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

Israel cover image

Israel

July 8, 2026

Tel Aviv 2:02 am

25°C

Froun

Explainer

Lebanon's latest damage estimate outlines reconstruction challenge

More than 1 million Lebanese residents fled their homes after Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon intensified in March, when Hezbollah entered the conflict.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (L) welcomes US President Donald Trump (R) upon his arrival on Air Force One at Etimesgut Air Base near Ankara, on July 7, 2026, before attending the 36th NATO Heads of State and Government Summit. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP via Getty Images)

Analysis

Trump's F-35 push for Turkey runs into CAATSA — and Israel

Israel fears that Washington may be shifting its strategic options toward Turkey as the two rivals push for regional hegemony.

In Tel Aviv, reporting on national security, Israeli politics, defense

ABIR SULTAN / AFP via Getty Images

Israel, Greece conduct military drills ahead of NATO summit in Turkey

Photos published by the Greek military showed fighter jets from both countries flying side by side over the Aegean Sea.

Latest News

Interview

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

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

Ayman Odeh

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

Analysis

As US-Iran talks falter, Israel views war outcome as 'total strategic failure’

Motorists drive past a billboard bearing a picture of Iran's slain supreme leader Ali Khamenei, ahead of his funeral in Tehran on July 3, 2026. Iranian leaders began paying their respects on July 3 before the coffin of the country's late supreme leader Ali Khamenei, killed in the US-Israeli strikes that triggered the Middle East war, as Tehran prepared for a vast funeral. Khamenei's body arrived at Tehran's Grand Mosalla on July 3 ahead of ceremonies which are expected to draw millions. (Photo by AFP via Ge

In Tel Aviv, reporting on national security, Israeli politics, defense

Samuel Wendel

Senior Market Research Analyst

In Washington, DC, reporting on regional business and tech

Adam Lucente

News and Business Correspondent

In New York City, reporting on regional news, militancy, climate change

Jack Dutton

Chief Business Correspondent

In Bristol, reporting on regional business, climate change, AI, tech

Ben Caspit

Israel Columnist

In Tel Aviv, reporting on national security, Israeli politics, defense

Francesco Schiavi

In Bologna, reporting on security, defense, economy, governance

Rina Bassist

Associate Editor (Israel)

In Paris, reporting on Israeli politics and European affairs

Senior Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya (C) speaks to the media upon his return to Gaza City from truce talks in Cairo August 14, 2014. A renewed truce between Israel and Hamas appeared to be holding on Thursday despite a shaky start, after both sides agreed to give Egyptian-brokered talks more time to try to end the Gaza war. REUTERS/Ahmed Zakot (GAZA - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST) - RTR42EMW

If talks fail, Hamas says it will not return to war

There is little hope a breakthrough will be achieved in the upcoming talks in Cairo between Hamas and Israel, but Hamas officials say they are unlikely to resume armed conflict at this stage.

U.S. President Barack Obama shakes hands before speaking after a military briefing at U.S. Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida, September 17, 2014. REUTERS/Larry Downing (UNITED STATES - Tags: POLITICS MILITARY) - RTR46M8H

US continues to curb its involvement in Middle East

US President Barack Obama's speech on attacking the Islamic State reflects the US regional strategy on Iraq, Syria and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: partial engagement only, since radical Islam and conflicts in the Middle East are first and foremost a regional problem.

Palestinian shoppers browse in a supermarket at a newly opened shopping mall in Gaza City July 20, 2010. The mall, the first of its kind in Gaza, opened to the public last week and contains about 15 shops, including a supermarket and clothing stores. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem (GAZA - Tags: SOCIETY BUSINESS POLITICS) - RTR2GK60

Support grows for Gaza's boycott of Israeli goods

The recent Gaza war has seen a boost in support for a local boycott of Israeli goods, but short of alternatives, it is hard to envision how such a boycott campaign will work.

