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.

A ball of fire is seen following an Israel airstrike at Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip early on June 27, 2020. - Two rockets were fired from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip towards Israeli territory on June 26, the army said. It was the first reported rocket fire from the Gaza Strip since early May. (Photo by SAID KHATIB / AFP) (Photo by SAID KHATIB/AFP via Getty Images)

Hamas test-fires rockets escalating tensions with Israel

Hamas test-fired missiles toward the sea in the Gaza Strip in a warning to Israel that the calm along the border might not last.

Balloons carrying an incendiary device floats after being released by masked Palestinians near Gaza's Bureij refugee camp, along the Israel-Gaza border fence, on February 10, 2020. (Photo by MAHMUD HAMS / AFP) (Photo by MAHMUD HAMS/AFP via Getty Images)

After barrage of explosive balloons, Israel closes crossing point with Gaza

Signaling to Hamas it won’t tolerate more incendiary balloons, Israel announced it will close the Kerem Shalom goods crossing for an undetermined period, allowing only the entry of fuel, food and humanitarian supplies.

A picture taken from the E1 corridor, a super-sensitive area of the occupied West Bank, shows Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim in the background on June 30, 2020. (Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP) (Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty Images)

As annexation stalls, Netanyahu revives plan to expand West Bank settlements

Israel is reviving the E1 plan to build thousands of settlements in East Jerusalem, which would cut off the city from the rest of the West Bank and undermine any prospect for the creation of a contiguous Palestinian state.

Israel facing tensions on northern, southern borders

The IDF is now worried not only about escalating tensions on the Syrian and Lebanese borders but also about growing tensions along the border with the Gaza Strip.

Israeli security forces stand guard in one of the alleys of Jerusalem's Old City following a knife attack early on May 31, 2019. - Two Israelis were wounded, one critically, in stabbing attacks in annexed east Jerusalem early in the monrning, one near Damascus Gate and the other near Jaffa Gate, according to Israeli police. Police said the attacker had been "neutralised" without specifying whether he had been killed or wounded. The Old City, where the attack took place, has been the scene of numerous stabbi

Can Jerusalem mayor improve situation of Arab residents?

Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Leon advances two development projects in East Jerusalem — in Issawiya and in Wadi Joz.

Israeli settlers firebomb mosque in West Bank

Attacks by ultranationalist Jewish settlers in the West Bank have occurred this year amid Israel's planned — but so far unsuccessful — attempts to annex parts of the Palestinian territory.

Jordan's Prime Minister Omar al-Razzaz gives a press conference in the southern port city of Aqaba on July 23, 2019, discussing projects in the area including an underwater military museum. (Photo by Khalil MAZRAAWI / AFP) (Photo credit should read KHALIL MAZRAAWI/AFP via Getty Images)

Jordan PM's comments on single state trigger uproar

Jordanian Prime Minister Omar Razzaz has said in a recent interview that a one-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict could be an alternative, causing uproar among Jordanians.

NEW YORK, NY - SEPTEMBER 21: Sameh Shoukry, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Egypt, listens during a UN Security Council meeting concerning nuclear non-proliferation, during the United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters, September 21, 2017 in New York City. The most pressing issues facing the assembly this year include North KoreaÕs nuclear ambitions, violence against the Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar, and the debate over climate change. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Egypt heads to Amman, Ramallah to revive peace efforts

The Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs visited Jordan and the Palestinian city of Ramallah to declare Egypt’s rejection of the Israeli intentions to annex parts of the Palestinian lands in the West Bank.

Progressives push Democrats to acknowledge West Bank occupation in party platform

Democrats made a series of compromises between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel camps in the 2020 party platform, but progressives want to amend it with a reference to the occupation of the West Bank.

Israelis protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, on July 21, 2020. - Netanyahu, 70, was indicted in January for bribery, fraud and breach of trust in three cases. He denies all the charges and accuses the media and legal officials of a witch hunt. (Photo by Ahmad GHARABLI / AFP) (Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty Images)

Israeli Arabs absent from anti-Netanyahu, COVID-19 crisis protests

Years of exclusion from the social and political arenas might explain the fact that almost no Arab citizens have been seen taking to the streets to protest this government and its prime minister.

Hungarian foreign minister visits Israel, discusses Iranian file

Visiting Israel despite the coronavirus spike, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto discussed with his counterpart Gabi Ashkenazi not only bilateral cooperation, but also the Iranian file.

Intel: Pro-Palestinian progressive insurgent ousts House Foreign Affairs chairman

Pro-Palestinian progressive insurgent Jamaal Bowman ousted House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel in the New York Democratic primary, according to an Associated Press call of the today. While Engel has been trailing behind Bowman since the election was held last month, the counting of mail-in ballots has delayed the final results.