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July 27, 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

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.

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.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas presides over a meeting with Palestinian leadership in the West Bank city of Ramallah August 26, 2014. Israel has accepted an Egyptian proposal for a Gaza ceasefire, a senior Israeli official said on Tuesday. Egyptian and Palestinian officials said the truce was to take effect at 7 pm (1600 GMT). REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman (WEST BANK - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR43V6J

Gaza cease-fire might lead to indirect Egypt involvement

After a cease-fire was finally reached, the Palestinian Authority could return to the Gaza Strip where Egypt might be playing an indirect role in the future.

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.

Hamas Gaza leader Ismail Haniyeh holds a gun as he appears for the first time since the start of a seven-week conflict during a rally by Palestinians celebrating what they said was a victory over Israel, in Gaza City August 27, 2014. An open-ended ceasefire in the Gaza war held on Wednesday as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced strong criticism in Israel over a costly conflict with Palestinian militants in which no clear victor emerged. REUTERS/Suhaib Salem (GAZA - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST CONFLICT

Zahar, Haniyeh pressured Meshaal into cease-fire

The cease-fire between Israel and Hamas signals the opening of a great battle over the movement's leadership, between Hamas political bureau chief Khaled Meshaal in Qatar and Gaza leaders such as Mahmoud al-Zahar.

Protesters chant during a pro-Gaza demonstration outside the Israeli embassy in London August 1, 2014. Israel launched its Gaza offensive on July 8 in response to a surge of rocket attacks by Gaza's dominant Hamas Islamists. Hamas said that Palestinians would continue confronting Israel until its blockade on Gaza was lifted. REUTERS/Neil Hall (BRITAIN - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST CONFLICT) - RTR40YDH

Anti-Israelism, not anti-Semitism, voiced in Europe

Does the sometimes virulent criticism of Israel in Europe, and around the world, reflect a rise in anti-Semitism or anti-Israelism?

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a cabinet meeting in Tel Aviv August 10, 2014. Israel said on Sunday it would not return to Egyptian-mediated ceasefire talks as long as Palestinian militants in Gaza kept up cross-border rocket and mortar fire. The head of the Palestinian delegation in Cairo said earlier that it would pull out unless Israeli negotiators, who flew home from the Egyptian capital on Friday hours before a three-day ceasefire expired, came back to the talks. REUTERS/Baz Ratner

Was Bibi's image damaged by cease-fire agreement?

The Israeli public does not seem convinced by declarations that the cease-fire agreement is an achievement of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and a defeat for Hamas.

Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal talks during a news conference in Doha July 23, 2014. Meshaal said he was ready to accept a humanitarian truce in Gaza where the Islamist group is fighting an Israeli military offensive, but would not agree to a full ceasefire until the terms had been negotiated. REUTERS/Stringer (QATAR - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST CONFLICT MILITARY) - RTR3ZVT6

No winners in Israel-Hamas cease-fire

To justify the deaths and devastation in Gaza, Hamas political bureau chief Khaled Meshaal needed an achievement, and so did Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose approval ratings continue to drop from one week to the next.

Omar Odeh, a Palestinian refugee from from the Yarmuk refugee camp in Damascus who fled Syria some two months ago, sits with his daughters as he looks at his laptop in the livingroom of their rented apartment in the Jabalia refugee camp in the Gaza Strip on April 16, 2013. Odeh who fled Syria last year, was followed by his Palestinian mother, Syrian wife Basma and their children in February transiting through Egypt to reach the Gaza Strip. Finding no work, they are living off donated aid and help from fam

Syrian refugees in Gaza suffer second war

Palestinian refugees from Syria and Syrian refugees who came to the Gaza Strip to escape the war in Syria are caught in Israel’s war on Gaza.

Despite reconciliation, Abbas in no position to negotiate for Hamas

With Israel ignoring his efforts and Hamas trying to topple him, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas may issue a desperate ultimatum for Israel to withdraw from the West Bank.

Smoke and sand are seen following what witnesses said was an Israeli air strike in Gaza August 25, 2014. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Palestinian civilians on Sunday to leave immediately any site where militants are operating, one day after Israel flattened a 13-storey apartment block in Gaza. Palestinian health officials say 2,115 people, most of them civilians and more than 400 of them children, have been killed in the Gaza Strip since July 8, when Israel launched an offensive with th

War of attrition pointless in Gaza

When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened Hamas with a war of attrition, he ignored that in such a war the winner is not the strongest army, but the side that has the least to lose.