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July 8, 2026

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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

Vice president and director of the Foreign Policy Program at the Brookings Institution in Washington D.C. , Martin Indyk, speaks during the U.S.- Islamic World Forum in Doha June 9, 2013. REUTERS/Mohammed Dabbous (QATAR - Tags: RELIGION) - RTX10HPL

Kerry names Indyk peace envoy, calls for reasonable compromise

Secretary of State John Kerry has named former US envoy to Israel and Clinton peace negotiator Martin Indyk as his new special peace envoy.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) listens to Foreign Affairs and Defence committee chair Zeev Elkin during a committee meeting at parliament in Jerusalem June 2, 2014. Netanyahu warned on Sunday against any international rush to recognise a Palestinian government due to be announced under a unity pact between the Fatah and Hamas Islamist groups.REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun (JERUSALEM - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR3RRU6

Knesset to investigate Gaza operation

In an interview with Al-Monitor, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Zeev Elkin explains his decision to open an inquiry of the Gaza operation, in spite of objections from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice speaks at the White House in Washington, in this February 28, 2011 file photo. Rice is on a "short list" of possible U.S. candidates to head the World Bank, according to media reports on March 13, 2012. Picture taken February 28, 2011. REUTERS/Jim Young/Files (UNITED STATES - Tags: POLITICS BUSINESS) - RTR2ZA4O

Kerry, Rice brief Jewish, Arab American groups on Mideast peace talks

US Secretary of State John Kerry and National Security Adviser Susan Rice briefed Jewish and Arab American groups Thursday and Friday on the Israel-Palestine peace talks in an effort to bolster support.

Pro-Israel demonstrators take part in a demonstration called by the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (CRIF) in front of the European Parliament in Strasbourg January 14, 2009. REUTERS/Vincent Kessler (FRANCE) - RTR23DLX

Israelis dream of Europe

The Gaza incursion provoked a wave of anti-Semitism in Europe and a surge in the number of Jews emigrating to Israel, but in Israel, the war has provoked some to consider emigration to safer, less polarized countries.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) and Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon 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 soldi

Israel prepares for an international legal assault

Israel prepares to face the UN Commission and the private complaints that might be submitted against it in the aftermath of the Gaza incursion, compiling a "defense dossier" with the footage it gathered through the operation days and even testimonies of foreign journalists who covered Gaza.

Israeli soldiers look towards Gaza from Israel August 3, 2014. The fighting on Sunday pushed the Gaza death toll given by Palestinian officials to 1,726, most of them civilians. Israel has confirmed that 64 soldiers have died in combat, while Palestinian rockets have also killed three civilians in Israel. Israel began its air and naval offensive against Gaza on July 8 following a surge of cross-border rocket salvoes by Hamas and other guerrillas, later escalating the operation into ground incursions. RE

Poor Israelis suffer from war, support it anyway

In the Israeli paradox, those suffering from economic insecurity support the parties that promise to stand firm against security threats, while actually contributing to social inequality.

An Israeli soldier lifts a shell at a site where mobile artillery units are deployed, outside the Gaza Strip July 21, 2014. The Palestinian death toll in an Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip jumped to more than 500 on Monday, as the United States, alarmed by escalating civilian bloodshed, took a direct role in efforts to secure a ceasefire. Israel's losses also mounted. Following the death of 13 soldiers on Sunday, Israel said seven more troops had died on Monday, including four killed when a group of mil

Leftist Knesset member blames Netanyahu for Gaza war

“The security situation of Israeli citizens only gets worse from round to round,” says Knesset member Dov Khenin in an interview with Al-Monitor, blaming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who “is responsible for this war in every imaginable way.”

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.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) and Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon sit in front of a display of M302 rockets, found aboard the Klos C ship, at a navy base in the Red Sea resort city of Eilat March 10, 2014. Netanyahu, displaying on Monday what Israel said were seized Iranian-supplied missiles bound for militants in Gaza, called on the West not to be fooled by Tehran's diplomatic outreach over its nuclear programme. REUTERS/Amir Cohen (ISRAEL - Tags: POLITICS MILITARY CIVIL UNREST) - RTR3GGUG

Israeli defense minister rejected demands to retake Gaza

The pragmatic line advocated by Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon on the Gaza incursion has earned him the esteem of many in the general Israeli public but might have cost him the support of the far right.

Israeli parliament members Isaac Herzog (L) and Hilik Bar (C) shake hands with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as they attend a meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah October 7, 2013. Abbas held a rare meeting with the group of Israeli parliamentarians on Monday, warning that this could be the last chance to reach a deal to end decades of Israeli-Palestinian conflict and create two independent states living side-by-side. REUTERS/Abbas Momani/Pool (WEST BANK - Tags: POLITICS) - RTX142QP

Herzog stands by Netanyahu on Gaza

In an interview, Israeli opposition leader Isaac Herzog explains that he backed the operation in the Gaza Strip in the interest of solidarity, but when the dust settles, nothing will have changed between him and the prime minister.

An Israeli soldier launches a drone outside the Gaza Strip July 22, 2014. Israel pounded targets across the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, saying no ceasefire was near as top U.S. and U.N. diplomats pursued talks on halting fighting that has claimed more than 600 lives. With the conflict entering its third week, the Palestinian death toll rose to 603, including nearly 100 children and many other civilians, Gaza health officials said. Israel's casualties also mounted, with the military announcing the deaths of two m

Did an Israeli drone strike militants in Egypt?

Eyewitnesses say an Israeli drone struck Egyptian militants in the Sinai Peninsula on July 23, despite Egypt’s official assertions that it was responsible for the strike.