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Israel

August 28, 2026

Tel Aviv 2:04 pm

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds a press conference with US President Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago club on Dec. 29, 2025, in Palm Beach, Florida. — Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Netanyahu trails Eisenkot in new poll as Israel's right-wing bloc weakens

Israelis prefer former defense minister over the current prime minister to lead country, while the religious-nationalist People of Israel party is projected to win six Knesset seats.

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.

Latest News

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

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.

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

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

Will Hamas give up its weapons as part of peace deal?

In the wake of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s call for Hamas to be disarmed, officials from the movement have rushed to react and roll out possible disarming scenarios.

Low chances of success for Abbas’ alternative to US peace plan

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas proposed his vision for a peace process with Israel as an alternative to the United States' deal of the century.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - FEBRUARY 11: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas listens at the United Nations (UN) Security Council in New York on February 11, 2020 in New York City. Abbas used the world body to denounce the US peace plan between Israel and Palestine. Donald Trump's proposal for Israeli-Palestinian peace, which was released on January 28, has been met with universal Palestinian opposition. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Why Palestinians failed at the Security Council

The Palestinians' push for a near-unanimous UN Security Council resolution opposing the Trump plan ran into a number of unexpected roadblocks.

Peace with the region is not a peace plan

The Trump peace plan is flawed because it has more to do with building a coalition against Iran rather than with promoting peace between Israelis and the Palestinians.

Palestinians tell Trump, Israel: We are not for sale

The Trump administration boasts of a generous economic framework offered to the Palestinians, while in truth it hopes the private sector will come up with the funds.

(L to R) Heba Yazbak, member and candidate for the Balad (National Democratic Alliance) party that is part of the Joint List alliance, applauds as Osama Saadi, member and candidate for the Arab Movement for Change (Taal) party raises his hands together with Balad party member and candidate Mtanes Shehadeh, Hadash (Democratic Front for Peace and Equality) party's chairman and candidate Ayman Odeh, Taal's leader and candidate Ahmad Tibi, Hadash's member and candidate Aida Touma, and the Islamic Movement's mem

Israel’s Gantz dismisses the Joint List, shooting self in foot, again

Blue and White head Benny Gantz has fallen into a trap set by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by publicly rejecting the Arab Joint List.

Benny Gantz, leader of Blue and White party is seen after delivering a statement near Tel Aviv, Israel January 25, 2020. REUTERS/Corinna Kern - RC26NE9TMJT9

Gantz bloc flounders as Netanyahu’s stabilizes

Blue and White head Benny Gantz' rejection of forming a government with the Joint List has left the Israeli election campaign even more deadlocked than the two previous ones.

Fatah and Hamas officials wait for a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and representatives of Palestinian groups and movements as a part of an intra-Palestinian talks in Moscow, Russia February 12, 2019. Pavel Golovkin/Pool via REUTERS - RC173B11DD10

Hamas, Fatah push ahead on reconciliation to counter US peace plan

The US peace plan has left no choice for Hamas and Fatah but to seek an end to Palestinian division, which was made clear in the efforts to revive this file and draft a unified strategy to counter the US proposal.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas holds a map while speaking during a Security Council meeting at the United Nations in New York, U.S., February 11, 2020. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton - RC2FYE9OX8R2

Abbas at UN gives muted rejection to Trump ‘annexation’ plan

The White House declares victory as the UN Security Council holds off on issuing a resolution reiterating old parameters for a two-state solution.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds a baby during an event marking Tu BiShvat, the Jewish Arbor Day, in the Israeli settlement of Mevo'ot Yericho, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank February 10, 2020. REUTERS/Nir Elias - RC2RXE94OAAK

'Bibi fatigue' haunts Netanyahu as Israeli vote nears

As Israelis grow ever more weary and jaded, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is personally meeting with as many voters as possible in the run-up to the March 2 elections.

Masked Palestinians prepare to attach balloons to a gas canister before releasing it 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)

The power Hamas holds over Israel’s elections

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu knows that terror attacks by Hamas right before the March 2 elections could cost him his job.

An Israeli soldier stands near a staging area near the border with Gaza, in southern Israel November 14, 2019. REUTERS/ Ronen Zvulun - RC21BD9513VS

Hamas puts the ball in Israel's court

The leaders of Hamas have indicated that the time for waiting is over as pressure continues to build in Gaza, leaving Israel to have to choose between the risk of war and its unknown consequences and finally reaching a long-term arrangement with the movement.