Time in Palestine

How many times does Palestine have?

The IANA database lists 2 separate zone areas for Palestine. Grouped by the time they actually show through 2026, that makes one clock for the whole country, listed above. Every area is on UTC+2 in January.

2 of the 2 areas change their clocks during the year. Open an area to see its dates.

Planning across the country

When you fix a call or a broadcast for people in several parts of Palestine, give the time with its zone, or use the converter to show every zone at once.

Where most people are

The towns of 15,000 people or more in Palestine hold about 2.2 million people between them (GeoNames figures), and all of them read the same clock: UTC+2. The largest is Gaza.

Why several areas, if the clock is the same?

Every part of Palestine shows the same time today. The time zone database still keeps 2 separate entries, because at some point in the past these places kept different times, or changed their clocks on different dates. Software needs the separate entries to work out old dates correctly. For today and for the future, you can treat the country as one time zone.

The sun across Palestine

Clocks are set by law, but the sun keeps its own time. In Gaza, the most westerly of the main cities (about 34.5° east), the sun is highest at about 11:42 am by the clock in January. In Hebron, the most easterly (about 35.1° east), it is highest at about 11:40 am. The closer that figure is to 12:00, the better the clock fits the daylight in that city.

Palestine and the rest of the world

When it is 12:00 noon in Gaza, it is 3:30 pm in India in January and 2:30 pm in July; 10:00 am in London; 5:00 am in New York. Other parts of Palestine are earlier or later than that by the amounts in the table at the top of this page.

Clock changes in 2026

In Gaza the dates are: Saturday 28 March 2026: at 2:00 am clocks go forward 1 hour to 3:00 am; Saturday 24 October 2026: at 2:00 am clocks go back 1 hour to 1:00 am.