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Palestine

December 28, 2025

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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

Palestinians intensify efforts, action to counter UAE trade deals with Israeli settlements

Palestinians seek to launch international campaigns to boycott Emirati companies that deal with products from settlements built on occupied land in the West Bank, accusing them of violating international resolutions that criminalize settlements.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) and Health Minister Yuli Edelstein (L) arrive at the Maccabi Healthcare Services vaccine complex, handling the COVID-19 coronavirus vaccine, in Israel's Mediterranean coastal city of Tel Aviv on December 13, 2020. (Photo by Marc Israel SELLEM / POOL / AFP) (Photo by MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

As vaccinations begin, Israel may offer Palestinians surplus

Israeli health authorities are signaling they might offer the Palestinian Authority surplus vaccines against the coronavirus.

Palestinian jockeys compete during a local camel race held at the destroyed Gaza airport, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on October 20, 2019. (Photo by SAID KHATIB / AFP) (Photo by SAID KHATIB/AFP via Getty Images)

Derelict Gaza airport becomes racetrack for cars, camels

Gazans have been racing their camels, horses and cars at the abandoned site of what once served as Gaza’s airport.

A masked Hamas militant mans a machine gun as he stands with others in the back of a pickup truck during a celebration of the release of Abdel Halim Badawi (unseen), a Palestinian who was held for 18 years in an Israeli prison after he was convicted of being a member of Hamas' armed wing in 2001, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on October 17, 2019. (Photo by SAID KHATIB / AFP) (Photo by SAID KHATIB/AFP via Getty Images)

Israel-Hamas contacts advance on prisoner exchange

Contradicting reports have emerged about talks for an Israel-Hamas prisoner-exchange deal after an Egyptian delegation visited Gaza last week.

Israeli police and firefighters stand at the entrance of the Church of All Nations in the Garden of Gethsemane in east Jerusalem after an arson attempt, on December 4, 2020. - Israeli police said in a statement they were questioning a 49-year-old suspect who had "poured flammable liquid inside the church", causing damage. (Photo by Ahmad GHARABLI / AFP) (Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty Images)

Israeli settler attacks on church sanctities in Palestine continue amid lax international response

The Israeli settlers continue their attacks against Palestinian Muslim and Christian places of worship, the latest of which has been the attempt to set on fire the Church of All Nations in Jerusalem.

Members of the Palestinian Islamist Hamas movement is greeted by supporters before at the movement's leader Ismail Haniyeh's office in the Gaza Strip on February 28, 2019. - The Hamas leader announced in a press release today the release of four detainees from his group held in Egypt since August 2015. (Photo by MAHMUD HAMS / AFP) (Photo credit should read MAHMUD HAMS/AFP via Getty Images)

Hamas prisoners elect leadership behind bars

Despite being locked away in Israeli prisons, Hamas members elect a new leadership body every two years that wields great influence within the movement and participates in its major decisions.

The Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) executive committe member, Hanan Ashrawi arrives for a press conference on February 24, 2015 in the West Bank city of Ramallah, a day after a verdict of a New York court was issued finding the Palestinian leadership responsible for six deadly attacks in Jerusalem that killed Americans. In a verdict issued late on February 23, a US jury found the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority and the PLO responsible for six attacks which killed 33 people and wounded more tha

Ashrawi’s exit of the PLO sign of organization’s demise

Senior Palestinian official Hanan Ashrawi resigned from her post in the PLO’s Executive Committee, amid reports that she was frustrated over the lone decision-making process in the Palestinian organization.

For Palestine’s negotiations strategy to work, Gulf must be united

Reports about an end of the nearly four-year Gulf crisis pitting a Saudi-led bloc of nations against Qatar is a good omen for the Palestinians, who are seeking to restart the stalled Israeli-Palestinian negotiation process.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi (R) speaks with with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as they pose for a family a photo at the opening of the Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government during the 30th annual African Union summit in Addis Ababa on January 28, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / SIMON MAINA (Photo credit should read SIMON MAINA/AFP via Getty Images)

Egypt, Jordan work to thaw Israeli-Palestinian negotiations

Officials from Egypt, Jordan and Palestine are meeting in intense efforts to end the stalemate over the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

A picture taken on September 28, 2019 shows the Greek Orthodox monastery of St Sabbas, also known as Mar Saba, overlooking the Kidron Valley in the West Bank south of the biblical town of Bethlehem. (Photo by HAZEM BADER / AFP) (Photo credit should read HAZEM BADER/AFP via Getty Images)

Inside Mar Saba Monastery in the West Bank

Mar Saba Monastery near Bethlehem attracts thousands of tourists each year, all the while facing constant attacks by Israeli settlers.

Women in Gaza take up boxing despite social stigma

Despite the patriarchal and religious stigma surrounding female sporting activities in the Gaza Strip, several women and girls have joined a boxing team out of love for this sport.

A Palestinian man and his wife ride a donkey cart past street art showing doctors mask-clad due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic in the Nusseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on November 16, 2020. (Photo by MOHAMMED ABED / AFP) (Photo by MOHAMMED ABED/AFP via Getty Images)

Gaza caught between full lockdown or collapse of health sector amid COVID-19 surge

A health catastrophe looms on the horizon of the Gaza Strip amid the already fragile health-care sector, while the government hesitates to impose a full lockdown due to the deteriorating economic situation.