Israel's Education Minister Gideon Saar delivers a speech during the official launch of the European Holocaust Research Infrastructure (EHRI) in Brussels November 16, 2010. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir (BELGIUM - Tags: EDUCATION POLITICS) - RTXUPFM

Saar no match for Netanyahu

Interior Minister Gideon Saar must bear in mind that a political vacuum always fills up, especially when taking into consideration that there are two figures still in the Likud Party who could vie the seat of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) and Education Minister Gideon Saar attend the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem October 18, 2009. Netanyahu promised a lengthy diplomatic battle to "delegitimise" United Nations charges that Israel committed war crimes in the Gaza Strip, an official said on Saturday. REUTERS/David Silverman/Pool (JERUSALEM POLITICS) - RTXPR7B

Bibi exhausts another political rival

Over the years, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu managed to drive away those who threatened his position, such as Ministers Roni Milo, Moshe Kahlon and now also Likud’s favorite Gideon Saar, leaving the party empty of political stars.

An African migrant walks on the pavement as buildings are seen in the background, in south Tel Aviv July 17, 2013. Israel's supreme court on Monday struck down a year-old law that meant African migrants could be held in detention for up to three years without charge. Picture taken July 17, 2013. REUTERS/Amir Cohen (ISRAEL - Tags: POLITICS SOCIETY IMMIGRATION) - RTX13NKU

The gentrification of Tel Aviv

In 1948, several hundred families were sent to settle a piece of land on the northern outskirts of Tel Aviv, but today the land is valued at billions of shekels and the residents battle a real-estate tycoon over eviction.

Palestinian pedestrians and a motorcyclist commute along a road between ruins of houses, which witnesses said were damaged or destroyed during the Israeli offensive, in Beit Hanoun town in the northern Gaza Strip September 7, 2014. An open-ended ceasefire between Israel and Hamas-led Gaza militants, mediated by Egypt, took effect on August 26 after a seven-week conflict. It called for an indefinite halt to hostilities, the immediate opening of Gaza's blockaded crossings with Israel and Egypt, and a widening

Israel must help Gazans, regardless of Hamas

Israel must consider unilaterally lifting the Gaza blockade because desperate Palestinians there have nothing to lose, a situation far more dangerous for Israel than Hamas rearming.

A Palestinian farmer harvests barley on a farm near the border of southern Gaza Strip with Israel April 28, 2014. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa (GAZA - Tags: AGRICULTURE) - RTR3MW43

Gaza farmers want guarantees Israel won’t destroy their lands

Farmers in Gaza are fed up with replanting their battered lands only for Israel to destroy them, and want negotiators in Egypt to guarantee their security.

Eli Yishai 2.png

Former Shas leader: Government has abandoned the poor

In an interview with Al-Monitor, former Shas Party leader Eli Yishai criticizes the government's alleged socioeconomic agenda, claiming that the poor are again subject to political manipulations.

Palestinians wait to receive food supplies from a United Nations food distribution center in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip August 19, 2014. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa (GAZA - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST CONFLICT) - RTR42YE1

With $550M in agricultural losses, Gazans going hungry

Israel’s destruction of Gaza’s agricultural sector has resulted in a drop in food supplied to local markets, inflating prices that are out of reach for the impoverished population.

Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman (L) sits with U.S. Representative Eliot Engel (D-NY) (C) and House Foreign Affairs Chairman Ed Royce (R-CA) during their joint news conference in Jerusalem September 2, 2014. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun (JERUSALEM - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR44N5C

Is Israel most important strategic US ally in the region?

US President Barack Obama might follow in the footsteps of Presidents George H. W. and George W. Bush by forcing diplomatic concessions on Israel.

Palestinian labourers work at a construction site in the new Palestinian town dubbed Rawabi or "The Hills", near the West Bank city of Ramallah October 27, 2013. The crackdown on the Gaza Strip as Egypt demolishes the smuggling tunnels along its sandy border, and stagnation in the West Bank mean the Palestinian economy might shrink this year after average annual growth of about nine percent in 2008-2011. To match Analysis PALESTINIANS-ECONOMY/ REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman (WEST BANK - Tags: POLITICS BUSINESS

Rawabi still controversial among Palestinians

Rawabi, the new Palestinian city under construction in the West Bank, has faced criticism from Palestinians, ranging from the involvement of Israeli companies to its design, which largely mimics an Israeli settlement.