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

Israel cover image

Israel

September 28, 2026

Tel Aviv 9:10 pm

26°C

Israeli PM

On secret UAE visit, Netanyahu asked MBZ to deny pre-Oct. 7 warnings

During his trip to Abu Dhabi, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked President Mohamed bin Zayed to deny reports that he had been warned ahead of the Oct. 7 attack that Hamas was preparing a major assault.

A general view of the damaged building housing Tigray TV, the state broadcaster of the Tigray region, following a drone strike in Mekelle, Ethiopia, Sept. 27, 2026.

20 Israelis stranded in Ethiopia seek evacuation as fighting resumes: What to know

Twenty Israeli tourists are asking the Foreign Ministry to arrange their evacuation from the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, where fighting resumed on Tuesday.

ANGELA WEISS / AFP via Getty Images

Analysis

Can Netanyahu turn Israel's UN isolation into strength at home?

The absence of a Trump meeting would have been awkward for Netanyahu, who has long portrayed himself to Israeli voters as uniquely close to the US president.

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

Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu waves to delegates leaving before his UN speech

Delegates walk out as Netanyahu touts Iran war, slams Qatar and Turkey at UN

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa's statement that the Golan Heights will "remain Syrian territory," while praising US President Donald Trump, whom he did not meet on the trip.

Latest News

Israel election committee bars two Arab lists from upcoming vote: What to know

Leader of the Arab Israeli party Ra'am (United Arab List) Mansour Abbas (R) and Israeli politician Yoav Segalovitz (L) attend a news conference in Nazareth on August 31, 2026. Abbas announced that Segalovitz, an Israeli Jew, will join his party for the upcoming Israeli elections. (Photo by Jalaa MAREY / AFP via Getty Images)

Analysis

Why Netanyahu is distancing himself from Trump ahead of Israeli election

ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP via Getty Images

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

UAE's Gargash expects 'prolonged' war, calls for Iran-Gulf security talks

Gargash

United Arab Emirates

Analysis

After France's settlement ban, Israel sees no warming of ties with Macron government

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and French President Emmanuel Macron arrive to hold a joint press conference in Jerusalem, Oct. 24, 2023.

Rina Bassist

By Rina Bassist

In Paris, reporting on Israeli politics and European affairs

Samuel Wendel

Senior Analyst, Middle East Business & Tech

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 young Israeli demonstrator holds up a placard that reads "Democracy no diversion" during rally to mark the 19th anniversary of the assassination of former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin at the Tel Aviv plaza where he was shot in the Mediterranean coastal city of Tel Aviv on November 1, 2014. Rabin was shot dead on November 4, 1995 just two years after the signing of the Oslo peace accords, for which he and former President Shimon Peres were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize along with veteran Palestin

Rabin memorial reflects lack of left's leadership

The Israeli left has failed to produce any leader who could follow in the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's footsteps, leaving the political scene in the hands of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Smoke rises as a house is blown up during a military operation by Egyptian security forces in the Egyptian city of Rafah, near the border with southern Gaza Strip November 3, 2014. Egypt began clearing residents from its border with the Gaza Strip last week to create a buffer zone following some of the worst anti-state violence since President Mohamed Mursi was overthrown last year. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa (GAZA - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST) - RTR4CMBX

Will Egypt's buffer zone worsen Israel-Hamas friction?

Egypt's plan to clear a buffer zone on its Gaza-Sinai border will oblige Hamas to depend on the crossing points to Israel, a reality that might lead to another round of conflict.

Israeli parliament member from the Likud party Moshe Feiglin (R) walks near the Western Wall after visiting the compound known to Muslims as Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as Temple Mount in Jerusalem's Old City November 2, 2014. Feiglin, a far-right politician who wants Jews to be allowed to pray at Jerusalem's al-Aqsa compound, visited the site on Sunday, defying Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's calls for restraint after clashes this week between Israeli police and Palestinians. REUTERS/Amir Cohen (JERUSA

Netanyahu government threatens Temple Mount

Members of Benjamin Netanyahu's government are using the Temple Mount for political purposes, advocating the return of the Jewish people to the holy site at the risk of damaging the fragile status quo.

Islamic State intelligence network stifles resistance

Terrorist group reportedly uses Saddam-era intelligence officers and tactics; Syria’s Alawites seek accountability from government; Syrian army advances around Hama; Temple Mount as flash point; Egyptian campaign against terrorists in the Sinai Peninsula makes life harder for residents of the Gaza Strip.

