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Palestine

July 27, 2026

Ramallah 7:02 am

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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

Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud (R) and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry wait for a meeting at the King's private residence in the Red Sea city of Jeddah June 27, 2014. Kerry arrived in Jeddah on Friday to discuss the crises in Iraq and Syria with Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah and meet Syrian opposition leader Ahmad Jarba, who has close ties to the kingdom. REUTERS/Brendan Smialowski/Pool (SAUDI ARABIA - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST) - RTR3W2PT

Saudi Arabia and the third Gaza war

Saudi Arabia has remained quiet during the current Gaza war, working instead through Egypt.

Israeli soldiers take off their jackets as they stand atop a tank after returning to Israel from Gaza August 5, 2014. Israel pulled its ground forces out of the Gaza Strip on Tuesday and started a 72-hour ceasefire with Hamas mediated by Egypt as a first step towards negotiations on a more enduring end to the month-old war. REUTERS/Baz Ratner (ISRAEL - Tags: POLITICS CONFLICT CIVIL UNREST MILITARY) - RTR41AVX

Hamas pressured to accept Egypt’s cease-fire demand

The cease-fire between Israel and Hamas was announced after heated exchanges between the Egyptian and Hamas delegations during negotiations in Cairo, where Hamas reluctantly accepted Egypt’s demand for a cease-fire without preconditions.

An overturned bus lies at the scene of a suspected attack in Jerusalem August 4, 2014. A construction vehicle hit and killed a pedestrian and overturned the bus on a main street in Jerusalem on Monday in what police suspect was a Palestinian attack, which ended when policemen shot dead the driver of the yellow excavator. REUTERS/Ammar Awad (JERUSALEM - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST) - RTR41625

Israel fears terror spillover from Gaza to West Bank

The growing economic crisis in the West Bank coupled with Hamas assaults on Israel and the destruction in Gaza risk provoking more terror attacks in the West Bank.

An armoured military ambulance damaged in a Palestinian mortar strike is seen near the border with the Gaza Strip August 4, 2014. Palestinians accused Israel of breaking its own ceasefire on Monday by launching a bomb attack on a refugee camp in Gaza City that killed an eight-year-old girl and wounded 29 other people. An Israeli military spokeswoman said she was checking the report. REUTERS/Baz Ratner (ISRAEL - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST MILITARY CONFLICT TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY) - RTR415KM

Only Israel can break through diplomatic impasse

The continued conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is not due to an Arab rejection of Israeli existence, but to Israel’s rejection of Arab acceptance.

Israel’s agreement on Gaza must come from Abbas

Four conditions are indispensable to ending Gaza's agony that, if met, will make it “obvious that Hamas’ way of terror brought nothing but devastation” and the way of Ramallah, negotiation and not violence “is the way for the Palestinian people to achieve its rights.”

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) and Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon (L) attend a cabinet meeting in Tel Aviv July 31, 2014. Netanyahu, facing international alarm over a rising civilian death toll in Gaza, said on Thursday he would not accept any ceasefire that stopped Israel completing the destruction of militants' infiltration tunnels. Gaza officials say at least 1,372 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed in the battered territory and nearly 7,000 wounded. Fifty-six Israeli s

Does Netanyahu's political future depend on Hamas?

The Israeli prime minister is on shaky ground after acting against the will of his electorate concerning Gaza, but he has a historic opportunity to recreate himself as a leader by spearheading fresh new diplomatic moves that appeal to the Israeli center.

A right wing activist waves a flag during a protest in support of Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip, in Tel Aviv July 29, 2014. An Israeli television station retracted its report on Tuesday that a ceasefire in the Gaza conflict had been agreed, saying instead there was "movement" toward a truce between Israel and the Palestinian territory's dominant Hamas Islamists being brokered by Egypt. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun (ISRAEL - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST) - RTR40KAT

Gaza war stifles democracy in Israel

The current Israel-Hamas conflict has generated an aggressive political patriotic discourse in Israel that has taken a heavy toll on Israeli democracy, in which those who dare to oppose the operation are expected to keep silent.

Palestinians standing behind the gate of Rafah crossing hold their passports as they try to cross into Egypt, in the southern Gaza Strip July 10, 2014. At least 74 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed in Israel's Gaza offensive, Palestinian officials said on Thursday, and militants kept up rocket attacks on Tel Aviv and other cities in warfare showing no signs of ending soon. Egypt's state news agency said Egyptian authorities had decided to open the Rafah border crossing to Gaza on Thursd

Egypt squanders Gaza war opportunities

Unlike during previous wars in the Gaza Strip, Egypt — distracted by its own internal affairs — is isolated politically while its Gazan neighbors across the border in Rafah find themselves in a dire situation.

Palestinian youths take part during a rally in support of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (seen on banner), at the Seaport of Gaza City June 18, 2013. REUTERS/Suhaib Salem (GAZA - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST) - RTX10RQC

Gazans irritated as Turkey focuses only on Hamas

While some Gazans see Turkey as a true supporter of Gaza, others see it as a supporter of only Hamas and question Turkey’s sincerity.

New alliances for a 2015 Middle East peace conference?

The Gaza conflict demonstrates that Egypt, Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Jordan and Saudi Arabia share common regional interests, which could lead them to an international peace conference based on the Arab League's peace initiative.

Rescue workers search for victims as Palestinians gather around the wreckage of a house, which witnesses said was destroyed in an Israeli air strike that killed at least nine members from the al-Ghol family, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip August 3, 2014. Renewed Israeli shelling killed at least 30 people in Gaza on Sunday after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to keep up pressure on Hamas even after the army completes its core mission of destroying a tunnel network that extends into Israel. Shel

Never ask me about peace again

A first-hand account of the aftermath of an Israeli strike that killed nine members of the author's family.

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani addresses the audience during a meeting in Ankara June 10, 2014. REUTERS/Umit Bektas (TURKEY - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR3T16B

Rouhani slams Israel for 'genocide' in Gaza

At a meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said that Israel's policy is simply to eradicate the Palestinians.