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

Palestine cover image

Palestine

September 6, 2026

Ramallah 10:56 am

25°C

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

Analysis

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

The German navy tested Israel’s LORA ballistic missile as Berlin considers acquiring the system, deepening defense ties with Israel despite criticism of the Gaza war.

Rina Bassist

By Rina Bassist

In Paris, reporting on Israeli politics and European affairs

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.

Analysis

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

President Donald Trump has stayed silent amid a spate of settler attacks on Palestinians and their property in the West Bank.

Elizabeth Hagedorn

By Elizabeth Hagedorn

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

Evan Vucci / Getty Images

Analysis

Why Palestinians see success of Trump talks as contingent on Israeli elections

Some view the channel to Jared Kushner as necessary for reaching a political settlement, but others see a US effort to secure Palestinian acquiescence to Trump’s Gaza plans.

Mohammed Najib

By Mohammed Najib

A boy walks carrying a table on his back past salvage workers scrapping the rubble of a building that was destroyed during Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza City on Aug. 16, 2026. — Photo by Omar Al-Qattaa / AFP via Getty Images

Israel, Hamas bide their time as Gaza peace plan stalls

As the Israel-Hamas ceasefire approaches the one-year mark in October, the Board of Peace is under pressure to deliver results in the Gaza Strip.

Latest News

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

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.

Turkey seeks Interpol Red Notices for Netanyahu over Gaza flotilla

Murat Kocabas / Middle East Images / AFP via Getty Images

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

Palestinians demonstrate near the Israeli settlement of Psagot, built on the lands of the city of al-Bireh, against the visit by US Secretary of State's to the settlement, on November 18, 2020 in the occupied West Bank. - US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was due to arrive in Jerusalem today for a farewell visit as the chief diplomat of the strongly pro-Israeli Trump administration. (Photo by ABBAS MOMANI / AFP) (Photo by ABBAS MOMANI/AFP via Getty Images)

Biden victory breathes life back into Israeli-Palestinian cooperation

The Palestinian Authority is resuming cooperation with Israel, meaning the Oslo process may finally be back on track.

A picture taken on October 14, 2020 shows a general view of the Israeli settlement of Psagot on the eastern outskirts of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. - Israel approved 2,166 new homes in settlements across the occupied West Bank, official figures sent to AFP showed, ending an eight-month lull in settlement expansion. The approvals came less than a month after the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain signed agreements to normalise relations with Israel, which in return pledged to freeze its plans to annex

Pompeo reportedly to visit Israeli West Bank settlement

The US secretary of state is expected to make an unprecedented visit to Psagot, an Israeli settlement in what is globally recognized as Palestinian territory, on his current trip to the Middle East.

With Biden’s election, Israeli left relevant again

Now that Joe Biden has been elected as the next president of the United States, Israel’s political left feels revived.

A view of the Greek Orthodox Christian Monastery of the Temptation near the West Bank city of Jericho on December 8, 2019. - The monastery was built during the 6th century CE above the cave traditionally said to be the place where Jesus spent fourty days and fourty nights fasting and meditating during the temptation of Satan. (Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP) (Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty Images)

Jericho entices tourists with Mount of the Temptation

The Monastery of the Temptation, where Jesus allegedly spent 40 days, is under consideration for UNESCO's World Heritage List as local officials push sites for religious tourism.

A Palestinian woman watches from her home's window fighters from the Ezz-Al Din Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas movement, taking part in an anti-Israel military show in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip November 11, 2019 to mark one year since their comrade Nour Baraka, a commander in the group, was killed in an Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip. (Photo by SAID KHATIB / AFP) (Photo by SAID KHATIB/AFP via Getty Images)

Can Hamas control individual rocket firing?

In a bid to advance the truce with Israel, Gaza’s resistance factions, including Hamas, seem to have agreed to avoid and stop indiscriminate rocket launches toward Israel and to hand over culprits to the competent official authorities for accountability.

Palestinians ask: Who will fill Saeb’s shoes?

The question of who will take the helm of negotiations with Israel is particularly important with the election of Joe Biden and renewed prospects for talks.

Saeb Erekat (R), Secretary General of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and chief Palestinian negotiator, speaks during a press conference in the Palestinian West Bank city of Ramallah on November 19, 2019. - Israelis reacted joyfully on November 19 to the United States's announcement it no longer considers settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem illegal, but the Palestinians pledged fresh measures to oppose the declaration. Erekat said it was only the latest move by the US to try and forc

Veteran Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat dies at 65

Erekat, who contracted the coronavirus last month, died in a Jerusalem hospital on Tuesday.

A Palestinian man reads the Al-Quds newspaper, headlined in Arabic "Joe Biden the new US President" outside the Dome of the Rock in the al-Aqsa mosque compound, Islam's third holiest site, in the old city of Jerusalem on November 8, 2020. (Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP) (Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty Images)

Palestinians cautiously optimistic after Biden win

Palestinians are overjoyed by the defeat of Donald Trump in the US election, though officials are so far keeping their reactions subdued.

As Biden takes lead, Palestinians eager to return to talks with US

While Palestinian officials don't expect a Biden administration to roll back all of Trump's policies, they are hopeful for a change in course in US-Palestinian ties.

Israel's Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan is seen as he receives Italy's interior minister at a hotel in Jerusalem on December 11, 2018. (Photo by Ahmad GHARABLI / AFP) (Photo credit should read AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty Images)

Envoy lambasts UN over seven anti-Israel resolutions

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, claims the seven resolutions adopted yesterday are full of hypocrisy and lies.

Families of ancient Palestinian village struggle to survive settler attacks

Al-Monitor spent the day with Muhannad Salah and his family, some of the few remaining residents of the historic Shushahla village in Area C that has struggled to survive amid settlement expansion.

A Palestinian woman walks down a street in the Amari refugee camp near the West Bank city of Ramallah on July 29, 2020. - A second wave of coronavirus infections sweeping the Israeli-occupied West Bank is fuelling fears of a surge in overcrowded Palestinian refugee camps where social distancing is widely seen as impossible. The Palestinian health ministry's Tuesday update logged more than 10,860 confirmed cases of infection since the start of the pandemic, including more than 75 deaths. (Photo by ABBAS MOMA

Dahlan supporters complain of PA crackdown in West Bank camps

Supporters of exiled Fatah leader Mohammed Dahlan say they have been targets of a crackdown by Palestinian security forces since the UAE-Israel normalization agreement.