A masked Palestinian protester uses a sling shot to throw stones at Israeli troops during clashes, following an anti-Israel demonstration over the entry restrictions to the al-Aqsa mosque, on a rainy day at Qalandia checkpoint near the West Bank city of Ramallah October 31, 2014. Muslim men over 50 prayed at the Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem's Old City on Friday amid intense security, a day after Israel closed all access to the sacred compound for the first time in more than a decade following violence on the st

War and peace of Jerusalem

Jerusalem could become the world capital of peace, hosted by both Israel and Palestine, if the United Nations moved some of its agencies to the city, as suggested by a Palestinian policymaker.

Palestinian police Colonel Adnan al-Damiri speaks during a press conference in the West Bank city of Ramallah about a deadly shootout in Qalqilya on May 31, 2009. Six people were killed in a West Bank shootout on May 31 during an arrest operation for a senior Hamas militant, deepening the rift between the rival Palestinian factions. The Islamist Hamas movement ruling the Gaza Strip warned that the rival Fatah movement loyal to president Mahmud Abbas had crossed a "red line" by carrying out the operation whi

PA spokesman: 'Israel has an Islamic State-like government'

In an interview with Al-Monitor, Adnan al-Damiri, the Palestinian Authority security services' spokesman, reacts to the Israeli decision revoking his VIP border pass.

Yehuda Glick, an activist of the "temple mount faithful" group, poses for a photo in Jerusalem June 30, 2011. Glick was shot and severely wounded in Jerusalem on October 29, 2014 as he left a conference promoting a Jewish campaign to permit praying at a compound in the Old City that that has become a flashpoint as both Jews and Muslims regard it as a holy site, Israeli officials said. Israeli police shot dead a Palestinian on Thursday after he fired at them resisting arrest in East Jerusalem hours after the

Israeli MK: Israel must reaffirm sovereignty over Jerusalem

In an interview with Al-Monitor, Knesset member Orit Strock blames the government for not clarifying long ago its stance concerning control of the Temple Mount, saying that this indecisiveness permitted the attack on rightist activist Rabbi Yehuda Glick.

Palestinians, hoping to cross into Egypt, ride in a car as they wait at the Rafah crossing in the southern Gaza Strip August 25, 2014. Under Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Cairo has secured closures on the Gaza border, increasing economic pressure on Hamas from a long-running Israeli blockade. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Palestinian civilians on Sunday to leave immediately any site where militants are operating, one day after Israel flattened a 13-storey apartment block in Ga

Closures become norm for Rafah crossing

The closing of the Rafah crossing by Egypt following the terrorist attack in Sinai will worsen the humanitarian situation of Gaza residents, for whom the crossing is a lifeline to the outside world.

Israeli Arab lawmaker Haneen Zoabi (L) waits before a hearing at the Supreme Court in Jerusalem December 27, 2012. Zoabi appealed to the Supreme Court after Israel's electoral authority barred her from re-election on December 19, saying she had supported the nation's enemies by joining a protest ship that tried to break a naval blockade of Gaza. REUTERS/Ammar Awad (JERUSALEM - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR3BXBA

Arab Knesset member threatens to leave parliament

In an interview, Arab Knesset member Basel Ghattas warns of a growing trend where Israeli politics is no longer a fair game, which might lead to his faction leaving parliament.

A labourer works on an apartment building under construction in a Jewish settlement known to Israelis as Har Homa and to Palestinians as Jabal Abu Ghneim in an area of the West Bank that Israel captured in a 1967 war and annexed to the city of Jerusalem, October 28, 2014. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will expedite planning for some 1,000 settler homes in East Jerusalem, a government official said on Monday, in a bid to placate a restive coalition ally without further aggravating a dispute with

Netanyahu's Jerusalem construction a stalling strategy

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is escalating the situation in East Jerusalem by announcing more construction plans that, even if not enacted, assure the stability of his right-wing coalition and head off talks with the Palestinians.

Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah (4th L) and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (3rd L) pose for a group photo with Palestinian ministers during a swearing-in ceremony of the unity government, in the West Bank city of Ramallah June 2, 2014. Abbas swore in a unity government on Monday after overcoming a last-minute dispute with the Hamas Islamist group. REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman (WEST BANK - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR3RT7N

Palestinian elections on hold until further notice

The reconciliation government has yet to hold the presidential and parliamentary elections in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, as Hamas and Fatah accuse each other of stalling this democratic process.

Israel's President Reuven Rivlin and Polish counterpart Bronislaw Komorowski (center, L-R) visit newly built Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw October 28, 2014. The museum is a project that sets out to remember not just how Jews in Poland died, but how they lived. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel (POLAND - Tags: POLITICS SOCIETY) - RTR4BWEW

Israel, Poland remember but also rebuild

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin took part in the inauguration of a new museum in Warsaw dedicated to 1,000 years of Jewish history, which reflects Poland's desire not only to remember the Holocaust but also to rebuild relations with Israel.