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Israel

September 16, 2026

Tel Aviv 3:20 pm

32°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

Palestinian militants from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestinian (PFLP) take part in a military show in Gaza City September 2, 2014. An open-ended ceasefire between Israel and Hamas-led Gaza militants, mediated by Egypt, took effect on August 26 after a seven-week conflict. It called for an indefinite halt to hostilities, the immediate opening of Gaza's blockaded crossings with Israel and Egypt, and a widening of the territory's fishing zone in the Mediterranean.
REUTERS/Mohammed Salem (GAZA

Gazans reject Israel's calls to disarm

Gaza's factions appear to be united in rejecting Israel's demand that the area should become a weapons-free zone.

Israeli soldiers observe the Syrian side of the Quneitra border crossing between the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights and Syria, August 29, 2014. U.N. officials shuttled along the rocky frontier between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Friday, trying to establish the whereabouts of 44 United Nations peacekeepers seized by al-Qaeda-linked militants inside Syria. Israeli forces took up positions at Quneitra, a fortified crossing between Syria and the Golan, barely 400 meters (437 yards) from Nu

Fighting on Golan border puts Israel on the spot

Israel has intercepted a drone over the Golan Heights, but turned a blind eye to a Syrian warplane near its border, highlighting the complex reality of the war in Syria and the difficulty in calculating what is in Israel's best interest.

Turkey's new President Tayyip Erdogan (front C) attends a swearing in ceremony at the parliament in Ankara August 28, 2014. Erdogan was sworn in as Turkey's 12th president at a ceremony in parliament on Thursday, cementing his position as the country's most powerful modern leader, in what his opponents fear will herald an increasingly authoritarian rule. REUTERS/Umit Bektas (TURKEY - Tags: POLITICS TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY) - RTR4437V

Israel, Turkey exchange diplomatic cold shoulders

The absence of an Israeli representative at Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's inauguration points to the frosty relationship between the two countries.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (L) sits next to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as leaders gathered to deliver a joint statement on Middle East Peace talks in the East Room of the White House in Washington September 1, 2010. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst (UNITED STATES - Tags: POLITICS IMAGES OF THE DAY) - RTR2HTF7

Bibi uses Gaza as wedge between Abbas, Hamas

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will accept Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' entry into Gaza, but only if the unity government is dissolved.

Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men lift a boy during the funeral of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the spiritual leader of the ultra-religious Shas political party, in Jerusalem October 7, 2013. More than half a million mourners turned out on Monday for the funeral of Yosef, an Iraqi-born sage who transformed an Israeli underclass of Sephardic Jews of Middle East heritage into a powerful political force. REUTERS/ Nir Elias (JERUSALEM - Tags: POLITICS RELIGION) - RTX1436M

Shas Party spirals downward with Deri at helm

Almost one year into the term of Aryeh Deri, it looks as if there is no way to stop the party’s gradual disintegration.

Residents of Tabqa city and Islamic State militants tour the streets in celebration after Islamic State militants took over Tabqa air base in northeast Syria August 24, 2014. Islamic State militants stormed the air base in northeast Syria on Sunday, capturing most of it from government forces after days of fighting over the strategic location, a witness and a monitoring group said. Fighting raged inside the walls of the Tabqa air base, the Syrian army's last foothold in an area otherwise controlled by IS, w

US gives new priority to foreign fighters in Syria

US regional allies, including Turkey, may finally be forced to crack down on extremists in Syria.

Israeli Economy minister Naftali Bennett arrives to attend the weekly cabinet meeting on April 6, 2014. AFP PHOTO/GALI TIBBON (Photo credit should read GALI TIBBON/AFP/Getty Images)

Bennett emerges from Gaza conflict as clear winner

While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's stock has fallen and Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman did not upgrade his position, Economy and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett was able to strengthen his support base.

Israeli soldiers from the Givati brigade return to Israel from Gaza August 3, 2014. An Israeli air strike killed at least 10 people and wounded about 30 others on Sunday in a U.N.-run school in the southern Gaza Strip, a Palestinian official said, as dozens died in Israeli shelling of the enclave and Hamas fired rockets at Israel. The Israeli military said it was looking into the reported attack, the second to hit a school in less than a week. Israeli media, on the 27th day of the fighting, reported that mo

Why Israelis saw the Gaza war differently

The Israeli public reacted to a war that dragged on without a clear victory and showed unprecedented solidarity with the troops without the peace protests present during previous conflicts.

Israel holds first conference for 'gingers'

Israel’s first redhead conference at Kibbutz Gezer (Hebrew for carrot) was a smashing success.

Palestinians gather around the remains of a commercial center, which witnesses said was hit by an Israeli air strike on Saturday, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip August 24, 2014. Egypt called on Israel and the Palestinians on Saturday to halt hostilities and resume peace talks, but both sides kept up attacks, including an Israeli air strike which destroyed a residential tower block in the centre of Gaza City. Hamas militants also fired rockets at Israel, hitting the southern city of Beersheba, where two

Israel gained upper hand in final days of war

Israel’s withdrawal of ground forces, and focus on air power, gave it the upper hand in pressuring the Palestinian resistance factions to a truce.

An Israeli policeman surveys a building damaged from a Palestinian mortar salvo in a community outside the central Gaza Strip August 21, 2014. Israel killed three senior Hamas commanders in an air strike on the Gaza Strip on Thursday, the clearest signal yet that Israel is intent on eliminating the group's military leadership after a failed attempt on the life of its top commander this week. After six weeks of conflict in which more than 2,000 Palestinians have been killed, most of them civilians, Israeli a

After Gaza, Israel sees new type of war, diplomacy

A changing Middle East reality confronts the Israel Defense Forces with new fighting methods and targets while diplomatic opportunities have emerged with Saudi Arabia and other Arab states.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks with Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor (L) during the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem January 17, 2010. REUTERS/Gali Tibbon/Pool (JERUSALEM - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR28YSN

Meridor: Israelis will back diplomatic initiative

In an interview with Al-Monitor, former Likud Minister Dan Meridor contends that if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu takes the diplomatic route instead of the status quo, 70% of the Israelis will back him.