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

Palestine cover image

Palestine

August 9, 2026

Ramallah 5:25 pm

31°C

People attend a mass funeral for members of the Abu Sharia and Al-Hasayna families, whose remains were recently recovered from the rubble of their homes after an attack earlier in the war, on Aug. 4, 2026 in the Sabra neighborhood of Gaza City, Gaza.

Gaza family buries 112 recovered from war rubble after Israeli strike

In early July, Gaza’s Government Media Office said that more than 2,700 families have been erased from the civil registry after all their members were killed by Israeli military action.

Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP via Getty Images

Analysis

Netanyahu’s Gaza double game: Back Trump, reassure Israel’s right

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to both give the impression that Israel retains total freedom of action in Gaza while allowing the Board of Peace to move ahead with President Donald Trump’s peace plan.

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

Palestinian Hamas militants arrive to secure the area as Egyptian workers accompanied by members of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), search for the last two remaining bodies of hostages -an Israeli soldier and a Thai national- from under the rubble of the Jabalia refugee camp, in the northern of Gaza Strip on Dec. 1, 2025.

Analysis

How Hamas disarmament deal may test Iran's regional strategy

A possible Hamas decision to disarm would represent more than a Gaza development, testing Iran's decades-old strategy of projecting power through regional allies.

A correspondent in Tehran

By A correspondent in Tehran

In Tehran, reporting on politics

Latest News

Culture

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

Flags of Spain and Argentina

Explainer

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

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

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

Palestinians walk through a newly built 500 meter-long passage way on their way back to the Gaza Strip through Israel's Erez Crossing December 3, 2009. REUTERS/Yannis Behrakis (GAZA POLITICS) - RTXRERB

Palestinian Factions Silent On Gaza-West Bank Divide

Israel's separation of Gaza from the West Bank has been so successful that the main Palestinian factions no longer ask for freedom of movement between the two enclaves, Daoud Kuttab writes.

John Kerry, the new U.S. Secretary of State, holds the diplomatic passport he was issued at eleven years old, while greeting employees of the State Department in Washington February 4, 2013. Kerry's father, Richard, was a U.S. Foreign Service officer in Berlin after World War II. REUTERS/Gary Cameron (UNITED STATES - Tags: POLITICS TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY) - RTR3DCG4

Kerry Puts Middle East First

Geoffrey Aronson writes that, in the absence of a strategy for dealing with the Middle East, seeking advice from leaders in the region can be compared to listening to the inmates in an insane asylum, where useful advice is in short supply.

Palestinians hold placards depicting prisoner Samer al-Issawi, who has been on hunger strike for 209 days, during a protest in the West Bank city of Ramallah, calling for the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails, February 17, 2013. The European Union on Saturday called on Israel to improve conditions for Palestinians in its jails, and a Palestinian minister said there would be rallies this week to support hunger striking prisoners. Nearly 5,000 Palestinians are held in Israeli jails, many cha

Hunger Striker Samer Issawi Invisible to Israeli Society

Shlomi Eldar wonders about the political impact of Palestinian prisoner Samer Issawi's hunger strike, going on for more than 200 days.

Palestinian sisters Dunia, 10, and Dana, 5, sort out their school books after finding them among the debris of their parents' destroyed home in the southern part of Gaza City January 20, 2009. Voicing shock at stark scenes of destruction, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon visited the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, and Israel was poised to withdraw its troops before the U.S. presidential inauguration later in the day. REUTERS/Anja Niedringhaus/Pool (GAZA) - RTR23N6B

Gaza Blockade Erodes Palestinian Culture, Education

Although the recent blockade on Gaza is often characterized as depriving residents of vital food supplies and medicine, Asmaa al-Ghoul argues that the real tragedy is embodied by the intellectual blockade on the Strip.

