Theme: Israel

Israeli President Isaac Herzog accepted the certified results of last week’s parliamentary elections and began consultations with party leaders on whom to task with forming the next government. “Now is the time to face reality,” Herzog said. Eight parties, including the two Arab-led factions, are scheduled to meet Herzog on Thursday, with Eisenkot’s Yashar and Netanyahu’s Likud speaking last — after the consultations, Herzog will choose the candidate he believes is most likely to be able to form a coalition, most likely Netanyahu or Eisenkot, and has several days to announce his decision.

Republicans lost the midterm elections because of the war with Iran, United States Vice President JD Vance said. According to Vance, many of those who voted for Trump and Vance in 2024 voted for Democrats in 2026, demanding an end to the war, a focus on the cost of living, priority to the United States and a change in the relationship with Israel. Voter frustration over the war and the relationship with Israel sealed the defeat, in a distancing from Donald Trump — who acknowledged the weight of gasoline prices but defended the decision to start the conflict — ahead of a possible 2028 White House bid.

United States President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that he reached an agreement with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu several months ago to end approximately US$ 4 billion in annual US military aid to Israel by December 2026 — according to Trump, Netanyahu proposed ending the aid. The current agreement guarantees Israel US$ 3.8 billion per year through fiscal year 2028, with implementation of the cut still undefined, and beyond 2028 the country would need about US$ 10 billion to pay for outstanding orders, according to a State Department document sent to Congress and reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. El-Sayed said Trump is right on this policy and argued for ending sales of weaponry to Israel, in an interview with NPR.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog sent a warning letter last month to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top officials about a “highly explosive and dangerous reality” in the West Bank and the “moral disgrace” of settler violence, according to the Times of Israel, which says it obtained the letter. The letter was also sent to Foreign Minister Israel Katz, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir and Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, and says that IDF commanders, police officers and Shin Bet personnel report “limited tools and a shortage of manpower”. Herzog warned that a flare-up on the ground is liable to carry “severe and far-reaching consequences” for Israel's security, its functioning as a sovereign state, its international standing, Diaspora Jewry and the Israeli economy. He called for the perpetrators to be treated as members of a criminal organization and for a plan with a mass deployment of security forces, widespread arrests, administrative detentions and the dismantling of the groups. Settler violence has surged in recent months, with near-daily attacks and harassment and few perpetrators charged or convicted.

The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said that 1,134 children in Gaza have undergone amputations as of October 9, 2026. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 2,300 amputees — both children and adults — were assessed between September 2024 and May 2026, and only 500 received permanent prosthetics. The nongovernmental organization (NGO) said Israeli restrictions on patient travel and medical evacuations prevent hundreds of children from seeking specialized treatment abroad. According to the organization, only eight certified prosthetics and orthotics professionals are currently available in Gaza, and there is a lack of equipment to make, fit and maintain artificial limbs. The group accused Israel of war crimes and framed the amputation of children and the obstruction of treatment as acts listed in Article 2 of the Genocide Convention.

The Degel HaTorah faction of the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism (UTJ) party announced that it will not recommend any candidate for prime minister in consultations with President Isaac Herzog, following instructions from its spiritual leaders. The decision by a longtime ally of Benjamin Netanyahu deepens the rift with the prime minister, prompted by the coalition’s failure to pass a law enshrining military service exemptions for Haredi men. Herzog is consulting parties on whom to task with forming the next government and told party leaders that “not every commitment and promise can be fulfilled” if they want to avoid a new election. Gadi Eisenkot is expected to get the mandate, and the Arab party Ra’am has confirmed it will endorse him. UTJ is scheduled to meet Herzog on Thursday, and it remains unclear whether the Agudat Yisrael faction will recommend Netanyahu or also abstain.

Retired Indian judge Srinivasan Muralidhar, chair of the UN Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, said the panel’s unequivocal conclusion was that Israeli security forces continued to commit “war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the crime of genocide” a year after the October 2025 ceasefire brokered by the United States. The report says more than 75,000 Palestinians across the Occupied Palestinian Territory have been killed since October 7, 2023, including at least 21,500 children and 11,000 women. The document was presented by Muralidhar to the UN General Assembly on October 26; according to The Hindu, he could not present the report in person because the United States denied him a visa. The report calls on UN member states to “employ all means” to prevent the genocide, investigate and prosecute suspects, and establish clear rules for the use of artificial intelligence in conflicts.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that “there are strong suspicions that foreign states have invested considerable sums to influence the results of the elections in Israel”, in a video recorded in front of an Israeli flag and the Prime Minister’s Office logo. On Wednesday morning, the Central Elections Committee announced that its post-election review, which covered protocols from 9,069 polling stations, found no irregularities or evidence that the integrity of the vote had been compromised or the results altered. MK Ayman Odeh, the former leader of Hadash and the Joint List, was identified as the senior Arab lawmaker suspected of receiving hundreds of thousands of shekels in cash from a foreign source. Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara publicly rebuked the attempt, attributed to Shin Bet chief David Zini, to question lawmakers without sufficient evidence, and said it is illegal to question anyone, including lawmakers, without sufficient evidence. National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir declared that all Arab party leaders should be arrested and questioned “in Shin Bet basement cells,” even without the attorney general’s approval.

Opposition bloc leader Gadi Eisenkot vowed to renew and deepen the partnership with the United States and said he looked forward to working with Donald Trump to stabilize the Middle East if he becomes prime minister. Likud and its allies no longer hold a majority of the Knesset's 120 seats, meaning Benjamin Netanyahu must widen the coalition if he wants to stay in power. President Isaac Herzog has said he will do everything in his power to avoid a new election, whose cost is estimated at over US$ 1 billion.

Democrat Abdul El-Sayed defeated Republican Mike Rogers in Michigan to become the first Muslim elected to the US Senate, as his party reclaimed control of Congress. He said he wants the United States to stop selling weaponry that gets used to do “the worst things, including genocide and apartheid, to Israel.” The US provides Israel with $3.8 billion in annual military aid under an agreement that runs through 2028, and President Donald Trump announced plans to end roughly $4 billion in annual military aid to Israel by the end of the year, though he offered no details on how the cuts would work.

US Vice President JD Vance attributed the Republican defeat in the midterm elections to the war with Iran, in a lengthy post on X: “The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night.” Vance cited a survey according to which the top four answers from voters who left the Republicans were ending the war, cost of living and inflation, putting America first and changing the relationship with Israel. He wrote that anyone who considers the war a cost worth paying should defend it openly, including losing the Senate for the next six years. Trump said that “Iran was a piece of it” and defended the decision to launch the conflict: “I don’t think about it. I did the right thing. I would do it again.” AFP described the move as an attempt by Vance to distance himself from the conflict ahead of a possible 2028 White House run.

US President Donald Trump said in a Fox News interview that he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had reached an agreement to cut off military aid to Israel by December 2026. Avner Golov, former head of US affairs at Israel’s National Security Council, warned that ending the aid by the end of 2026 would signal a retreat from America’s commitment to Israel’s security. Abdul El-Sayed welcomed Trump’s plan to cut the aid and called for an end to arms sales.

Dozens of Palestinian families returned to their homes in the southern West Bank city of Hebron on Monday after the Israeli army announced the end of its 11-day military operation. Approximately 537 families, comprising nearly 3,300 people, had been forced to leave their homes since the operation began, according to the Support and Relief Committee in Hebron Governorate. Residents reported the theft of gold jewelry, cash and personal belongings, as well as broken doors and damaged household contents. Hebron Mayor Yousef al-Jabari estimated damage to municipal facilities and utility networks at around six million shekels (around $1.9m), and Abdo Idris, head of the Hebron Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said daily losses exceeded 12 million shekels (about $3.8 million), with infrastructure damage surpassing six million shekels. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the operation after Palestinian gunmen killed two Israeli soldiers at a Hebron checkpoint on October 23, according to Reuters, in a text republished by The News.

