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.

TEL AVIV, ISRAEL - APRIL 21: A photo shows empty Ben Gurion Airport after all flights were temporarily stopped as part of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) precautions in Tel Aviv, Israel on April 21, 2020. (Photo by Mostafa Alkharouf/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Jerusalemites complain about discrimination at airports

The coronavirus appears to have exposed once more the cloudy status of Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem, as the deportation of a professor and the denial of boarding to some has left may worried that the legal status of 350,000 Palestinians is in danger.

Arab Foreign Ministers take part in their 153rd annual session at the Arab League headquarters in the Egyptian capital Cairo, on March 4, 2020. (Photo by Mohamed el-Shahed / AFP) (Photo by MOHAMED EL-SHAHED/AFP via Getty Images)

Arab League slams West Bank annexation plans as ‘war crime’

The pan-Arab organization met to discuss Israeli plans for annexing parts of the territory the Palestinians envision for a future state.

Israeli Zehava Shaul, the mother of slain Israeli soldier Oron Shaul, who was killed in Gaza during the summer of 2014's 50-day military campaign against Hamas and body's has not been recovered, speaks during a press conference on June 29, 2016 next to her husband Herzel (R) at their protest tent outside the prime minister's residence in Jerusalem.
Zur (L) and Ayelet Goldin whose brother Israeli army Lt. Hadar Goldin was also killed in Gaza and his body is believed to be held by Hamas, are also seen in the

Families of missing IDF soldiers call on government to push Hamas deal

According to recent reports, Israel briefed the families of IDF soldiers Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul on advancement in talks over a prisoner exchange deal with Hamas.

A view shows the Jewish settlement of Modiin Illit in the background and the Israeli barrier in the foreground in the village of Bilin, where a Friday anti-Israel weekly protest is held, as the area is seen empty of Palestinian demonstrators amid concerns of the spread of the coronavirus disease, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank March 20, 2020. REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman - RC2PNF9HQOZQ

Netanyahu's annexation plan can't be stopped

Annexation of the Jordan Valley is a long-standing Israeli objective, going back to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers a statement overlooking the Israeli settlement of Har Homa, located in an area of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, that Israel annexed to Jerusalem after the region's capture in the 1967 Middle East war, February 20, 2020. Debbie Hill/Pool via REUTERS - RC2E4F9ALPB6

Can anyone stop Netanyahu’s annexation plans?

A formidable array of figures is working in public and behind the scenes to block Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to annex West Bank lands.

Secretary General of the Arab League Ahmed Aboul Gheit (L) looks on during Arab Foreign Ministers meeting in a regular session to discuss latest developments in Middle Eastern affairs, in Cairo, Egypt September 12, 2017. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany - RC199F92FCF0

Arab League to meet over Israel’s West Bank annexation plan

The pan-Arab organization will discuss controversial Israeli plans under a government unity deal to annex parts of the West Bank.

Netanyahu notches up international blitz on West Bank annexation

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was confident that President Donald Trump will let the Israeli government annex parts of the West Bank, as stated in the American peace plan.

Concerns over coronavirus in prisons push Israel-Hamas deal forward

With Hamas concerned about a coronavirus outbreak in Gaza and Israel concerned about overcrowding in its prisons, the pandemic offers a unique opportunity to reach a prisoner exchange deal.

European High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission Josep Borrell, holds a virtual news conference on the approval of Operation Irini, at the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium March 31, 2020. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir/Pool - RC2YUF9VU8ZQ

Israel rebuffs EU over criticizing West Bank annexation goal

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz took issue with EU foreign representative Josep Borrell warning against possible annexationist policies of a new Israeli government despite his not obtaining the backing of all European Union states.

A Palestinian carries food supplies at an aid distribution center run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), in Al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza City September 25, 2019. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem - RC16E05A7E10

Intel: Trump administration claims Palestinian aid not reaching people who need it

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, explaining the Donald Trump administration’s decision to provide $5 million in COVID-19 assistance to the Palestinians in place of $75 million appropriated overall, said US economic and humanitarian aid for the West Bank and Gaza is being cut in general because it was not reaching the people.

Gantz-Netanyahu deal legitimizes annexation

The possibility of further Israeli annexation of occupied territories has received legitimacy from the Israeli government, pushing even further into the abyss the slight possibility of a two-state solution.

Palestinians claim COVID-19 efforts blunted by Israel in East Jerusalem

Some East Jerusalemites accuse Israel of not being forthcoming about the spread of the coronavirus in East Jerusalem and criticize it for shutting down local efforts against the virus that are backed by the Palestinian Authority.