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

Palestine cover image

Palestine

December 27, 2025

Al Bīrah 12:25 pm

12°C

Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

Analysis

Gaza realities test Trump’s 2025 Middle East ambitions

During its first year, the second Trump administration confronted wars in Gaza and Sudan, forged new ties with Syria and grappled with the growing nuclear threat from Iran.

Elizabeth Hagedorn

By Elizabeth Hagedorn

In Washington, DC, reporting on diplomacy, regional politics, human rights

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu participates in a joint news conference with US President Donald Trump (not seen) in the State Dining Room at the White House on Sept. 29, 2025, in Washington.

Analysis

In 2025, Netanyahu saved his coalition but stalled on Gaza, Iran, Lebanon

With 2025 ending, Israelis are frustrated over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s refusal to fully end the Gaza war, solve the Hezbollah problem, reach a deal with Syria or find a way to constructively impact talks on the Iranian nuclear program.

Rina Bassist

By Rina Bassist

In Paris, reporting on Israeli politics and European affairs

US President Donald Trump speaks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, in Jerusalem on Oct. 13, 2025.

Analysis

Trump has upper hand over Netanyahu, but is it enough for Gaza?

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been stalling on the implementation of the second phase of President Donald Trump’s Gaza plan, but at the end of the day, Trump has much more leverage over Netanyahu.

Rina Bassist

By Rina Bassist

In Paris, reporting on Israeli politics and European affairs

Latest News

Maersk resumes Red Sea passage after two-year halt amid easing Houthi threat

A ship sails along Egypt's Suez Canal near Ismailia, April 16, 2025.

Facing Israeli pushback, Turkey recalibrates public messaging on Gaza force

Saeed Jaras / Middle East Images / AFP via Getty Images

Analysis

Trump's Syria envoy Barrack tests Israel's patience as Netanyahu pushes back

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) meets with US special envoy Tom Barrack, Jerusalem, Dec. 15 2

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

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

EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP via Getty Images

Israeli-Palestinian battle seethes in Jerusalem

Jerusalem has returned to the center of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict with riots in the contested city.

MOHAMMED ABED/AFP via Getty Images

Hamas rallies opposition to Abbas after elections pushed back

After he postponed the Palestinian legislation elections scheduled for May 22, political opponents are considering ways to oust Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Palestinians protest amid ongoing confrontations as Palestinian families face eviction in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of East Jerusalem, on May 4, 2021. Israeli Jews backed by courts have taken over houses in Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem on the grounds that Jewish families lived there before fleeing in Israel's 1948 war for independence. The claimants seek to evict a total of 58 more Palestinians, according to the watchdog group Peace Now, and Israel's Supreme Court is set to announce a decision for

Israeli settlers burn Palestinian farmland in West Bank

Tensions in the Palestinian territory as well as Jerusalem have led to considerable violence between Jews and Arabs in recent weeks.

mosaic floor of ancient synagogue in Jericho

Palestinian fears rise as settlers visit synagogue ruins in Jericho

Israeli settlers' increased visits to the ruins of two synagogues in the Jericho area in the West Bank worry Palestinians.

An elderly Palestinian walks through a cemetery in Hebron, with in the background an old market building along al-Shuhada Street that was designated by Israel to be a new settlement, with existing settler buildings behind, West Bank, Jan. 28, 2020.

Israel buries Palestinians in numbered graves

Three years after he was killed by Israel near the Gaza border, the body of a 16-year-old Palestinian was returned to his family, reviving controversy of Israel’s so-called cemeteries of numbers.

Dancers with El-Funoun Palestinian Popular Dance Troupe perform during the opening night of the Palestine International Festival, Ramallah, West Bank, July 2, 2009.

Palestinian dancer jailed in Israel

Palestinians are accusing Israel of arbitrarily cracking down on cultural expression.

Mahmoud Abbas gives televised speech

Palestinian president decides — on his own — to postpone elections

The rationale was that Israel refused to allow residents of East Jerusalem to participate.

A Palestinian boy plays with a homemade sparkler as tires burn during a rally in support of demonstrators in Jerusalem on April 24, 2021, in Gaza City.

Sparks from Jerusalem rain on Gaza's tinderbox

The situation on the Israel-Gaza border is escalating with a barrage of rockets and mortar shells from Gaza and Israeli strikes on Hamas military positions.

Employees of the Palestinian Central Elections Commission display electoral lists ahead of the upcoming general elections, at the commission's district offices, Hebron, West Bank, April 6, 2021.

Hamas braces for delay of Palestinian elections

Hamas is considering its next moves ahead of the expected announcement of the postponement of the Palestinian legislative elections.

Staff of the Palestinian Central Elections Commission display electoral lists ahead of the upcoming general elections, at the commission's local offices in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, on April 6, 2021.

The Takeaway: Does Hamas win if Abbas delays Palestinian elections?

Plus: Fallout in Turkey from Biden’s designation of genocide in Armenia.

The high cost of delaying Palestinian elections

The high cost of delaying Palestinian elections

Whether to postpone the Palestinian elections will be decided on April 29. What are the scenarios and possible repercussions of such a decision on the Palestinian scene?

A Palestinian man walks in a pool of water next to the entrance of tunnels, used for smuggling supplies between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, Rafah, Gaza Strip, Sept. 18, 2015.

Despite Egyptian campaign, Gaza border tunnels resume smuggling activity

Despite the largely successful security campaign launched by Egypt in February 2013 against the Palestinian border tunnels in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, there are reportedly Palestinian attempts to bring back some of the destroyed tunnels to life.