Israel’s President Isaac Herzog formally received the official results of the election to the 26th Knesset, and consultations with the parties on forming a government begin on Wednesday evening, November 4, a date that marks 31 years since the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Herzog urged compromise after a divisive election. On Israeli Arab society, he said that “one must not smear an entire public” and that he condemns “the vulgar and racist expressions” heard recently. He also said he respects the head of the Shin Bet, David Zini, and the attorney general, Gali Baharav-Miara, and that he spoke with both of them this morning.

Israel’s Central Elections Committee conducted an audit of 9,069 polling stations following fraud complaints and said the results “accurately reflect the will of the voters,” according to the South China Morning Post (SCMP). The committee said all complaints submitted by political factions had been reviewed and that there were no findings indicating harm to the integrity of the election. President Isaac Herzog will at noon officially receive the results of the October 27 election as he decides whether to give Benjamin Netanyahu or Gadi Eisenkot the first chance to form a government, with neither commanding enough votes alone. Netanyahu has alleged fraud by Arab-majority parties, pointing to the arrests of people with envelopes of cash on election day and later saying lawmakers received money from Qatar. Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara said she would not question anyone without evidence.

A poll by the Doha-based Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies and the Arab Center for Contemporary Syria Studies found that 61 percent of respondents named Israel as the main threat to Syria, against 20 percent who named Iran, 6 percent Turkey and 5 percent the United States; the results were published on Monday. Some 97 percent said Israel threatens the security and stability of the Middle East, up from 78 percent a year earlier. Almost 80 percent oppose recognizing Israel, up from 74 percent in 2025, and 74 percent oppose any agreement that does not return the occupied Golan Heights. On the US-Israel war on Iran, 80 percent said Iranian missile strikes on Israel were justified, and three-quarters said Washington had waged the war on Israel's behalf.

According to Middle East Eye, the World Medical Association faces strong criticism for refusing to suspend the Israeli Medical Association despite documented allegations of complicity by Israeli doctors in the torture of Palestinian detainees and abuses in Gaza; a petition by 6,500 medical personnel from the IMA Out! campaign was presented to the General Assembly in Rotterdam last month calling for expulsion; the last suspension came in 1976, when South Africa was blocked from two assemblies over doctors’ complicity in torture under apartheid; and the Hind Rajab Foundation asked the International Criminal Court last month to investigate Israeli doctors, the IMA and officials from the health and defense ministries.

Israel’s Shin Bet and police arrested senior Balad activist and journalist Abed Abu Shehadeh in Jaffa on Wednesday over suspected security violations — an arrest Balad chairman Sami Abu Shehadeh called a “grave crime,” accusing Netanyahu of trying to hijack the election result. Around 15 security personnel, some masked, stormed the house at midnight and arrested him in front of his two children, seizing electronic devices and books, in a case under the Tel Aviv Central Unit and the Shin Bet with a court publication ban as a security-related investigation; the Central Elections Committee certified the result on Wednesday with no evidence of irregularities undermining the election’s integrity.

With 99% of ballots counted, Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud and its far-right and ultra-Orthodox allies won 53 seats in the 120-seat Knesset. The opposing bloc holds 48 seats from former military chief Gadi Eisenkot’s right-wing and center-left factions and a record 19 seats from the two Arab-dominated parties. The new Knesset convenes on November 10 and President Isaac Herzog is expected to give Eisenkot — whose Yashar is the largest in the anti-Netanyahu bloc — the mandate to form a government, while caretaker Netanyahu faces no special legal restrictions on military operations and could legally authorize an attack on Iran despite lacking a parliamentary majority, subject to ordinary procedures.

Donald Trump told Fox News that he made a deal with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stop the $4 billion in annual aid to Israel, aid appropriated by Congress that he cannot end unilaterally, according to the broadcaster’s White House correspondent, saying that it was Netanyahu who proposed ending the aid, under the current agreement of $38 billion in military aid over ten years, through 2028, which surprised Israeli defense sources. Neither Netanyahu’s office nor Israel’s Foreign Ministry confirmed the move, and the US Department of State did not respond to Al Jazeera.

Israel’s Defense Ministry began this month upgrading the “Hourglass” security fence along the Gaza Strip, the Jerusalem Post reported, based on lessons from the October 7 attack and the war against Hezbollah. One of the five work fronts integrates technologies and methods to counter very low-altitude threats, particularly fiber-optic drones used by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. The 64-kilometer fence had been criticized after being breached at dozens of locations.

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid said what was happening was “an attempt to crush democracy and steal the election with the help of government plants in the security system” and called it “a direct threat to our democracy,” urging state institutions to stand firm and a government to be formed as quickly as possible. The remarks came amid reports that Shin Bet chief David Zini sought to question three Palestinian party leaders over suspected foreign interference in the election, and that authorities found no evidence for the claims. Palestinian-led parties won 19 of the Knesset’s 120 seats, which kept Benjamin Netanyahu and Gadi Eisenkot from reaching the 61 needed to form a government.

The 16 representatives of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc on the Central Elections Committee wrote to Sohlberg asking for an urgent discussion of suspected vote-buying by Arab suspects, according to the Times of Israel — Sohlberg, also the Supreme Court deputy president, replied that nobody has legal power to delay the official publication and set Wednesday’s meeting for 9 a.m., earlier than scheduled, for a fuller discussion. The pro-Netanyahu bloc won 53 seats, with 27 for Likud, while the other 67 seats split between Jewish-led parties, with 48, and Arab-led parties, with 19.

Israel provided the United States with intelligence indicating that Iran is considering using chemical weapons against its adversaries, The New York Times reported, citing American and regional officials. Some senior U.S. officials received the intelligence with concern, while others expressed deep skepticism, viewing it as part of a pressure campaign by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to resume large-scale fighting. Gulf officials questioned the Israeli assessments and said Israel had presented no evidence that Iran is making its chemical arsenal operational. Israel’s Home Front Command did not include chemical-weapons scenarios in this week’s exercises nor distribute protective guidance, and the Israeli military declined to comment. Tehran denies possessing chemical weapons and calls the accusations psychological warfare by Israel and Netanyahu.

Officials at Israel’s finance ministry were surprised by Trump’s announcement ending US military aid, according to the Times of Israel, in a report carried by Middle East Eye. An official said no formal document from the prime minister’s office was submitted about the move: “The ministry was aware of the intention to end it, but was surprised by the intention to do so immediately.” Defense ministry officials and the military were also surprised by the announcement, according to the same report.

Al Jazeera journalist Montaser Nassar was detained in raids near Hebron, in the occupied West Bank, according to the network itself.

Israel’s attorney general, Gali Baharav-Miara, asked the Shin Bet to report on the progress of its investigation into claims of electoral fraud by parties of Palestinian citizens of Israel and said no evidence had been submitted so far, according to Middle East Eye. In a statement sent to the media by her spokesperson, she said that if the Shin Bet or any other authority holds evidence that would justify opening an investigation, it is invited to present it.

Yair Golan, leader of the Democrats party, called an “enormous failure” the decision by US President Donald Trump to end military aid to Israel and said a responsible prime minister would have fought to increase US assistance, not end it. Golan is the second Israeli opposition figure to attack Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of the episode, after Gadi Eisenkot said he must be replaced. Trump said he had reached an agreement on the issue with Netanyahu.

