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

Israel cover image

Israel

August 26, 2026

Tel Aviv 1:26 pm

33°C

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani (C) watches as US special envoy for Syria Tom Barrack prepares to sign an agreement in Damascus on September 16, 2025. Shaibani announced on September 16 a plan backed by Jordan and the United States to restore calm to Druze-majority Sweida province, which witnessed deadly violence in July. (Photo by LOUAI BESHARA / AFP) (Photo by LOUAI BESHARA/AFP via Getty Images)

Exclusive

Israel recalibrates Syria policy, explores path to security deal

Israel is rethinking its hard-line Syria policy and seeking to repair ties with US envoy and Donald Trump's confidant Tom Barrack amid a push for a security agreement with Damascus.

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

Palestinian militant group Hamas police officers stand guard as people attend the opening of the Fatah party's eighth general conference at Al-Azhar University in Gaza City on May 14, 2026.

Ex-defense minister: Israel in ‘worst possible’ Gaza situation as Hamas gains strength

Former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant criticized the Israeli government for allowing Hamas to retain control over half of the Gaza Strip.

A merchant ship "Jabotinsky" (former "Altalena"), chartered by Jewish military group Irgun Zvaei Leumi to carry weapons for Israeli fighters, burns near Tel Aviv beach, after being shelled by the Haganah, Israel, June 27, 1948.

Wreck of ship sunk by Israeli military in Irgun clash found after 78 years

The wreck of the Irgun underground's Altalena ship, bombed by the Israeli military in 1948 and deliberately sunk in 1949, was located off Israel's coast at a depth of 1,650 feet.

Latest News

Israel tightens election safeguards as public distrust surges: What to know

ilia YEFIMOVICH / AFP via Getty Images

Analysis

Why Turkey sees Israeli strikes in Syria as warning over its military role, Mecca Pact

A Turkish soldier from the 1st Border Regiment Command looks out over the border wall to Syria during alert drills at a military outpost on the Turkey/Syria border on March 2, 2017 in Kilis, Turkey.

Barin Kayaoglu

By Barin Kayaoglu

In Ankara, reporting on geopolitics and national security

Analysis

Turkey bets on US deconfliction as Israel widens Syria red lines

Turkey/Syria border

Ezgi Akin

Rina Bassist

By Ezgi Akin , Rina Bassist

Analysis

Israel fears Turkey’s Syria ambitions and doubts Trump will stop them

ANKARA, TURKEY - JULY 7: U.S. President Donald Trump (L)shakes hands with with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) during a formal arrival at the Bestepe Presidential Palace during the NATO summit on July 7, 2026 in Ankara, Turkey. Leaders from NATO's 32 countries, plus NATO allies like Ukraine, gathered in the Turkish capital to discuss a range of issues involving spending targets, defense industrial production, and support for Ukraine, among other topics. (Photo by Emrah Gurel - Pool/Getty Images)

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

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

TOPSHOT - Medics work with COVID-19 patients at the isolation ward of Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan near the coastal city of Tel Aviv, on July 29, 2020. (Photo by JACK GUEZ / AFP) (Photo by JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images)

IDF to set up field clinics as Israel's hospitals overflow

As the number of infections continues to rise, Defense Minister Benny Gantz has ordered the Israeli army to prepare to run field hospitals to treat coronavirus patients.

Judges of Bulgaria's specialized criminal court arrive for the final decision for the 2012 bomb attack on Israeli tourists at Bulgaria's Burgas airport that killed five people on September 21, 2020 in Sofia. - A Bulgarian court on September 21, 2020, sentenced two men to life in prison over a deadly 2012 bus bomb attack on Israeli tourists at the country's Burgas airport. (Photo by NIKOLAY DOYCHINOV / AFP) (Photo by NIKOLAY DOYCHINOV/AFP via Getty Images)

Bulgarian court sentences two men in bus bombing that killed Israelis

Bulgaria said that two dual citizens of Lebanon were responsible for the Black Sea attack that targeted Israeli tourists in 2012; Hezbollah has denied involvement.

Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez (L) speaks during an inauguration ceremony in Jerusalem of the Diplomatic Trade Office of Honduras on September 1, 2019, in the presence of his wife First Lady Ana Garcia Carias (R), Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (2nd-R) and his wife Sara Netanyahu (2nd-L). - (Photo by DEBBIE HILL / POOL / AFP) (Photo credit should read DEBBIE HILL/AFP via Getty Images)

Honduras to move Israel embassy to Jerusalem by year's end

The announcement follows a phone call between Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Demonstrators, mask-clad due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, attend a protest against the United Arab Emirates' and Bahrain's decisions to normalise relations with Israel, in Gaza City on September 15, 2020. - Palestinian leaders had earlier called for demonstrations against the "shameful" deals the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain are set to sign with Israel. Officials from both Gulf states are due to attend a ceremony at the White House on September 15 to formalise ties with Israel, prompting Palest

Jordan clings to two-state solution in wake of normalization deals

With normalization deals being signed and regional dynamics in flux, Jordan is trying to adapt to what it fears is faltering Arab support for the Palestinian issue and a two-state solution.

Trump administration leveraged terror designation to push Sudan to recognize Israel

Last minute White House gambit risked efforts to obtain compensation for families of victims of the 1998 embassy bombings, sources tell Al-Monitor.

TOPSHOT - (L-R)US President Donald Trump speaks as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan and Bahrain Foreign Minister Abdullatif al-Zayani listen before they participate in the signing of the Abraham Accords where the countries of Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates recognize Israel, on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, September 15, 2020. - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the foreign ministers of Bahrain and the United

Israel’s Gulf diplomacy and its discontents

As Israel and its new regional partners begin trade talks, Palestinians, Israeli Arabs and the Israeli left are on the sidelines.

United Arab Emirates

A boy walks past the closed Gogo Girls strip club in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv on March 5, 2020. - The demise of Tel Aviv's strip clubs was accelerated in 2018, when Israel's parliament, the Knesset, passed a law banning brothels. But the final straw came in April last year when the public prosecutor issued a directive to clamp down on lap dances, arguing they could in some cases be viewed as prostitution. (Photo by Emmanuel DUNAND / AFP) (Photo by EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP via Getty Images)

Tel Aviv battles against strip clubs

New regulations adopted by the Tel Aviv municipality would enable it to ban new striptease clubs in the city and render such openings a criminal offense.

Israel’s president apologizes for failure to cope with coronavirus

President Reuven Rivlin apologized for the failure of the country's leadership to better cope with the coronavirus and appealed to citizens to follow new lockdown restrictions that are going into effect.

A security guard, wearing protective masks to combat the spread coronavirus, stands guard outside a store in the Mall of Dubai on April 28, 2020, after the mall was reopened. (Photo by Karim SAHIB / AFP) (Photo by KARIM SAHIB/AFP via Getty Images)

Is Israel-Gulf business ready to take off?

Agribusiness, retail, housing, and hospitality look like good bets for Israel-Gulf trade.

United Arab Emirates

WASHINGTON, DC - SEPTEMBER 15: (L-R) Foreign Affairs Minister of Bahrain Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani, Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu, U.S. President Donald Trump, and Foreign Affairs Minister of the United Arab Emirates Abdullah bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan participate in the signing ceremony of the Abraham Accords on the South Lawn of the White House on September 15, 2020 in Washington, DC. Witnessed by President Trump, Prime Minister Netanyahu signed a peace deal with the UAE and a decl

Normalization deals rattle Israeli left

The Israeli left and center is not sure how to react to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's diplomatic achievements in the Gulf.

A man holds a phone while reading a story published on Tasnim News Agency's website about the recent news of a US-brokered deal between Israel and the UAE to normalise relations, in Iran's capital Tehran on August 14, 2020. - Iran strongly condemned the agreement, blasting it as an act of "strategic stupidity" that would only strengthen the Tehran-backed "axis of resistance". The Israel-UAE deal marks only the third such accord the Jewish state has struck with an Arab nation, an historic shift making the Gu

Arab deals with Israel predictably rile Iran

The normalization of ties between Israel and two Arab states has left the Islamic Republic uneasy in a region where it is surrounded by more adversaries than allies.

The Iron Dome anti-missile system fires interception missiles in the sky early morning on August 21, 2020 as rockets are launched against Israel. - Israeli planes launched raids against Gaza late on August 20 in response to rocket fire, security sources in the Palestinian enclave said, as mediators sought to broker an end to the latest flare-up. (Photo by MAHMUD HAMS / AFP) (Photo by MAHMUD HAMS/AFP via Getty Images)

Rockets rain from Gaza as Netanyahu speaks in Washington

Militants in Gaza fired a barrage of rockets at Israel’s southern towns while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was speaking at the White House signing ceremony with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.