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Israel

September 15, 2026

Tel Aviv 9:07 am

29°C

Jewish settlement of Kedumim, in the West Bank

Analysis

Europe’s West Bank trade ban fires warning shot at Israel’s economy

Weeks before key Israeli elections, a dozen nations announced new trade restrictions targeting settlements in the West Bank, delivering a sharp rebuke to Israel's government that could presage additional international pressure.

Samuel Wendel

By Samuel Wendel

In Washington, DC, reporting on regional business and tech

Erik Marmor

Analysis

Once Netanyahu’s top challenger, Bennett loses ground to Eisenkot: What to know

Facing the popular Gadi Eisenkot, the Together party of former premiers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid is sinking in Israeli opinion polls.

Mazal Mualem

By Mazal Mualem

In Tel Aviv, reporting on politics

A photograph taken from the southern Lebanese area of Nabatieh shows smoke as it rises from the site of Israeli strikes that targeted the hilltops of the mountainous area of the strategic Ali al-Taher Ridge on Aug. 14, 2026.

Israel says it destroyed Hezbollah tunnels in Ali al-Taher ridge: What to know

The ridge has become a flashpoint in the Israel-Hezbollah conflict in Lebanon due to its extensive tunnel network Israel says is utilized by the Iran-backed group.

Chaim Goldberg / AFP via Getty Images

Netanyahu threatens to sue Haaretz for reporting UAE warned Israel of Oct. 7 attack

The Emirati president reportedly warned that a planned attack could cause bloodshed, destabilize the region and threaten the Abraham Accords.

Latest News

Analysis

Israel braces for Iran attack as Trump’s economic squeeze on Tehran intensifies

TOPSHOT - Explosions from projectile interceptions by Israel's Iron Dome missile defence system are pictured over Tel Aviv on February 28, 2026. The United States and Israel launched strikes against Iran on February 28, with Israel's public broadcaster reporting that the Iranian supreme leader had been targeted, as the Islamic republic retaliated with barrages of missiles at Gulf states and Israel. (Photo by Jack GUEZ / AFP via Getty Images)

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

12 countries including France, UK, Canada end trade with West Bank settlements

West Bank settlements

Katz warns PA against 'Oct. 7-style' attack as West Bank violence rises

Israeli soldiers take positions during a military operation in the town of Qalqiya, in the occupied West Bank, Dec. 4, 2025.

Lebanon says at least 12 killed in Israeli strikes as tensions rise in south

An excavator digs as rescuers search for survivors amid the rubble following an overnight Israeli airstrike on the village of Kfar Roummane, southern Lebanon, Sept. 7, 2026.

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

HOLLYWOOD, CA - OCTOBER 27: Ronit Elkabetz attends the 2014 Variety Screening Series - "Gett: The Trial Of Viviane Amsalem" Screening at ArcLight Hollywood on October 27, 2014 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images)

Israel's female filmmakers move to center stage

The year 2014 reflected the changes that the Israeli film industry has been undergoing for the last few years, with many more female filmmakers, complex leading women's roles and an unprecedented number of awards.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) and Isaac Herzog, Co-leader of the centre-left Zionist Union, are pictured together as campaign billboards rotate in Tel Aviv, March 9, 2015. Israelis will vote in a parliamentary election on March 17, choosing among party lists of candidates to serve in the 120-seat Knesset. Currently, polls show Netanyahu's Likud party and the centre-left Zionist Union opposition running neck-and-neck, with each predicted to win around 24 seats in the Knesset.
REUTERS/Baz Ra

Is Netanyahu on his way out?

Less than a week before the elections, all options are still open, be they a government headed by Zionist Camp leader Isaac Herzog, by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or by both.

A general view of the "Whiskey A Go-Go" night club in Tel Aviv March 16, 2007. REUTERS/Gil Cohen Magen (ISRAEL) - RTR1NJBL

Tel Aviv campaigns against harassment

Tel Aviv nightclub owners have joined clubgoers in an initiative to stop sexual harassment with a social network campaign to raise public awareness of the problem.

Senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh (5th R) gestures as he gives a speech during a rally ahead of the 27th anniversary of Hamas founding, in Jabaliya in the northern Gaza Strip December 12, 2014. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem (GAZA - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST) - RTR4HR3K

Israel should be wary of Hamas' truce proposal

The dire situation in Gaza has apparently prompted Hamas' political leaders to offer Israel a long-term cease-fire, but the dominance of the movement's military wing casts doubt on such a truce holding.

A Palestinian woman loads her suitcases onto a luggage cart before crossing into Gaza through Israel's Erez crossing August 6, 2014. A Gaza truce was holding on Wednesday as Egyptian mediators pursued talks with Israeli and Palestinian representatives on an enduring end to a war that has devastated the Hamas Islamist- dominated enclave. Israel withdrew ground forces from the Gaza Strip on Tuesday morning and started a 72-hour Egyptian-brokered ceasefire with Hamas as a first step towards a long-term deal.

Israel tightens control on Erez crossing

The Israeli authorities have arrested at the Erez crossing Palestinian and Israeli merchants who were accused of smuggling prohibited goods to the resistance in Gaza, which is said to be using these materials to rebuild the tunnels destroyed during the war in summer 2014.

A Palestinian man gestures near a damaged car in the West Bank village of Burka, near Ramallah October 10, 2013. An Israeli police spokesperson said on Thursday three cars were damaged overnight and the words "Geulat Tzion loves Tomer Hazan" were scrawled in Hebrew on a wall of the mosque. Geulat Tzion is an illegal Jewish settler-outpost in the West Bank where structures were demolished by Israeli forces a day earlier and Tomer Hazan is an Israeli soldier who was killed by a Palestinian on September 21. RE

Why is Israel still blind to settler violence against Palestinians?

Despite resolutions by Israeli administrations to adopt the 2003 Road map for Peace and the Sason report on illegal West Bank outposts, settler violence against Palestinians continues unabated.

Bibi's fantastic feats of flip-flopping

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s personality allows him to promise things but not follow through, and at the end of the day, he will always return to his political base on the right.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) holds a plate of fruit during a visit to Mahane Yehuda fruit and vegetable market in Jerusalem March 9, 2015. Israelis will vote in a parliamentary election on March 17, choosing among party lists of candidates to serve in the 120-seat Knesset. Currently, polls show Netanyahu's Likud party and the centre-left Zionist Union opposition running neck-and-neck, with each predicted to win around 24 seats in the Knesset. REUTERS/Noam Moskowitz (JERUSALEM - Tags: POLIT

Israel's unpredictable voters

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other politicians react to polls that indicate a growing trend over the past few elections, where an increasing number of voters remain undecided until they arrive at the ballot box.

Syrian writer and journalist Samar Yazbek poses on September 26, 2014 in Paris. AFP PHOTO JOEL SAGET (Photo credit should read JOEL SAGET/AFP/Getty Images)

10 Middle Eastern writers you should know

These 10 female writers are challenging conceptions of women in the Middle East.

People walk past a grafitti tag reading "I am Charlie" as they take part in a solidarity march (Marche Republicaine) in the streets of Paris January 11, 2015. French citizens will be joined by dozens of foreign leaders, among them Arab and Muslim representatives, in a march on Sunday in an unprecedented tribute to this week's victims following the shootings by gunmen at the offices of the satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo, the killing of a police woman in Montrouge, and the hostage taking at a kosher

Rina Bassist on why she writes

Al-Monitor contributor Rina Bassist shares her thoughts on journalism.

Ultra-Orthodox scene bursting with kosher fashion

Young Israeli ultra-Orthodox fashion designers prove that a woman can dress stylishly, even within limits of religious modesty.

Israeli police officers stand guard on the compound known to Muslims as Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as Temple Mount in Jerusalem's Old City November 5, 2014. As Jordan joins a military campaign against Islamic State militants in Syria, tensions in Jerusalem pose a potentially bigger risk to a nation only slightly scathed by the turmoil sweeping the Middle East. Picture taken November 5, 2014.
To match Insight MIDEAST-CRISIS/JORDAN-STABILITY
REUTERS/Ammar Awad (JERUSALEM - Tags: MILITARY POLITICS RELIGION C

Does Israel's police have a problem with women?

In an interview with Al-Monitor, Erella Shadmi, an academic researcher and retired policewoman, says she was unsurprised by revelations of sexual harassment within the police: ''This phenomenon has been well known for more than 20 years.''