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Palestine

December 28, 2025

Ramallah 5:01 pm

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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

PA restoring ties with Israel undermines reconciliation, Hamas says

The reconciliation efforts between Hamas and Fatah are likely to go down the drain now that the PA announced that ties and security coordination with Israel have been restored.

Republican senators ask Trump to label West Bank products 'Made in Israel'

The senators want the president to reverse the Clinton-era customs policy before he leaves office in January.

A Palestinian youth pushes an elderly man next to the Ibrahimi mosque (background), also known as the Tomb of the Patriarchs, in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron on August 7, 2020, amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic crisis. (Photo by HAZEM BADER / AFP) (Photo by HAZEM BADER/AFP via Getty Images)

Israel advances plan for elevator at Tomb of the Patriarchs

The nongovernmental organization Emek Shaveh, however, is appealing against plans to build a path and an elevator at the entrance to the Tomb of the Patriarchs in the Palestinian city of Hebron.

Palestinians demonstrate near the Israeli settlement of Psagot, built on the lands of the city of al-Bireh, against the visit by US Secretary of State's to the settlement, on November 18, 2020 in the occupied West Bank. - US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was due to arrive in Jerusalem today for a farewell visit as the chief diplomat of the strongly pro-Israeli Trump administration. (Photo by ABBAS MOMANI / AFP) (Photo by ABBAS MOMANI/AFP via Getty Images)

Biden victory breathes life back into Israeli-Palestinian cooperation

The Palestinian Authority is resuming cooperation with Israel, meaning the Oslo process may finally be back on track.

A picture taken on October 14, 2020 shows a general view of the Israeli settlement of Psagot on the eastern outskirts of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. - Israel approved 2,166 new homes in settlements across the occupied West Bank, official figures sent to AFP showed, ending an eight-month lull in settlement expansion. The approvals came less than a month after the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain signed agreements to normalise relations with Israel, which in return pledged to freeze its plans to annex

Pompeo reportedly to visit Israeli West Bank settlement

The US secretary of state is expected to make an unprecedented visit to Psagot, an Israeli settlement in what is globally recognized as Palestinian territory, on his current trip to the Middle East.

With Biden’s election, Israeli left relevant again

Now that Joe Biden has been elected as the next president of the United States, Israel’s political left feels revived.

A view of the Greek Orthodox Christian Monastery of the Temptation near the West Bank city of Jericho on December 8, 2019. - The monastery was built during the 6th century CE above the cave traditionally said to be the place where Jesus spent fourty days and fourty nights fasting and meditating during the temptation of Satan. (Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP) (Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty Images)

Jericho entices tourists with Mount of the Temptation

The Monastery of the Temptation, where Jesus allegedly spent 40 days, is under consideration for UNESCO's World Heritage List as local officials push sites for religious tourism.

A Palestinian woman watches from her home's window fighters from the Ezz-Al Din Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas movement, taking part in an anti-Israel military show in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip November 11, 2019 to mark one year since their comrade Nour Baraka, a commander in the group, was killed in an Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip. (Photo by SAID KHATIB / AFP) (Photo by SAID KHATIB/AFP via Getty Images)

Can Hamas control individual rocket firing?

In a bid to advance the truce with Israel, Gaza’s resistance factions, including Hamas, seem to have agreed to avoid and stop indiscriminate rocket launches toward Israel and to hand over culprits to the competent official authorities for accountability.

Palestinians ask: Who will fill Saeb’s shoes?

The question of who will take the helm of negotiations with Israel is particularly important with the election of Joe Biden and renewed prospects for talks.

Saeb Erekat (R), Secretary General of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and chief Palestinian negotiator, speaks during a press conference in the Palestinian West Bank city of Ramallah on November 19, 2019. - Israelis reacted joyfully on November 19 to the United States's announcement it no longer considers settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem illegal, but the Palestinians pledged fresh measures to oppose the declaration. Erekat said it was only the latest move by the US to try and forc

Veteran Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat dies at 65

Erekat, who contracted the coronavirus last month, died in a Jerusalem hospital on Tuesday.

A Palestinian man reads the Al-Quds newspaper, headlined in Arabic "Joe Biden the new US President" outside the Dome of the Rock in the al-Aqsa mosque compound, Islam's third holiest site, in the old city of Jerusalem on November 8, 2020. (Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP) (Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty Images)

Palestinians cautiously optimistic after Biden win

Palestinians are overjoyed by the defeat of Donald Trump in the US election, though officials are so far keeping their reactions subdued.

As Biden takes lead, Palestinians eager to return to talks with US

While Palestinian officials don't expect a Biden administration to roll back all of Trump's policies, they are hopeful for a change in course in US-Palestinian ties.