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Palestine

July 26, 2026

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Culture

How Argentina-Spain World Cup final became debate over Israel, Palestine

Governments and fans alike have turned teams and players into symbols of political division.

Government Media Office Director Ismail Thawabteh (R) and Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem (L) speak at a press conference.

Explainer

What does Hamas' move to dissolve its Gaza government mean?

Hamas has agreed to hand civilian administration over to the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, but the committee is not yet in Gaza and may not deploy until Hamas’ disarmament is resolved.

Joint List Party leader Ayman Odeh attends a meeting on April 5, 2021 in Jerusalem, Israel.

Interview

Ayman Odeh says Arab parties could back Bennett or Eisenkot to block Netanyahu

In an interview with Al-Monitor, head of the Arab-Israeli Hadash-Ta'al Knesset faction, Ayman Odeh, said his party is prepared to make difficult decisions to topple Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government.

Ayman Odeh

Head of the Knesset's Hadash-Ta'al faction

Latest News

Who is Melat Kiros, the pro-Palestinian who unseated a longtime Democrat?

Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images

Amnesty International accuses Israel of state-led ethnic cleansing in West Bank

Israeli security forces attempt to disperse Palestinians who had gathered to protest the reported burning of land by Israeli settlers in the Palestinian village of Idna, west of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, on June 5, 2026.

Ireland bans hard-line Israeli ministers Ben-Gvir, Smotrich: What to know

Israeli policemen surround Israeli Minister of National Security and far-right politician Itamar Ben-Gvir as he arrives outside the Damascus Gate of the walled Old City of Jerusalem on May 26, 2025, during a flag march for Jerusalem Day, commemorating the Israeli army's 1967 capture of the city's eastern sector during the Arab-Israeli war.

Record Israeli arms exports highlight global rush for air defense

People stand in front of the Arrow 3 shield system during an event of the German Air Force to declare the Initial Operating Capability for the Arrow Weapon System for Germany at the Annaburger Heide Air Base in Schoenewalde / Holzdorf, eastern Germany, on Dec. 3, 2025.

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

Palestinian doctors wear face masks at the reception of al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City December 6, 2009. H1N1 swine flu has finally reached the Gaza Strip, the health ministry said on Sunday, worrying Palestinians who had credited Israel's blockade of the territory with keeping the virus at bay. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem (GAZA POLITICS HEALTH) - RTXRJIC

Memories of war haunt Gaza’s doctors

The doctors in the Gaza Strip who worked during the late war recall the pain they went through when dealing with the victims, and speak of the psychological scars they bear in the war's aftermath.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert (C) leaves Tel Aviv District Court May 13, 2014. Olmert was sentenced to six years in jail on Tuesday for taking bribes in a massive real estate deal, a crime the judge said was akin to treason. REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly (ISRAEL - Tags: POLITICS CRIME LAW TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY) - RTR3OW3Q

Was Olmert's peace proposal a political maneuver?

Evidence introduced in the trial of former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert recalls his hurried peace proposal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in 2008, shedding a new light on the possible motives behind it.

A Palestinian woman carries her daughter as she walks past her house, which witnesses said was destroyed by Israeli shelling during the most recent conflict between Israel and Hamas, following heavy rain in the east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip November 4, 2014. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa (GAZA - Tags: POLITICS CONFLICT ENVIRONMENT) - RTR4CQQ0

Is Israel restricting UNRWA's reconstruction efforts in Gaza?

While UNRWA is assessing the houses damaged or destroyed during the Gaza war, some Hamas officials are accusing the international relief organization of working with Israel to the detriment of the Palestinian people.

A young Israeli demonstrator holds up a placard that reads "Democracy no diversion" during rally to mark the 19th anniversary of the assassination of former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin at the Tel Aviv plaza where he was shot in the Mediterranean coastal city of Tel Aviv on November 1, 2014. Rabin was shot dead on November 4, 1995 just two years after the signing of the Oslo peace accords, for which he and former President Shimon Peres were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize along with veteran Palestin

Rabin memorial reflects lack of left's leadership

The Israeli left has failed to produce any leader who could follow in the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's footsteps, leaving the political scene in the hands of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Smoke rises as a house is blown up during a military operation by Egyptian security forces in the Egyptian city of Rafah, near the border with southern Gaza Strip November 3, 2014. Egypt began clearing residents from its border with the Gaza Strip last week to create a buffer zone following some of the worst anti-state violence since President Mohamed Mursi was overthrown last year. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa (GAZA - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST) - RTR4CMBX

Will Egypt's buffer zone worsen Israel-Hamas friction?

