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.

GIL COHEN-MAGEN/AFP via Getty Images

Disaster unfolds as hell breaks loose in Israel, Gaza

Israel was unprepared for the nightmare scenario of simultaneous rioting in the country and massive rocket attacks from Gaza.

Rockets are launched towards Israel from Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, controlled by the Palestinian Hamas movement, on May 12, 2021.

Hamas' attacks on Israel also aimed at Palestinian Authority

Hamas fires rockets at Israel in response to the violence in Jerusalem, while Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas seems relegated to the sidelines.

Ra'am Party leader Mansour Abbas and other party members attend a meeting with President Reuven Rivlin at the President's residence on April 5, 2021 in Jerusalem.

Arab-supported government in Israel looks less likely

Riots in Lod, Ramle and other mixed Jewish and Arab cities, coupled with Israeli retaliation against the barrage of rockets from Gaza, are making an Arab-backed government coalition look increasing unfeasible.

sheikn jarrah protest in bethlehem

Sheikh Jarrah activists say Israel pressuring Twitter to block them

Twitter and Instagram recently blocked and suspended the accounts of several activists covering the recent events in Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, with Palestinians accusing Israel of being behind this campaign.

SAID KHATIB/AFP via Getty Images

1,000 rockets from Gaza fired at Israel overnight

Hundreds of thousands of Israelis ran to shelters over the night as sirens blared warnings of rocket fire from the Gaza Strip.

Holon rocket damage

Jerusalem violence reignites tension between Gaza, Israel

Palestinian factions in Gaza resumed rocket attacks against Israel amid ongoing violence in Jerusalem.

A torched observation post is seen outside a religious Jewish school in the central city of Lod, near Tel Aviv, following nighttime clashes between Arab Israelis and Israeli Jews, Israel, May 11, 2021.

Protests, violence break out in mixed Jewish-Arab cities of Israel

An Arab-Israeli man was shot dead and Jewish Israeli businesses were attacked in the city of Lod last night.

A Palestinian protester argues with Israeli security forces in the Old City of Jerusalem, as a planned march marking Israel's 1967 takeover of the holy city threatened to further inflame tensions, May 10, 2021.

New generation of Jerusalem Palestinians emerges

The events during the month of Ramadan appear to have given birth to more courageous Palestinian youth activists in Jerusalem, who have maintained smiles in the face of arrest.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chairs a Cabinet meeting, as an escalation of violence raged for a second day in the Gaza Strip, Jerusalem, Nov. 13, 2019.

Will escalation with Hamas benefit Netanyahu?

Escalation with Hamas arrives exactly at the moment when the anti-Netanyahu bloc is trying to cobble up a "government for change."

A picture shows an Israeli airstrike in the southern Gaza Strip, controlled by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, on May 10, 2021. Israel launched deadly airstrikes on Gaza in response to a barrage of rockets fired by the Islamist movement Hamas amid spiraling violence sparked by unrest at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.

Mixed reactions from Congress to Jerusalem conflict

Several Democrats in the House and Senate want the Biden administration to pressure Israel over the possible eviction of Palestinian families from their homes in Jerusalem, but other Democratic and Republican lawmakers expressed support for Israel after Hamas' rocket attacks.

Washington Pulse

Israeli police officers clash with Palestinians during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan on April 24, 2021 in Jerusalem.

US expresses 'serious concerns' to Israel over Jerusalem violence

National security adviser Jake Sullivan said the United States had "serious concerns" over the Jerusalem clashes and the potential evictions of Palestinian families from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.

Palestinians run for cover from tear gas fired by Israeli security forces at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound on May 10, 2021, ahead of a planned march to commemorate Israel's takeover of Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day War.

Temple Mount violence bares fragility of Turkey’s attempts to fix relations with Israel

Turkey's president and other officials have condemned Israel's crackdown on Palestinians in unrest at Al-Aqsa mosque, posing a serious threat to Ankara's efforts to mend ties with Israel.