Gadi Eisenkot of the Yashar party has so far secured 48 party recommendations to form Israel’s next government, against 46 for Benjamin Netanyahu, according to the Jerusalem Post, with consultations with President Isaac Herzog set for Wednesday and Thursday. The ultra-Orthodox Shas party and two far-right parties said on Tuesday they would recommend Netanyahu. Netanyahu’s bloc holds 53 seats in the 120-member Knesset, against 48 for the opposition and 19 for Arab parties, leaving neither side with the 61-seat majority needed to govern. Opposition leaders agreed to recommend Eisenkot and begin negotiations on policy guidelines and coalition agreements. Arab parties have not yet confirmed their recommendations.

Israel informed the United Nations (UN) and the Egyptian committee on Monday evening that it is imposing a “complete and comprehensive” closure of the Rafah crossing, blocking humanitarian aid, commercial shipments, food, fuel and cooking gas entering Gaza through the Egyptian route, according to Drop Site News. The route handles 50 to 60 trucks a day, and fuel and gas come entirely through it, according to the outlet. The October 2025 ceasefire agreement calls for 600 aid trucks a day in Gaza, but Israel had been allowing an average of around 200.

Israeli forces accompanied by heavy machinery raided the Haska Road area northwest of Hebron in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday and demolished five Palestinian-owned commercial businesses, local sources said. Nearly 750,000 Israeli settlers live in 156 illegal settlements and around 360 outposts across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, according to Palestinian figures.

Israeli opposition candidate Gadi Eisenkot said on Tuesday that the phaseout of US aid announced by US President Donald Trump shows that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must be replaced. For him, the fact that Israel’s defense establishment is learning of a shift in the strategic relationship through the media, at the same time as the Israeli public, shows “how dangerous Benjamin Netanyahu’s conduct is” and that he “can no longer be trusted”.

Israeli air strikes and artillery fire hit the outskirts of the town of Aita al-Jabal, in southern Lebanon’s Bint Jbeil district, according to the Lebanese national news agency. Israeli forces also opened machine-gun fire toward the entrance of Kunin, a town in the same district.

At least seven flights and a cruise ship in Europe received bomb threats on Tuesday, causing disruption at airports, and no devices were discovered. Two flights to Warsaw, two to Sofia, two to Rome and one to Murcia airport in Spain were targeted; an airport in Warsaw was briefly shut and the Italian Air Force accompanied one of the flights to Rome. The UK government described the incidents as “malicious hoax threats,” and authorities from various countries will cooperate to assess whether this was a coordinated action designed to disrupt airspace. The Panama-flagged cruise ship Crown Iris, preparing to depart the Greek port of Syros for Haifa, was searched by a bomb disposal team and had 940 passengers and 597 crew members on board. According to Greek media, the captain received a warning directly by radio saying that an explosive device had been placed on the hull below the waterline; an initial search found no suspicious objects, and a second, more thorough inspection by the Coast Guard’s underwater missions unit was expected.

Israel has shared with the United States intelligence asserting that Iran is considering the use of chemical weapons against its adversaries, information met with alarm by some American officials, according to The New York Times. According to JFeed, which reports the contents of the article, some US officials expressed deep skepticism about the information’s credibility, and some compared it to the flawed 2002 intelligence on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. Some American and Gulf officials suggested that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may be trying to draw President Donald Trump back into military action against Iran. According to the newspaper, Trump said he would not order an attack before Tuesday’s midterm elections.

France has opened a judicial investigation into a war crimes complaint over an Israeli strike on a residential building in Lebanon, according to the complainant’s lawyer, Clemence Bectarte, speaking to AFP. French-Lebanese artist Ali Cherri, whose parents were killed in the Beirut strike in 2024, filed the complaint as a civil party this year with the International Federation for Human Rights. The crimes against humanity unit of the Paris Judicial Court appointed two investigating judges to the case, a decision the lawyer called “a first.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party and other factions of the outgoing coalition are seeking to delay the publication of the official election results, citing two ongoing investigations into suspected election irregularities. The chairman of the Central Elections Committee, Noam Sohlberg, insisted that the committee is not empowered to delay the publication, which under Basic Law: The Knesset must occur eight days after the election. Netanyahu’s coalition of ultra-Orthodox and far-right parties lost its Knesset majority, winning a combined 53 seats; Likud was again the largest party, with 27. The other 67 seats are split between Jewish-led parties (48) and Arab-led parties (19). Once the result is published, Herzog will have seven days to assign the task of trying to form a new government.

Israel’s finance ministry was unaware of any plans to immediately end US military assistance before President Donald Trump’s announcement on Tuesday, according to Israel’s Channel 12. The $3.8bn in annual aid was expected to provide a significant source of funding for Israel’s defense budget in 2027 and 2028, Channel 12 economics correspondent Yuval Sade reported. In the same interview in which he spoke about the strike on Iran, Trump announced that the US would end $4 billion in funding to Israel after the end of this year.

Israel’s military chief of staff, Eyal Zamir, is resisting a new joint offensive with the United States against Iran, according to Haaretz, in a text published by Opera Mundi. Zamir had already opposed Benjamin Netanyahu’s intention to attack Iran before the October 27 legislative elections. Opposition leader and former chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot said that, until a new government is formed, he would back military operations “only in the event of a clear and imminent danger to Israel that cannot wait for the new government to take office”. Also according to Haaretz, Netanyahu openly advocates toppling the Iranian government, while Donald Trump seeks to press the country into a deal more favorable to US interests that would restrict its nuclear program and allow the Strait of Hormuz to reopen.

Israeli forces prevented all cooking gas shipments from entering the Gaza Strip on Sunday and sent the trucks back empty, according to the Palestinian outlet Palinfo. Gaza’s General Petroleum Authority said no cooking gas entered the territory throughout the day and that the trucks were sent back without delivering their supplies. On Tuesday, Israeli forces blocked the entry of commercial goods and humanitarian aid from Egypt through the Rafah crossing, cutting off a route that accounts for nearly one-fifth of the goods entering the besieged territory each day. Even when deliveries are permitted, the territory receives only four or five trucks of cooking gas per day, far below the more than 20 needed to meet daily demand.

The Palestinian Prisoners Society and the fiancée of detainee Hassan Salameh, Ghufran Zamel, said Israeli prison guards shot him nine times last month. According to them, the assault came after National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir stormed his cell and filmed himself threatening to kill him. The type of ammunition used and the precise circumstances of the shooting remain unclear. According to Zamel, three days after the assault Salameh was taken to have his injuries photographed and was then returned to his cell without medical treatment and given only painkillers. In 1996, Israel convicted Salameh of orchestrating several bombings that killed and wounded scores of Israelis, and he was sentenced to 48 life terms. He has spent 14 years in solitary confinement since his imprisonment 30 years ago.

Somaliland President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi formally accepted the credentials of ambassador Michael Lotem at a ceremony in Hargeisa, the territory’s capital, where officials also laid the cornerstone for an Israeli embassy. Israel is the only state in the world to have recognized Somaliland, which also enjoys substantial economic ties to the United Arab Emirates. The mutual recognition between the two countries was signed on December 26, 2025. Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said the appointment of ambassadors is another important step in deepening the ties between the two countries. Abdullahi said during the ceremony that it was the first time a Somaliland president had received the credentials of an ambassador from a UN member state recognizing its independence.