Paul Hansen of Sweden, a photographer working for the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter, poses holding his picture that won the World Press Photo of the year for 2012, at Dagens Nyheter's office in Stockholm February 15, 2013. The photograph, which Hansen took on November 20, 2012, shows a group of men carrying the bodies of two dead children, who were killed in an Israeli missile strike on Gaza City, and won the top World Press Photo prize on Friday. REUTERS/Fredrik Sandberg/Scanpix (SWEDEN - Tags: ME

Award-Winning Photo Shares Human Tragedy of Gaza War

Dalia Hatuqa tells the tragic story behind the World Press Award-winning photo of two dead children wrapped in white cloth during a funeral procession in Gaza last November.

A Palestinian protester holds a flag during clashes between protesters and Israeli border policemen outside Israel's Ofer prison near the West Bank city of Ramallah February 15, 2013. Clashes broke out on Friday between Palestinian stone-throwers and Israeli troops following a protest calling for the release of hunger-striking Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman (WEST BANK - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST) - RTR3DU35

Palestine Should Not Wait for Obama

Senior Fatah official Husam Zomlot speaks to Daoud Kuttab of the need for Palestinians to press ahead with their own strategic track, and not wait for the United States to impose a solution.

The Jewish settlement of Halamish is seen in the background as a stone-throwing Palestinian protester stands on a garbage bin during clashes with Israeli security officers at a weekly protest against the settlements, in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh, near Ramallah February 1, 2013. U.N. human rights investigators called on Israel on Thursday to halt settlement expansion and withdraw all half a million Jewish settlers from the occupied West Bank, saying that its practices could be subject to prosecutio

Palestinian Attacks on Settlers Signal a Shift in Tactics

Attacks by Palestinians against Israeli settlers have increased in recent years, requiring a shift in Israeli strategies to protect settlers in the West Bank, reports Adnan Abu Amer.

U.S. President Barack Obama delivers remarks on the economy after touring Linamar Corporation that manufactures parts for the truck industry in Arden, North Carolina, February 13, 2013. Obama visited the facility on Wednesday to promote economic policies outlined in his State of the Union speech. REUTERS/Jason Reed (UNITED STATES - Tags: POLITICS TRANSPORT BUSINESS) - RTR3DQPD

Palestinians Not Optimistic About Obama Visit

As US President Barack Obama prepares to meet Israeli and Palestinian leaders in their respective capitals, Palestinians do not expect any progress on the peace process, reports Hazem Balousha.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Jordan's King Abdullah II and Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak (L-R) listen to U.S. President Barack Obama make a statement on Middle East peace in the East Room of the White House in Washington September 1, 2010. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst (UNITED STATES - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR2HTFY

'Jordanian Option' Not an Option, Says Shimon Shamir

Shimon Shamir, former Israeli ambassador to Jordan, tells Akiva Eldar why raising the possibility of Jordan annexing the West Bank is a slap in the face to Amman and runs counter to Israel's interests.

Palestinians ride camels during a competition in Dear al-Balah in the southern Gaza Strip May 15, 2009. REUTERS/Suhaib Salem (GAZA SPORT SOCIETY) - RTXHBGR

Israeli Siege Snuffing Out Gaza's Camel Industry

Camel production in Gaza is suffering from a lack of available grazing lands and continued instability with Israel, Rami Almeghari reports.

Palestinians, together with Israeli and foreign activists, stand near newly-erected tents in an area known as E1, near Jerusalem January 12, 2013. Palestinians from villages in the occupied West Bank near Jerusalem pitched tents on Friday on the land Israel has earmarked for a new urban settlement, looking to preserve the area for an independent Palestinian state. REUTER/Baz Ratner (WEST BANK - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST BUSINESS CONSTRUCTION) - RTR3CD0D

Israeli Military Cracks Down On Palestinian Tent Villages

Palestinian activists continue to set up tent villages to protest Israel's land grab, and are often met with force by the Israeli army, Linah Alsaafin reports.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (R) and chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat (C) speak with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Amman November 6, 2012. REUTERS/Majed Jaber (JORDAN - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR3A22U

Erekat: No Settlement Freeze Means No Negotiations

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat explains that a freeze on Israeli settlement activity is a condition for resuming negotiations with Israel in an interview with Shlomi Eldar.