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Palestine

December 28, 2025

Ramallah 6:56 am

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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

Palestinian protesters wounded during clashes with Israeli forces receive treatments from Red Crescent members in a field hospital during a demonstration along the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel, east of Gaza city on June 22, 2018. (Photo by MAHMUD HAMS / AFP) (Photo credit should read MAHMUD HAMS/AFP via Getty Images)

Hamas calls for dismantling American field hospital for failing to provide needed services

Hamas refused to deal with the newly established American field hospital in the Gaza Strip and prohibited its citizens from visiting it, saying that the medical center is not providing services for difficult cases, such as cancer, as agreed upon in the truce understandings with Israel.

RAMALLAH, -: Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas (L) stands with Mohammad Dahlan, a strongman from the Fatah party, as they watch US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice leave the Palestinian Authority headquarters or Muqataa in the West Bank city of Ramallah, 25 March 2007. Rice urged Israelis and Palestinians to work together on a common peace agenda after talks with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas. AFP PHOTO / JAMAL ARURI (Photo credit should read JAMAL ARURI/AFP via Getty Images)

Dahlan complicates Abbas' plans for Palestinian elections

The upcoming Palestinian elections are expected to stir a new confrontation between Fatah and Mohammed Dahlan’s movement should the reconciliation efforts exerted by some Arab countries fail to unify the Fatah movement.

Hanna Nasir, head of the Palestinian Central Election Commission, gives a press conference in the West Bank city of Ramallah, on January 16, 2021. - Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas announced yesterday dates for the first Palestinian elections in more than 15 years, setting legislative polls for May 22 and a July 31 presidential vote.
Abbas's Fatah party, which controls the Palestinian Authority based in the occupied West Bank, and the Hamas Islamists, who hold power in Gaza, have for years expressed int

Israel wrestles with allowing east Jerusalem Palestinians to vote in PA elections

With a new US administration in place, Israel must decide whether to allow Palestinians in east Jerusalem to vote in the legislative and presidential Palestinian elections scheduled for spring and summer.

TO GO WITH AFP STORY IN GERMAN BY CLEMENS WORTMANN
A picture taken on September 30, 2014 shows the town of Sebastia in the northern West Bank, hometown of Raed Saleh, the Palestinian-born Berlin mayoral candidate. After incumbent Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit announced his resignation the Palestinian immigrant Raed Saleh is one of three candidates to replace him. Saleh was was born in Sebastia, near Nablus in the West Bank, and is since three years the president of the Social Democrat Party (SPD) group in t

Israeli settlers threaten Palestinian archaeology in historic town of Sebastia

The ancient town of Sebastia northwest of Nablus in the West Bank remains a target of continuous attacks by the Israeli army and settlers.

Palestinian skeptics not yet sold on elections

As the prospect of Palestinian general elections draws near, Palestinians are skeptical about their success as divisions remain between the rival Fatah and Hamas movements.

A Palestinian workers fills up a truck transporting water from a freshwater plant that extracts water from wells and sells to people in the town of Khan Yunis in southern Gaza Strip, on November 18, 2020. - The densely-populated Gaza Strip has long lacked sufficient drinking water, but a new project helps ease the shortage with a solar-powered process to extract potable water straight from the air. (Photo by SAID KHATIB / AFP) (Photo by SAID KHATIB/AFP via Getty Images)

Israel provides Gaza with machines to extract water from air

An Israeli firm donated generators producing drinking water from air to the Gaza Strip, which faces an acute water shortage crisis, amid controversy about cooperation between the two sides.

Qatar renews Gaza aid amid Gulf reconciliation

Qatar has agreed to renew its grant to the Gaza Strip despite reconciliation with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, which previously requested Doha cut ties with Hamas.

Palestinian supporters of the Islamist movement Hamas wave their flag and a pre-Baath Syrian flag (C) during a demonstration in the West Bank city of Hebron on November 21, 2012, against the ongoing Israeli military offensive on the Gaza Strip. Israel launched its offensive on November 14 with the targeted killing of a Hamas military chief. Since then, 147 Palestinians and five Israelis have been killed. AFP PHOTO/HAZEM BADER (Photo credit should read HAZEM BADER/AFP via Getty Images)

Moscow stands to gain from Hamas-Damascus reconciliation

While claims that Russia is playing a large role in reconciliation talks between the Palestinian movement Hamas and the Syrian regime may be overstated, Moscow could benefit in several ways if the two sides restore relations.

Hamas seizes Gulf detente opportunity to get close to Saudi Arabia

Hamas praised Saudi Arabia for the Gulf reconciliation, in an attempt to break the deadlock with Riyadh.

Palestinian workers wearing masks against Covid-19 lineup for a security check at the entrance to Israel's Mishor Adumim industrial zone nearby the Maale Adumim settlement in the West Bank east of Jerusalem, on July 1, 2020. - The government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said it could begin the process to annex Jewish settlements in the West Bank as well as the strategic Jordan Valley from today. The plan -- endorsed by Washington -- would see the creation of a Palestinian state, but on r

Palestinian factory workers strike in West Bank industrial zone

Palestinian workers at the Yamit factory in a West Bank industrial zone are striking for their first substantial raise in decades.

Exiled former senior Fatah member Mohammed Dahlan attends a Palestinian legislative Council meeting in Gaza City through video conference from the United Arab Emirates on July 27, 2017 following developments at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.

Palestinians were set to return to pray at a sensitive Jerusalem holy site after Israeli authorities removed controversial new security measures, potentially ending a nearly two-week crisis that sparked deadly unrest. Dahlan, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's exiled r

Abbas' rival Dahlan coordinates UAE aid to Gaza as Palestinian elections near

The United Arab Emirates has sent a new medical aid shipment to the Gaza Strip, the second in a month, to help cope with the coronavirus crisis, raising questions about the role of Fatah’s dismissed leader and President Mahmoud Abbas’ archrival Mohammed Dahlan.

Foreign Ministers of (L to R) Germany Heiko Maas, Jordan Ayman Safadi, Egypt Sameh Shoukry, and France Jean-Yves Le Drian, hold a joint press conference after a meeting to discuss the Middle East peace process, in the Egyptian capital Cairo, on January 11, 2021. (Photo by Khaled DESOUKI / AFP) (Photo by KHALED DESOUKI/AFP via Getty Images)

Cairo talks on Mideast peace show key players preparing for post-Trump era

The latest meeting appears to be a signal to the new US administration that the Middle East Quartet and the Palestinians are serious about talks based on a multilateral approach.