A spokesman for Benjamin Netanyahu said he did not know about Donald Trump’s statement that American military aid to Israel would end and that he would check for details. The aid follows a memorandum of understanding of $3.8 billion a year that is approaching its expiration in 2028, with conversations under way on how Washington’s assistance to Israel would evolve beyond that date. Trump, who announced on Tuesday the cut of $4 billion a year at the end of this year, said Netanyahu brought the matter up and that the prime minister said it would be appropriate not to receive the aid because he understands that this is one of the points of contention. Yair Golan, head of the left-wing Democrats party, said the end of American aid deals a severe blow to Israel’s security and to the quality of life in the country.

The leaders of Israel’s four Jewish opposition parties met in Herzliya on Tuesday and agreed to immediately launch coalition negotiations and coordinate their parliamentary strategy ahead of the new Knesset’s swearing-in next week. Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc lost its parliamentary majority, but the Jewish opposition parties hold just 48 seats to his 53; they can command a majority only with the support of the two Arab parties, which won a combined 19 seats. The leaders reaffirmed their support for recommending that President Isaac Herzog give Gadi Eisenkot the first chance to form a government and agreed that negotiating teams will begin drafting coalition agreements and policy guidelines. The first item on the parliamentary agenda will be replacing Likud’s Amir Ohana as Knesset speaker, which would open the way for a state commission of inquiry into the Hamas-led attack in southern Israel on October 7, 2023. Likud said the opposition intends to form a “dangerous government” reliant on “supporters of terrorism.” The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) Unit 730, responsible for protecting senior officials, is set to directly take over security arrangements for Eisenkot, senior sources confirmed to The Jerusalem Post.

Gaza’s interior ministry said police officers were killed and wounded in an Israeli air strike near the southern city of Khan Younis. The Palestinian Health Ministry counted 19 Palestinians killed in the Gaza Strip since Saturday, six of them in the previous 24 hours, after 13 deaths over the weekend. Among Tuesday’s deaths were a Palestinian who succumbed to his wounds after the bombing of the displacement camp where he was staying in Khan Younis, and another killed in an air strike on a group at the University College of Applied Sciences in the same city.

US President Donald Trump said in an interview with Fox News that he struck a deal with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the $4 billion annual military aid to Israel, with the commitment to stop paying the country by the end of this year and to help if needed, according to Reuters, in a text republished by The Jerusalem Post. Trump said Israel no longer needed financial support from Washington and that Democrats and left-wing politicians were using the funding for Israel to criticize Republicans.

The French judiciary opened a judicial investigation into a war crimes complaint over an Israeli strike on a residential building in Lebanon, according to a lawyer who spoke to AFP on Tuesday. The crimes against humanity unit of the Paris Judicial Court appointed two investigating judges to the case, a move the lawyer described as a first. The complaint, seen by AFP, concerns the November 26, 2024 bombing that killed seven civilians, including Cherri's parents, aged 87 and 77, in a 12-story building in central Beirut; three floors were destroyed.

Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot ruled out joining a government led by Benjamin Netanyahu even if US President Donald Trump asks him to. “I will not sit in a government led by Netanyahu,” he was quoted as saying. According to the same account, he would attend if invited by Trump but would argue that forming a government is Israel's internal affair and that he would prevent any interference. With anticipated endorsements from the Joint List and Ra'am, Eisenkot could secure recommendations from 67 of the 120 Knesset members, against 53 for Netanyahu's alliance.

A billboard towering over the busy Enghelab Square in Tehran reads “We will kill Trump”, depicting the US president behind bars with his head bowed. Another billboard nearby shows Trump alongside Vice President JD Vance, special envoy Steve Witkoff and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with bloodied faces and ragged suits against the background of worn-out Israeli and US flags. Since the war began on February 28, when US and Israeli strikes killed the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, new designs of billboards mocking Trump and vowing revenge have frequently been set up around Tehran.

The Palestinian ministry said, according to TRT World, that Israeli attacks killed 22 students and education workers in Gaza in October. Damage to schools, fuel shortages and restrictions on supplies and travel are further disrupting education across the enclave, with officials warning that the system faces collapse.

Israeli forces have killed at least four Palestinians in attacks across Gaza, and a fifth person died of wounds sustained in an earlier assault, according to medical sources and media reports. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, Israeli attacks have killed at least 1,593 Palestinians and wounded 5,748 since the US-brokered ceasefire began in October 2025. Overall, Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 74,609 Palestinians and wounded 175,872, according to the same ministry. Indiscriminate Israeli gunfire from military positions, tanks and quadcopter drones has killed and wounded hundreds of civilians since the ceasefire, particularly displaced families living near the so-called Yellow Line.

An Israeli military order issued on October 28 placed 26,500 m² of land in the villages of Deir Nizam, Umm Safa and Atara under military control, for “military purposes,” according to the Palestinian Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission. The land is designated for a route called the Ateret–Neve Tzuf emergency axis, intended to connect illegal Israeli settlement sites in the area, and the order will remain in effect until the end of 2028. The commission said 5,891 m², or around 22.3 percent of the seized area, are classified by Israeli authorities as “state land,” while another 20,582 m² fall outside that classification.

Leaders of the so-called change bloc are meeting on Tuesday morning in Herzliya to coordinate the bloc’s next steps, in the first meeting since the election, with the bloc holding 48 seats against 53 for Benjamin Netanyahu’s camp, 27 of them from Likud, with all leaders saying by Monday that they will back Gadi Eisenkot to form the next government, while Netanyahu said a clear majority of the Jewish public chose Likud as the largest party and chose him to lead the next government — Arab lists hold a record 19 seats, 8 for Ra’am and 11 for the Joint List, with Arab-Israeli turnout at some 80%, compared with 53.2% in the 2022 election, while President Isaac Herzog urged leaders to accept the result and find creative solutions to avoid a new election, and Naftali Bennett’s B’Yachad faction announced support for Eisenkot.

Israel's Shin Bet security agency is investigating suspicions that the Palestinian Authority transferred money to members of Arab political parties in an attempt to influence Israel's October 27 election, according to N12, in a report by the Jerusalem Post. The investigation remains at a preliminary stage, with investigators yet to establish whether money was transferred, how much was involved or what its intended purpose was.

The UN General Assembly's First Committee approved on Monday, November 2, by 180 votes in favor, two against and no abstentions, a draft resolution on conventional arms control at the regional and subregional levels. India and Israel were the only countries to vote against the text in the 193-member body. An Indian representative argued that “this assumes that the security concerns of States politely stop at their regional borders. They do not”.

Yashar party chairman Gadi Eisenkot ruled out joining a government led by Benjamin Netanyahu, refusing even if US President Donald Trump personally asked him to, according to public broadcaster KAN; at a closed-door meeting he said he would not sit in a government led by Netanyahu, while opposition leaders Naftali Bennett, Yair Golan and Avigdor Liberman announced they would recommend Eisenkot to President Isaac Herzog to form a government.

The Israel Football Association accused Republic of Ireland head coach Heimir Hallgrímsson of “hypocrisy and stupidity” over comments about the upcoming Nations League fixtures between the two countries. Israel plans to file a complaint with UEFA against Ireland over the coach’s “genocide” remarks.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei ordered the armed forces on Saturday to give an “immediate, effective and with no geographic limits” response to any threat from the United States and Israel, according to the EFE news agency, in a text republished by swissinfo.ch.

Israeli soldiers blindfolded, handcuffed and arrested Al Jazeera correspondent Montaser Nassar during a raid on his home in Dura, south of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, Al Jazeera reported.

Israeli citizen Moriah Dahan, 35, a resident of West Hills in Los Angeles, was arrested on Monday on suspicion of voting in the November 2024 American presidential election without American citizenship, according to the Jerusalem Post, citing the United States Justice Department. It is the second case in a short period involving an Israeli, and six new defendants brought the total charged in California under the operation to 34.

