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

Palestine cover image

Palestine

September 23, 2026

Ramallah 6:16 pm

24°C

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and French President Emmanuel Macron arrive to hold a joint press conference in Jerusalem, Oct. 24, 2023.

Analysis

After France's settlement ban, Israel sees no warming of ties with Macron government

Israeli diplomats say France’s decision to ban imports from West Bank settlements has brought bilateral relations to an unprecedented low point.

Rina Bassist

By Rina Bassist

In Paris, reporting on Israeli politics and European affairs

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

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.

Palestinians hold up the green Hamas flag during a protest by supporters of both the Fatah and Hamas movements, as they rally in support of the Palestinian people following Friday noon prayers in Hebron, occupied West Bank, Nov. 3, 2023.

Majority of Palestinians lose trust in Hamas and Fatah, new poll finds

A recent poll by a Palestinian survey center found that trust in Palestinian factions has declined, amid stalled efforts to implement the Gaza peace plan and escalating settler violence in the West Bank.

Latest News

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.

Analysis

LORA missile test reveals limits of Germany’s Gaza criticism of Israel

A woman walks past a model of a Lora missile, Israel's long range artillery missile at the Israel defence stall at the international DefExpo 2008 defence fair, in New Delhi on February 16, 2008. India kicked off South Asia's largest defence fair, with hundreds of global weapons firms offering their latest hardware to the country's technology-hungry military. About 450 weapons companies from 30 countries are present at the four-day "DefExpo" in New Delhi, with several big-ticket announcements expected. AFP P

Rina Bassist

By Rina Bassist

In Paris, reporting on Israeli politics and European affairs

Analysis

As Israeli settler attacks mount, Trump avoids public pressure on Netanyahu

Israeli soldiers arrive in the village of Qusra, south of Nablus in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, which has faced escalating Israeli settler violence over the past month, on Aug. 29, 2026.

Elizabeth Hagedorn

By Elizabeth Hagedorn

In Washington, DC, reporting on diplomacy, regional politics, human rights

Beatrice Farhat

Associate Editor (Lebanon)

In Beirut, reporting on regional news, culture, conflict

Daoud Kuttab

Palestine Columnist

In Amman, reporting on Palestinian politics

Rasha Abou Jalal

In Gaza City, reporting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Abeer Ayyoub

In Istanbul, reporting on Palestine

Naima Morelli

In Rome, reporting on Middle East culture

Fatima AbdulKarim

In Ramallah, reporting on the West Bank

Aviram Yaacov, computer systems coordinator at Ben Gurion University's security department, uses BriefCam's video synopsis programme at the university in the southern city of Beersheba January 16, 2011. As the world becomes increasingly saturated with closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras, security experts say offenders can easily slip away simply because no one had the time to find the incriminating footage. Israeli company BriefCam hopes to change that with a new computer programme, called video synops

Israelis Develop "Business for Peace" Projects with Palestinians

Ben Gurion University of the Negev invites researchers to submit proposals for its "Business for Peace" competition to support the Palestinian economy, writes Shlomi Eldar.

Members of the Palestinian security forces stand guard by the burial site of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in the West Bank city of Ramallah November 7, 2007. November 11 marks the anniversary of Arafat's death. REUTERS/Loay Abu Haykel (WEST BANK) - RTX2EI

Why Obama Should PlaceA Wreath at Arafat’s Grave

Daoud Kuttab calls on US President Barack Obama to pay his respects at the grave of Yasser Arafat when he visits the West Bank next week.

Newly elected Pope Francis I, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina, meets cardinals in the Clementine Hall in a picture released by Osservatore Romano at the Vatican March 15, 2013. Pope Francis on Friday urged leaders of a Roman Catholic Church riven by scandal and crisis never to give in to discouragement, bitterness or pessimism but to keep focused on their mission. REUTERS/Osservatore Romano (VATICAN - Tags: RELIGION) FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NOT FOR SALE FOR MARKETING OR ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS.

The New Pope and Palestine

Palestinians are hoping Pope Francis will continue the Vatican's support for the Palestinian cause, Daoud Kuttab writes.

Palestinian woman attends a protest calling for the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails, in Gaza April 16, 2007. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem (GAZA) - RTR1OOS7

Gaza’s Sole Art Gallery Perseveres

Gallery Iltiqa, Gaza’s only art gallery, is adding value to the Strip’s cultural scene, despite significant challenges, Linah Alsaafin writes.

