tel Aviv on August 23, 2020, to denounce sexual violence against women following the alleged gang-rape of a 16-year-old girl in a Red Sea resort. - Police said 11 suspects, including nine minors and a woman said to be the manager of the hotel in which the alleged rape took place, had been arrested in connection with the affair so far as part of an "ongoing investigation". (Photo b

Rape of teen shocks Israelis, sends them to the streets

Women rights groups were joined by many Israeli firms in a protest over the gang rape of a 16-year-old in Eilat.

Controversy continues in Israel over US F-35 sale to UAE

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says flatly that he did not know about and did not agree to a deal for Americans to sell F-35 stealth jets to the United Arab Emirates.

United Arab Emirates

Despite UN decision, Israel keeps campaigning for Iran sanctions

For Israel, the Aug. 14 decision by the UN Security Council not to extend sanctions against Iran is definitely not the final word on the issue.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (L) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu make a joint statement to the press after meeting in Jerusalem, on August 24, 2020. - Pompeo arrived in Israel kicking off a five-day visit to the Middle East which will take him to Sudan, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain, focusing on Israel's normalising of ties with the UAE and pushing other Arab states to follow suit. (Photo by DEBBIE HILL / various sources / AFP) (Photo by DEBBIE HILL/AFP via Getty Images)

Trump, Pompeo ride to Netanyahu’s rescue

The US-mediated normalization agreement with the United Arab Emirates and the visit of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo help Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to shift public attention away from the multiple crises he faces.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (L) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu bump elbows ahead of making a joint statement to the press after meeting in Jerusalem, on August 24, 2020. - Pompeo arrived in Israel kicking off a five-day visit to the Middle East which will take him to Sudan, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain, focusing on Israel's normalising of ties with the UAE and pushing other Arab states to follow suit. (Photo by DEBBIE HILL / POOL / AFP) (Photo by DEBBIE HILL/POOL/AFP via Getty

Netanyahu, Pompeo celebrate UAE agreement, push for more new ties

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top officials have kicked off an Israeli diplomatic blitz over the country's normalization deal with the United Arab Emirates.

CAIRO, EGYPT - JANUARY 27: Locals look at newspapers carrying reports and pictures of street protests on January 27, 2011 in Cairo, Egypt. Thousands of police are on the streets of the capital and hundreds of arrests have been made in an attempt to quell anti-government demonstrations. (Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)

Egyptian news media warned not to criticize UAE-Israel deal

Cairo has reportedly instructed local media outlets not to publish content criticizing the recent UAE-Israel normalization deal in another blow to press freedom in the country.

A photo taken on June 24, 2019 shows raw sewage flowing near the main Gaza Strip power plant, serving the Hamas-run Palestinian territory, south of Gaza City. - Finance officials were flying into Bahrain today for a US-led peace conference that holds out billions of dollars for the Palestinians, whose leaders pronounced the idea dead on arrival. (Photo by MOHAMMED ABED / AFP) (Photo credit should read MOHAMMED ABED/AFP via Getty Images)

Israel-Hamas escalation halts sewage treatment, generates ecological crisis

Gaza incendiary balloons made Israel stop fuel import into the Gaza Strip, causing in turn for Gaza sewage plants to cease operating.

Israeli Paramedics of Maguen David Adom (Israel's National Emergency Pre-Hospital Medical Organisation) at the coronavirus national operations center unload a containment chamber during a coronavirus response training exercise in the central Israeli city of Kiryat Ono on February 26, 2020. - Some 80,000 people are infected worldwide, including nearly 2,800 outside China, and more than 2,700 have died worldwide, according to the latest toll from the World Health Organization. (Photo by JACK GUEZ / AFP) (Phot

Coronavirus cases in Israel top 100,000

The surge in coronavirus cases come as confidence in Benjamin Netanyahu's government is declining.

TEL AVIV, ISRAEL - AUGUST 28: New Jewish immigrants walking down the airplane during a welcoming ceremony after arriving on a flight from Ethiopia, on August 28, 2013 at Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv, Israel. Over 400 Ethiopian Jews arrived on the flight to Tel Aviv, the last of a series of monthly flights that were part of Operation Dove's Wings, an Israeli government initiative to bring to Israel the remainder of the Falash Mura, members of the Ethiopian Jewish community whose ancestors converted to C

Israeli-Ethiopian community divided on bringing 8,000 Falash Mura

Minister of Immigration and Absorption Pnina Tamano-Shata presented last week a plan to bring to Israel 8,000 Falash Mura from Ethiopia by the end of 2022.

People inspect the damages at a house that was hit by a rocket launched from Gaza to the southern Israeli city of Sderot, early morning on August 16, 2020. (Photo by Menahem KAHANA / AFP) (Photo by MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP via Getty Images)

Israel carries out multiple airstrikes after 12 rockets from Gaza

Escalation on Israel-Gaza border: Israel Defense Forces jets struck Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip three times, after 12 rockets and projectiles were launched during the night from Gaza.