Prosecutors intend to charge Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s chief of staff, Tzachi Braverman, over his role in the 2024 leak of classified documents to the German newspaper Bild, after he allegedly tipped off the affair’s chief suspect, Eli Feldstein, about the investigation — according to the Times of Israel, citing Hebrew media.

Israel has asked the Lebanese government to deploy troops to set up roadblocks in areas where Hezbollah operatives live, to prevent the group from joining a new war with Iran, according to an Israeli broadcaster cited by The Times of Israel. The request was relayed by US mediators, with the warning that fighting in Lebanon will flare up again if Hezbollah attacks Israel.

Israeli forces launched raids on several towns in the occupied West Bank late on Monday, according to local sources. Among the targets are Qabatiya, south of Jenin, and the city of Qalqilya.

Israeli forces advanced into the village of al-Asbah in rural southern Quneitra with five military vehicles, according to a Syria TV report published by Middle East Eye. According to Sijil, a Syrian initiative tracking Israeli violations in the country, Israeli forces committed seven violations on Monday before the latest incursion, including other incursions, checkpoints and aircraft overflights.

The European Union (EU) described as a deliberate attempt to disrupt the bloc’s food chain the cyberattack that hit refrigeration settings on supermarket freezers in at least eight countries, including Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Israel’s National Cyber Directorate warned retail chains, food companies and logistics centers because of the wave of attacks, and a retailer reported freezers reaching 50 degrees Celsius.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), created in 1978, has around 7,500 peacekeepers from 46 countries and a mandate until December 31, 2026, with personnel due to leave over the following year and their positions gradually handed over to the Lebanese army, according to RT. The decision to end the mission followed pressure from the United States and Israel, which accuse the force of failing to contain Hezbollah, and a resident of the south told RT that UNIFIL failed to protect local residents but he warned that the absence of peacekeepers would create a “security vacuum” that Israel would seek to exploit.

Israel's National Security Minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, accused Police Commissioner Daniel Levy on Monday of ordering “harsh violence” against Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) protesters to appease the opposition after last week's election. Ben Gvir also petitioned the High Court to cancel an April injunction that forbids him from interfering in the police's use of force. On Thursday, three protesters were arrested after a Haredi protest near Bnei Brak turned violent, leaving three police officers wounded and several protesters injured.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pushing for a new wave of strikes on Iran after Tuesday's midterm elections in the United States, according to two regional officials and a third person familiar with the matter. In a weekend call, he pressed President Donald Trump to strike, and Trump would not commit to taking military action, according to a person briefed on the conversation. Sources told Axios that Netanyahu is pressing Trump to strike Iran immediately after the elections; for now, Trump wants to let negotiations play out — a strategy that concerns Netanyahu.

October has already recorded the highest monthly number of settler attacks resulting in casualties or property damage since documentation began in 2006, with 397 incidents between October 1 and 26, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Between October 20 and 26, 62 settler attacks were documented across 49 West Bank communities, including 38 related to the olive harvest.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on Monday night for parties that oppose terrorism to sit with Likud and form a “broad national government” in a social media post and said he should lead the government, since Likud won the most seats in parliament. Likud won 27 seats, with Netanyahu’s bloc at 53 overall; Yashar, led by Gadi Eisenkot, won 21 seats and its bloc 48; the Arab parties won 19. Netanyahu said the broad government should be formed without the Arab lists.

The chairman of Israel’s Central Elections Committee, Justice Noam Sohlberg, rejected on Monday Likud’s demand for a briefing on suspected foreign interference before approving the election results. Likud wanted to delay certification of the election results amid a foreign interference probe.

Israeli security forces arrested 18 settlers who rioted and attacked troops during the evacuation of an illegal outpost in the West Bank, according to the Israeli military. The military announced on Monday evening that the detainees are suspected of assaulting security personnel working to halt construction at the outpost.

Five Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes and gunfire across the Gaza Strip on Monday, according to the Palestinian Civil Defense, and the Israeli army said it had targeted “several terrorists” in the territory. The Palestinian agency Wafa counted the five deaths in different areas of the Gaza Strip since Monday morning, one of them a wounded man who succumbed to his injuries, along with several other wounded.

Prosecutors from 10 EU member states — Spain, France, Italy, Portugal, Belgium, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Sweden and Finland — plus Australia are cooperating and sharing information on complaints of torture, kidnapping and ill-treatment of their nationals who took part in the Global Sumud Flotilla missions, intercepted by Israel in international waters. According to legal sources who spoke to El País, the investigations target Israeli politicians, officials and military commanders, including members of Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet. Those sources say the meeting took place on September 16 in The Hague, within a framework coordinated by Eurojust, the EU's judicial cooperation agency, with Australian representatives attending as guests.

Israeli airstrikes killed at least four Palestinians on Monday in Khan Yunis, Al-Mussadar and the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City, according to medical teams and Palestinian health authorities. Gaza's Health Ministry, in figures released by Reuters, counts at least 1,580 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes since the ceasefire began in October 2025.

Tucker Carlson said Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are allegedly planning a nuclear strike on Iran's Pickax Mountain, where Israeli intelligence claims the Iranian government has restarted its nuclear enrichment program. According to Carlson, the program sits in tunnels under 300 feet of solid granite, and only a nuclear strike would penetrate them. He said Netanyahu calls Trump about it every day and that a US nuclear strike would make a third world war inevitable.

Al Jazeera condemned the Israeli authorities' decision to extend a ban on its operations in Israel for another 90 days, including the suspension of its broadcasts, the closure of its offices and the restriction of access to its websites and digital platforms. The network says the extension was based on secret material that neither the network nor its lawyers could see or contest, and calls for the ban to be lifted immediately.

Israeli strikes killed at least three Palestinians and wounded several others in the Gaza Strip on Monday, November 2, 2026, the territory's health officials said. Two people were killed and six wounded in two separate air strikes in Khan Younis, in the south of the enclave, and a third person was killed in an air strike in the town of Al-Mussadar. The Israeli military said it carried out two strikes in the enclave targeting Palestinian militants, without giving further information.

Lebanon’s agriculture minister, Nizar Hani, said Israeli attacks have caused over US$1 billion in agricultural losses in the country and damaged nearly a quarter of the farmland, or about 56,000 hectares. According to the minister, the cumulative damaged agricultural area reached 49,564 hectares, around 22% of the farmland, mostly in the South and Nabatieh governorates.

About 250 rabbis from across the United States urged Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed and former US President Barack Obama to take their concerns about El-Sayed’s position on Israel more seriously, shortly before a rally featuring the two in Detroit on October 24, 2026. The group says 4,560 people have signed its petition, including out-of-state rabbis who joined the movement in recent days.

The Democrats party announced on Monday that it would recommend Yashar leader Gadi Eisenkot to President Isaac Herzog as its candidate to form the next government, ahead of the president’s consultations with party representatives beginning Wednesday. The two other leaders in the bloc seeking to replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Naftali Bennett (B’Yachad) and Avigdor Liberman (Yisrael Beytenu), also said they would recommend Eisenkot. The election results gave 53 seats to Netanyahu’s bloc in the next Knesset and 48 to the opposition.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with US President Donald Trump on Saturday about US negotiations with Iran and pressed him to strike Iran immediately after the midterm elections on Tuesday, Axios reported, citing one Israeli and one US source. Trump said he would rather give negotiations between the two countries a chance first than bomb Iran right away, according to the same sources.

Israel’s first ambassador to Somaliland presented his credentials to the president of the breakaway territory, who formally accepted them at a ceremony in Hargeisa, where officials also laid the cornerstone for an Israeli embassy.