Egypt's plan to clear a buffer zone on its Gaza-Sinai border will oblige Hamas to depend on the crossing points to Israel, a reality that might lead to another round of conflict.

Israeli parliament member from the Likud party Moshe Feiglin (R) walks near the Western Wall after visiting the compound known to Muslims as Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as Temple Mount in Jerusalem's Old City November 2, 2014. Feiglin, a far-right politician who wants Jews to be allowed to pray at Jerusalem's al-Aqsa compound, visited the site on Sunday, defying Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's calls for restraint after clashes this week between Israeli police and Palestinians. REUTERS/Amir Cohen (JERUSA

Netanyahu government threatens Temple Mount

Members of Benjamin Netanyahu's government are using the Temple Mount for political purposes, advocating the return of the Jewish people to the holy site at the risk of damaging the fragile status quo.

Islamic State intelligence network stifles resistance

Terrorist group reportedly uses Saddam-era intelligence officers and tactics; Syria’s Alawites seek accountability from government; Syrian army advances around Hama; Temple Mount as flash point; Egyptian campaign against terrorists in the Sinai Peninsula makes life harder for residents of the Gaza Strip.

A masked Palestinian protester uses a sling shot to throw stones at Israeli troops during clashes, following an anti-Israel demonstration over the entry restrictions to the al-Aqsa mosque, on a rainy day at Qalandia checkpoint near the West Bank city of Ramallah October 31, 2014. Muslim men over 50 prayed at the Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem's Old City on Friday amid intense security, a day after Israel closed all access to the sacred compound for the first time in more than a decade following violence on the st

War and peace of Jerusalem

Jerusalem could become the world capital of peace, hosted by both Israel and Palestine, if the United Nations moved some of its agencies to the city, as suggested by a Palestinian policymaker.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (C) stands between Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh (L) and senior Fatah leader Mohammed Dahlan during the letter of appointment ceremony in Gaza February 15, 2007. Abbas formally asked Haniyeh of Hamas on Thursday to form a new unity government and urged him to abide by peace accords signed with Israel. REUTERS/Suhaib Salem (GAZA) - RTR1MG8Z

Will Hamas, Dahlan unite?

Hamas sources are talking about a possible alliance with Mohammed Dahlan, President Mahmoud Abbas’ rival, who might harm the Fatah-Hamas reconciliation.

Palestinian police Colonel Adnan al-Damiri speaks during a press conference in the West Bank city of Ramallah about a deadly shootout in Qalqilya on May 31, 2009. Six people were killed in a West Bank shootout on May 31 during an arrest operation for a senior Hamas militant, deepening the rift between the rival Palestinian factions. The Islamist Hamas movement ruling the Gaza Strip warned that the rival Fatah movement loyal to president Mahmud Abbas had crossed a "red line" by carrying out the operation whi

PA spokesman: 'Israel has an Islamic State-like government'

In an interview with Al-Monitor, Adnan al-Damiri, the Palestinian Authority security services' spokesman, reacts to the Israeli decision revoking his VIP border pass.

Yehuda Glick, an activist of the "temple mount faithful" group, poses for a photo in Jerusalem June 30, 2011. Glick was shot and severely wounded in Jerusalem on October 29, 2014 as he left a conference promoting a Jewish campaign to permit praying at a compound in the Old City that that has become a flashpoint as both Jews and Muslims regard it as a holy site, Israeli officials said. Israeli police shot dead a Palestinian on Thursday after he fired at them resisting arrest in East Jerusalem hours after the

Israeli MK: Israel must reaffirm sovereignty over Jerusalem

In an interview with Al-Monitor, Knesset member Orit Strock blames the government for not clarifying long ago its stance concerning control of the Temple Mount, saying that this indecisiveness permitted the attack on rightist activist Rabbi Yehuda Glick.

A Palestinian woman and a girl carry flowers to a family grave on Eid al-Fitr at a cemetery in Gaza City July 28, 2014. The U.N. Security Council agreed on a statement on Sunday urging Israel, Palestinians and Islamist Hamas militants to implement a humanitarian truce beyond the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, a festival marking the end of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan, and engage in efforts to achieve a durable ceasefire REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly (GAZA - Tags: POLITICS MILITARY CIVIL UNREST RELIGI

Palestinian widows lose rights

Widows in the Gaza Strip, whose numbers keep rising due to the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, are losing their rights because of their husbands’ families and their own lack of legal knowledge.