Shatha Yaish

Shatha Yaish is a journalist covering East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Recent Articles

An Israeli soldier stands next to an ambulance after the army curfew was lifted for three hours, in the southern neighborhoods of the West Bank city of Hebron (Al-Khalil), January 21, 2026. (Mosab Shawer/Activestills)

Israel’s roadblocks are choking emergency care in the West Bank

With proliferating closures, checkpoints, and settler attacks, Palestinian medics say routine ambulance journeys have become life-or-death ordeals.

By Shatha Yaish August 13, 2026

Samuel's Tomb in the Palestinian village of Nabi Samwil, occupied West Bank, April 28, 2014. (Keren Manor/Activestills)

Israel seizing West Bank heritage sites ‘piece by piece’

The army is expropriating thousands of dunams in Sebastia and Nabi Samwil, using archaeology as a pretext to further isolate Palestinian communities.

By Shatha Yaish July 24, 2026

Palestinian doctor Hussam Abu Safiya, captured and detained by the Israeli army in Gaza in December 2024 and still in detention appears via video conference for his Israeli Supreme Court hearing in Jerusalem, June 10, 2026. (Abeer Salman)

‘His only crime is that he is a Palestinian doctor’

Fourteen Gazan physicians remain in Israeli prisons without charge, where they say they have been singled out for particularly severe abuse.

By Shatha Yaish June 17, 2026

Israeli tanks seen during an Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, February 19, 2025. (Nasser Ishtayeh/Flash90)

In first since Oslo, Israel seizing land for army base inside West Bank city

The seizure order, near Jenin refugee camp, is the latest move aimed at expanding military and settler presence in the north of the occupied territory.

By Shatha Yaish May 27, 2026

Fakhri Abu Diab, beside the rubble of his house that the Jerusalem Municipality demolished in 2024, Al-Bustan, Silwan, occupied East Jerusalem. (Faiz Abu Rmeleh)

In East Jerusalem, ‘a whole Palestinian community is about to be expelled’

Israel is forcing out Al-Bustan’s 1,500 residents to build a biblical theme park. To avoid paying huge fines, families are demolishing their own homes.

By Shatha Yaish May 1, 2026

A Palestinian man casts his ballot during local elections, on the outskirts of the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, January 23, 2021. (Nasser Ishtayeh/Flash90)

What’s at stake as Palestinians go to the polls for the first time in years

With local elections set to take place across the West Bank and one city in Gaza, residents are split as to the vote's legitimacy and potential for change.

By Shatha Yaish and Ibtisam Mahdi April 24, 2026

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attends a press conference announcing his plans to approve more than 3,000 housing units in the E1 settlement project between Jerusalem and Ma’ale Adumim, August 14, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

As the world recognizes a Palestinian state, Israel’s E1 plan moves to bury it

The long-frozen settlement project would sever East Jerusalem from the West Bank, fragment Palestinian communities, and advance permanent annexation.

By Shatha Yaish September 12, 2025

Bulldozers operated by Israeli settlers and soldiers uproot olive trees near the village of Al-Mughayyir, in the occupied West Bank, August 23, 2025. (Avishay Mohar/Activestills)

Israeli army, settlers unite in collective punishment of Al-Mughayyir

The siege of the West Bank village and destruction of its olive groves were a joint exercise in intimidation and re-engineering of Palestinian space.

By Oren Ziv and Shatha Yaish August 27, 2025

B’Tselem and PHRI hold a press conference announcing their respective reports on the ongoing genocide in Gaza, Jerusalem, July 27, 2025. (Flash90)

‘Our genocide’: Israeli rights groups abandon their restraint on Gaza

After months of hesitation, B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel assert that the war is meant to erase Palestinian life — now and in the future.

By Shatha Yaish July 31, 2025

A sit-in protest in Hebron in front of the headquarters of the International Red Cross Committee against the arrest of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya and the targeting of medical personnel in the Gaza Strip, Jan. 9, 2025. (Mosab Shawer/Activestills)

Israel brutally detaining Gaza hospital director as ‘bargaining chip,’ says lawyer

Held without charge for 7 months, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya has been beaten, starved, isolated, and cut off from his family. His freedom is nowhere in sight.

By Shatha Yaish July 22, 2025