Former Israeli military chief Herzi Halevi said in New York on Sunday that the October 7, 2023 attack was a failure that could have been prevented, but that there was “absolutely no internal betrayal”, according to The Times of Israel.

US President Donald Trump is weighing blaming his defense and military chiefs for the handling of the war on Iran, according to a Sunday report by The Atlantic, in a text republished by the Times of Israel, while considering resuming attacks after Tuesday’s midterm elections. In a conversation described by sources as tough and direct, Netanyahu pushed Trump to restart the campaign, while Trump wanted to allow more time for negotiations, according to Axios, in a text republished by the Times of Israel.

Israeli artillery shelling hit Sarbine, Al-Mansouri, Kafr Tibnit, Al-Qantara, Beit Yahoun, Bani Hayyan and Al-Qusair in southern Lebanon, according to field sources. Israeli forces also set off an explosion in the town of Ainatha, according to the Lebanese news agency.

Hebron governor Khaled Dudin announced on Monday that Israeli forces withdrew from the city after a 10-day siege. According to him, Palestinian security forces took control of the area and displaced families can return. The Hebron Governorate reports more than 3,300 Palestinians displaced or otherwise affected and 15 homes and structures demolished in the operation, which began on October 23 after a shooting attack that killed two Israeli soldiers, wounded three and ended with both attackers killed.

Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his party “failed” to discredit the Israeli election results.

The Arab League has called for an independent international investigation into alleged torture and systematic abuses against Palestinian prisoners from the Gaza Strip held at Israel's Ramla Prison. Several detainees in the prison's Rakevet section suffered injuries and burns due to repeated acts of repression and mistreatment. The league demanded an immediate end to the abuse and urged Israel to allow unrestricted access for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and independent monitors to the prison to document conditions and provide medical care.

Demonstrators rallied in several Israeli cities on Saturday evening to demand a new government involving Arab parties, while right-wing activists held a counter-protest opposing their inclusion and calling for another election. In Haifa, right-wing Israelis protested against Arab parties joining the next government.

Former Mossad chief David Barnea said Israel intentionally released footage of its covert operation in Iran during the June 2025 conflict to provoke mass arrests and make it harder for Iranian forces to find real Israeli agents. Barnea said an official video was released on the morning of Operation Rising Lion, bearing the Mossad logo, to protect the agents who were in the field. According to him, Iranian authorities arrested 21,000 people during the operation.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said President Donald Trump prefers to resolve the war with Iran diplomatically, without resorting to military force, amid reports that both sides are preparing for new strikes after the midterm elections. In parallel, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pressed Trump for new strikes against Iran after the elections, while Trump seeks a deal to restart negotiations with Tehran and keeps preparations underway for a possible return to major combat operations, according to the Times of India, citing Axios.

Israeli electoral authorities say the election result will stand even if allegations of foreign interference are substantiated, which is contested by Likud — which says, without providing evidence, that Arab-led parties stole the election in which Netanyahu’s bloc lost its parliamentary majority, according to the Korea Herald. The joint position brings together the head of the elections committee, the attorney general and the head of the Shin Bet.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) winter recruitment cycle for young haredi men entering combat support roles began Sunday morning, with a target of about 4,800 haredi recruits for the 2026 recruitment year — from July 2026 to July 2027, according to the Jerusalem Post.

The Together party of former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announced its bloc will recommend that President Isaac Herzog task Yashar leader Gadi Eisenkot with forming the next government, according to TRT World. Eisenkot described the 26th Knesset election result as firm and clear, citing assurances by the Central Elections Committee chairman that the vote was conducted with integrity.

Police moved to disperse protesters in Jerusalem on Sunday evening on Haim Bar-Lev Boulevard after the demonstration escalated into clashes, with demonstrators blocking roads and throwing objects at officers, according to a statement from Israel Police. The protest was against the arrest of an ultra-Orthodox man accused of draft evasion near the Mea She’arim neighborhood. No injuries or arrests were reported as of the latest police update.

US President Donald Trump is prioritizing diplomatic engagement with Tehran despite pressure from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to launch military strikes immediately after Tuesday's US midterm elections, according to Axios, in an article published by TRT World.

The head of Israel's Central Elections Committee said on Sunday, November 1, 2026, that an ongoing investigation into alleged foreign funding in the recent vote would not call the result into question, noting that, so far, “suspicions remain suspicions.” In a video message, he assured Israelis that “your choice at the ballot box will be respected” and that the elections “were conducted properly.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud party have accused Arab groupings of having “stolen” the vote, in which they notched unprecedented gains. The vote on Tuesday, October 27, did not deliver an outright parliamentary majority to any bloc: Netanyahu and his allies won 53 seats and Eisenkot's camp secured 48, both well short of the 61 needed. The Beersheba Magistrate's Court ordered the unconditional release of one suspect and rejected the police's request to extend by eight days the detention of the two others.

US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on Saturday about when and whether to ramp up combat operations against Iran, US media reported. Netanyahu pressed the president to launch strikes on Iran immediately after the US midterm elections, while Trump was eager to let negotiations play out. An Israeli source described the call as “tough” and an American source called it “direct,” according to Axios. Al Arabiya confirmed the Axios report on the call and the split between striking and negotiating. On Saturday, October 31, 2026, Trump told reporters that negotiations with Iran to end the war were “going fine” and that there were still one or two targets to “take care” of.

At least eight Palestinians, among them a child, were killed this Sunday in two Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip that hit the Al-Mawasi area, west of Khan Younis, and Al-Thawra Street in Gaza City, according to Opera Mundi. The Palestinian agency WAFA reported that five people were killed in a drone strike on Al-Mawasi and that the victims were members of the Palestinian police, citing local medical sources.

Israel’s defense establishment is implementing an unprecedented policy in the Gaza Strip that grants immunity to mayors and senior officials in Hamas’s governmental and municipal systems, according to the Jerusalem Post. Military sources told Walla that the decision not to target the heads of local Hamas authorities stems from concern that killing them could lead to the collapse of governing institutions in Gaza and to civilian chaos that Israel would ultimately have to deal with, the paper reported.

Israel's siege of Hebron, in the occupied West Bank, reached its tenth day on Sunday, with Israeli forces threatening to expand their military offensive in the city, according to the official Palestinian news agency WAFA, cited by Al Jazeera. The offensive has displaced more than 3,300 Palestinians, particularly in the al-Jalda and Ain Deir Bahha areas, and resulted in the demolition of 15 homes.

President Isaac Herzog on Sunday urged Israel’s party leaders to “stop climbing trees, and face the reality” of the election result, in an appeal recorded by the Times of Israel. The parties opposed to Benjamin Netanyahu won 67 of the Knesset’s 120 seats, against 53 for the prime minister’s right-wing and ultra-Orthodox bloc, according to the paper’s tally. The Israeli journalist Gideon Levy criticized the opposition parties’ resistance to forming a government with the participation of Arab parties, according to Opera Mundi.

Former Mossad chief David Barnea said Israel intentionally released images of its covert operation in Iran during the June 2025 conflict to provoke mass arrests and make it harder for Iranian forces to find real Israeli agents, according to Middle East Eye. Barnea said Iranian authorities arrested 21,000 people during the operation.

Gaza’s Interior and National Security Ministry said this Sunday that five police officers and personnel were killed in an Israeli airstrike while carrying out their regular duties in the Al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis, southern Gaza, in a report by the Saba news agency. Israeli strikes killed at least eight Palestinians, including the five police officers, in two separate attacks on Sunday, according to medics and the Hamas-run interior ministry, Reuters reported.