Palestinian labourers wait in line to cross into Israel at dawn at Hashmonaim checkpoint near the West Bank village of Nilin, west of Ramallah March 14, 2013. Israel's system of checkpoints and restrictions in the occupied West Bank inflicts long-term damage on Palestinians' ability to compete in the global market, the World Bank said on Tuesday. REUTERS/Darren Whiteside (WEST BANK - Tags: POLITICS BUSINESS EMPLOYMENT) - RTR3EYTU

Palestine Economy in Crisis, World Bank Reports

According to a recent World Bank report, restrictions put in place by Israel are having a devastating effect on the Palestinian economy, reports Lena Odgaard.

Pinhas Amar, poses for a portrait as he displays a photograph taken when he met the then-U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama after a Palestinian rocket damaged his house, during an interview with Reuters in the southern town of Sderot March 11, 2013. If there is one thing that seems to unite Israelis and Palestinians days before Obama's visit to Israel, the occupied West Bank and Jordan next week, it is their talk of broken promises and lack of hope that he will ever bring peace. Picture taken March 11

Obama's Visit to Israel Offers Rare Opportunity for Palestine

During the US president’s visit to Israel, writes Clovis Maksoud, it's crucial that discussions with the Palestinian Authority include representatives from Gaza, and that Israel be identified as an occupying power.

Senior Fatah official Sufian Abu Zaida (C) speaks on the phone after he was freed in Gaza December 18, 2006. The armed wing of the governing Palestinian movement Hamas said it had freed a senior Fatah official who was abducted earlier in the Gaza Strip. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem (GAZA) - RTR1KJKK

Obama's Visit Just to Sightsee, Says Abu Zaida

In an interview with Shlomi Eldar, senior Fatah member Dr. Sufian Abu Zaida reveals that he isn’t placing much hope in the US president’s visit — or in the new Israeli government, for that matter.

A Palestinian woman sits on the rubble of her destroyed house after an Israeli air strike in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip December 30, 2008. Israel rejected any truce with Hamas Islamists on Tuesday and said it was ready for "long weeks of action" on a fourth day of the fiercest air offensive in the Gaza Strip in decades. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa (GAZA) - RTR22XFB

Israeli Court Rejects Gaza War Crime Case

An Israeli court has rejected a lawsuit filed by a Gazan who lost family members and his home to an Israeli airstrike in 2009, Mohammed Suliman reports.

Palestinian Islamic Jihad leaders Kaled Al-Batsh (L) and Khader Habib attend a news conference in Gaza February 8, 2006. Islamic Jihad ruled out on Wednesday joining a new Palestinian government following Hamas's election victory or forging any long-term truce with Israel. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem - RTR15ZBZ

Islamic Jihad to Run In Palestinian Elections

Islamic Jihad's leader in Gaza, Khader Habib, confirms to Abeer Ayyoub that his faction intends to run for the first time in Palestinian National Council elections.

A Palestinian Salafist takes part in a protest against Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip February 24, 2012. REUTERS/ Ibraheem Abu Mustafa (GAZA - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST) - RTR2YDFU

Exclusive: Gaza Salafists Take Fight to Syria

Asmaa al-Ghoul reports from Gaza on claims that Palestinian jihadist Salafist militants are fighting on the side of Jabhat al-Nusra in the Syrian civil war.

Workers place newly made leather sandals in the storage area of a shoe factory in Hebron June 29, 2010. Cattle owners in Hebron, the West Bank city known for its leather and carpentry industries, have turned to selling hides from cattle slaughtered for meat to shoe manufacturers. The hides are processed at special facilities in the West Bank and the leather is sold to local shoe factories. Picture taken June 29, 2010. REUTERS/Ammar Awad (WEST BANK - Tags: BUSINESS) - RTR2FY27

Palestinian Shoe Industry Declines in Hebron

Once boasting a thriving shoe industry, Hebron is struggling to compete with cheap Chinese imports and Israeli control of the economy, Jihan Abdalla reports.

Palestinian Union Boss Emerges as Power Broker

Union head Bassam Zakarneh, who has recently steered several mass strikes, is one of the most powerful men in the West Bank, Daoud Kuttab writes.