A former agent of the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence service, reportedly accompanied Senator Flávio Bolsonaro on his flight from Brazil to Argentina, according to Opera Mundi. The information was published in Israel this Sunday, November 1, by The Jerusalem Post, based on a Brazilian Federal Police investigation obtained by CNN Brasil.

Dimona Mayor Benny Biton, a close associate of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told Kan News on Sunday that Netanyahu wants to form a unity government and that Israeli President Isaac Herzog and US President Donald Trump would serve as guarantors of an agreement with Yashar party head Gadi Eisenkot. Biton said he spoke with Herzog on Saturday and that the two presidents would assure the opposition that a unity government would hold. He also warned that an opposition attempt to replace Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana before a coalition is formed would be a “declaration of war,” and that without a national unity government the country is heading for another election, because “neither bloc will manage to form a government under any circumstances.”

Dozens of ultra-Orthodox protesters blocked roads outside the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) central induction base on Sunday, where more than 200 members of the Haredi community were joining the army, according to Times of Israel. The Israel Police said the protesters were trying to intimidate the recruits who arrived at the Tel Hashomer base, where inductees are processed before being sent to their units. Some 230 Haredi men were expected to be drafted into the IDF for noncombat roles.

Iran said it has submitted evidence of US and Israeli attacks on its maritime infrastructure to the International Maritime Organization (IMO), according to Middle East Eye.

Senior Arab Joint List leader Ahmad Tibi said the party is willing to support an opposition-led government to replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s outgoing coalition, but will not join the cabinet, according to Times of India. Anti-Netanyahu parties won 67 of the Knesset’s 120 seats, of which 48 went to Zionist opposition parties and 19 to two Arab parties, according to Times of Israel. Netanyahu’s bloc took 53 seats.

The Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, is investigating suspicions that a current Joint List member of Knesset received thousands of shekels from Qatar, money that was then reportedly used by the party during the election campaign, according to the Jerusalem Post. At this stage, investigators say they have no evidence of what the money was actually used for and that it is unclear what evidence suggests the funds originated from Qatar. Qatar’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari wrote on X: “We categorically deny allegations that Qatar has interfered in Israeli elections or funded any activities intended to influence their outcome.”

Eight people, including a child, were killed in Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, according to emergency services and local hospitals cited by Arab News. Five people were killed in Khan Younis and three in Gaza City, according to a statement from the territory’s civil defense service, which operates under the authority of the Hamas movement that runs Gaza.

President Donald Trump spoke by phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as Washington prepared to resume strikes on Iran, according to the Wall Street Journal. The call took place after Trump discussed options for resuming military operations with senior commanders, including US Central Command (CENTCOM) chief Admiral Brad Cooper, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine. Trump said “one or two sites” remain to be dealt with in Iran’s nuclear program, including Pickaxe Mountain, and that the US could do it “in ten minutes.” “We have a plan for it, and we can execute it very quickly,” he said. Asked about a new offensive, he neither confirmed nor ruled out the possibility, according to Brasil 247.

Israel’s Shin Bet internal security service has allegedly adopted a practice of threatening targets in Gaza by phone, offering them a choice between having their family bombed and being killed alone, according to a report by the Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper carried by the Jerusalem Post. The most recent case cited is that of Muhammad Al-Bayouk, allegedly targeted by an Israeli military drone on the roof of a displaced-persons shelter in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, after receiving a phone call from a Shin Bet officer. The Jerusalem Post says the Israeli military and the Shin Bet have not been approached for comment on the matter.

Democrats party leader Yair Golan said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu does not have the public’s trust and should not be permitted to lead the country through another war with Iran, in a social media post on Sunday morning. Golan wrote that he and opposition bloc leaders Gadi Eisenkot, Avigdor Lieberman, Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid “know the security system very well”.

A Palestinian man died on Sunday morning from wounds sustained when Israeli occupation forces shot him in al-Musaddar village, in the central Gaza Strip, according to the Wafa news agency, cited by Middle East Eye. Also on Sunday, Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian olive harvesters near the village of Kafr Malik, northeast of Ramallah, according to Wafa.

Representative Haley Stevens criticized the Democratic Senate candidate in Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed, over his recent criticism of Israel and over his failure to condemn an ad by an outside political action committee (PAC) that blamed Israel for rising food prices, according to The Times of Israel. According to the outlet, the ad was made by an outside group to boost his campaign.

The Canadian Labour Congress, the country’s central labor union representing about 3 million workers, voted on Thursday to refuse to handle weapons and military equipment destined for Israel, according to Middle East Eye. The body also demanded that the Canadian government “end all direct and indirect transfers of arms and military equipment to Israel.”

Israeli opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot has set out four conditions for forming a new government, including recognizing Hamas as a “terrorist” organization and committing to dismantling its military and governing capabilities in Gaza, according to Middle East Eye.

Israeli police said they were working to restore order during what they called unexpected and unlawful Haredi protests outside the Tel Hashomer base near the Kiryat Ono recruitment center on Sunday morning, and advised the public to find alternate routes until the matter was resolved, according to the Jerusalem Post.

Israeli authorities have issued 9,518 demolition or stop-work notices against Palestinian structures in the occupied West Bank since the start of 2015, according to a report by the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission cited by Middle East Eye. Of the total, 9,174 notices were documented between 2015 and 2025 and another 344 in the first nine months of 2026.

Hezbollah is unlikely to join a war between the United States and Iran if the two countries resume military operations against each other, unless Iran’s leadership faces an existential threat, according to a report by the United Arab Emirates state-owned outlet The National cited by the Jerusalem Post. According to Lebanese security personnel briefed on the group’s activities, Hezbollah spent at least three months preparing for a resumption of hostilities with Israel after receiving an infusion of cash from Iran.

US President Donald Trump said American forces had knocked out much of Iran’s military. Washington still needs to “take care of” one or two remaining targets, including a suspected underground nuclear complex known as Pickaxe Mountain, according to TRT World. “We’ve knocked out their nuclear. We still have to take care of, I would say, one or two sites, but we can do that in 10 minutes,” Trump told reporters at his Florida residence. “You probably could look at Pickaxe Mountain, and you have to take care of that. We can do that all very quickly.” According to TRT World, the Iranian government has repeatedly denied carrying out nuclear operations at the facility. Trump reiterated that Washington is in no hurry to resume strikes because it has decimated Iran’s armed forces and atomic program.

Around 2,000 people demonstrated on Saturday evening in Tel Aviv in support of a Jewish-Arab government, after opponents of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu won a combined 67 of the Knesset's 120 seats in Tuesday's election, according to the Times of Israel. A smaller counterprotest attended by some 200 people demanded an investigation into claims of electoral fraud, after Netanyahu's Likud party accused Arab parties of “stealing the election” with support from hostile foreign governments. Arab parties won an unprecedented 19 seats, and without them no bloc holds a majority.

US President Donald Trump spoke by phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday, after discussing with military commanders options for restarting major combat operations, according to The Wall Street Journal, in a Jerusalem Post report. In Atlanta, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Trump has not made a decision about fresh strikes on Iran, amid stalled peace talks.

Hundreds of Israelis took to the streets in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem on Saturday to urge the opposition to ally with Arab parties and oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP), in a report published by Arab News. The Tel Aviv rally drew around 500 people and the Jerusalem one around 100. Jewish-majority parties opposed to Netanyahu won 48 seats, while the two Arab-majority parties, Raam and the Joint List, secured a combined 19, in an election that left neither bloc with a majority in the 120-seat parliament; an alliance between the two camps would give the anti-Netanyahu bloc 67 seats. Opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot has not decided whether to seek the coalition and reiterated that he would only form a Zionist government whose members commit to recognizing Israel as a Jewish, democratic and liberal state and to recognizing Hamas as a terrorist organization.

The Israeli military has completed preparations for a renewed military confrontation with Iran, according to the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, in a report published by the Anadolu Agency. The chief of the United States (US) Central Command, Brad Cooper, presented President Donald Trump with options for resuming the attacks, and the decision to return to war remained with Trump as negotiations between Washington and Tehran continued. This week, ten US military transport aircraft arrived at Israeli Air Force bases as part of an airlift delivering military equipment to the region, according to Ynet.

Lawmaker Ahmad Tibi, No. 2 on the Joint List, said Saturday that his party was ready to support the anti-Netanyahu Zionist parties in forming a government to replace the outgoing coalition, but stressed that it did not want to be part of the government itself, according to the Times of Israel. The Joint List, made up of three Arab factions, won 11 seats in Tuesday’s election. Tibi indicated that the list will recommend to President Isaac Herzog that a candidate from the anti-Netanyahu parties be given the mandate to form a coalition.

Israeli attacks in Gaza on Saturday included shelling of the Nuseirat refugee camp, and al-Awda Hospital confirmed the death of Palestinian teacher Diaa Abu al-Rous, according to Al Jazeera. The enclave’s Ministry of Health recorded at least six Palestinians killed over the past 48 hours, bringing the total since the October 2025 ceasefire to 1,580.

Three suspects were arrested on Saturday following a clash between Israelis and Palestinians near the village of Duma in the occupied West Bank, amid the ongoing olive harvest, according to the Jerusalem Post.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei ordered commanders to update the country’s target list to include “all types of tangible and intangible assets belonging to the American-Zionist enemy”, according to France 24. At the meeting with top military commanders, he said that “any level or type of threat must be met with an immediate, impactful and geographically unrestricted response.” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said at a G20 press conference in Atlanta, Georgia, that Trump has not yet decided on new attacks: “We can achieve military objectives if we seek to. He hasn’t made a decision. I have no announcement in that regard with you today, and nor do we take any of it lightly.” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that “currently, there are no plans for meetings with American officials.”

Nearly 840,000 people voted on Tuesday for Ra’am and the Joint List, a coalition of three Arab-led parties, a 64 percent increase from the 2022 elections, according to final results from the Central Election Committee published by the Times of Israel. The parties won 19 of the Knesset’s 120 seats, surpassing the previous record of 15. Neither Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition nor the opposition alliance secured the 61 seats required for a parliamentary majority, according to Al Jazeera.

Syria’s Foreign Minister, Asaad al-Shaibani, said on Saturday that Israel had carried out more than 1,000 attacks on his country in less than two years, killing dozens of people, according to Anadolu. His remarks came during a session on regional security at the Manama Dialogue 2026, according to the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA). He called for a return to the lines in place before Dec. 8, 2024, and for the implementation of the 1974 Disengagement Agreement.

Israel’s Central Elections Committee published the final results on Friday, according to which Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc took 53 seats, against 48 for Gadi Eisenkot’s opposition bloc, the Jewish News Syndicate (JNS) reported. Likud was the largest party, with 27 seats, followed by Yashar! with 21 and Together with 12, Ynet reported.

Mojtaba Khamenei met with senior commanders of Iran's armed forces and issued what his office described as “important and strategic orders”, according to the Middle East Eye. He also ordered the army to prepare “an immediate, impactful, and geographically unrestricted response” should its enemies resume attacks, and said that Iran will set the “timing and terms for ending any new conflicts,” according to the Jerusalem Post. The order also directs the Revolutionary Guard to update its target list to place “all tangible and intangible assets” of the US and Israel within reach of the armed forces, according to the newspaper.

Residents of the Ain Deir Baha neighborhood in al-Khalil, in the occupied southern West Bank, had the area declared a closed military zone by Israeli forces during an offensive that reached its eighth day, according to Press TV. The al-Khalil municipality said, according to the outlet, that 4,969 Palestinians from 780 families had been forcibly displaced. The Palestinian Information Center counts Saturday as the ninth consecutive day of the siege, with military reinforcements and detentions of young Palestinians.

A Lebanese military court has charged 13 people it says are linked to Hezbollah with trafficking in explosives. The individuals were charged with offenses including possessing weapons, undermining state security and forming illegal associations, Lebanese state media reported. The vehicle seized at the Dahr al-Baydar checkpoint had been carrying 780kg (1,720 pounds) of explosives, including 250kg (550 pounds) of TNT and 250kg (550 pounds) of C-4 plastic explosives, according to judicial officials. Hezbollah later acknowledged that the explosives belonged to the group and said they were intended for use against Israeli forces in southern Lebanon, according to Arab News.

An Israeli airstrike on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza killed the Palestinian Diaa Abu al-Rous, according to the Quds News Network (QNN), cited by Middle East Eye. Another Palestinian, Arafat al-Ar’eer, died of wounds sustained in an Israeli airstrike on the Tal al-Hawa neighborhood, south of Gaza City, according to the same network.

Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc lost its parliamentary majority, The Hindu reported, and results released early Friday showed 53 seats for his bloc, 48 for the main opposition bloc and 19 for Arab-led parties in Tuesday’s election, a historic showing, according to the Associated Press (AP), in a text republished by the Daily Democrat. In his first public comment on the result, on Friday, Netanyahu posted on X that it is forbidden to form a coalition with Arab parties.

The Israeli military said in a statement on Friday that it killed two Hamas commanders in an airstrike on the Nuseirat area in the central Gaza Strip the previous day. One of the commanders was identified as Ihab Jamil Abu Taqiya, a squad commander in Hamas’ military wing, who, according to the statement, was involved in holding Israeli hostages at the beginning of the war. Xinhua reported.

Almost 5,000 Palestinians have been displaced by Israel’s military siege on the southern West Bank city of Hebron, according to Al Jazeera. The number of people removed from their homes stands at 4,969, including 441 elderly people, 336 infants under two years old and 312 patients with chronic diseases. The siege began on October 23, after two Palestinians shot dead two Israeli soldiers in Hebron and wounded three others, before the army killed the two attackers.

On the eighth day of the military operation in Hebron, Israeli troops kept the al-Jalda and Deir Bahha neighbourhoods sealed off and fired tear gas and stun grenades at displaced Palestinian residents trying to return home, according to the Middle East Eye. Settlers attacked a Palestinian family harvesting olives in the village of Tel Rumeida near Hebron, injuring five. More than 115 Palestinians have been detained since the operation began, and more than 780 families have been affected, 537 of them fully displaced, according to WAFA, cited by the Middle East Eye.

Israeli troops have intensified attacks in southern Lebanon, blowing up homes and other structures while carrying out artillery shelling and machine-gun fire in several areas, according to the Lebanese National News Agency (NNA), cited by TRT World. Israeli forces carried out extensive machine-gun fire over the towns of Khiam and Qantara and set homes on fire in Qantara, according to the NNA. On Wednesday, Israeli forces bulldozed, shelled and demolished homes across southern Lebanon, with drones over Beirut and its southern suburbs, in the latest violation of a US-mediated framework agreement, according to the NNA, as reported by Anadolu Agency.

At least 14 Palestinians, including children, were injured on Friday when an Israeli drone struck a phone-charging point in the southern Gaza Strip, according to the Middle East Eye. According to the WAFA agency, at least 12 Palestinians, including a man, his wife and their children, were injured in the drone strike in the al-Maslakh area west of Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip.

Dockworkers in 22 countries went on strike on Friday against the war and the use of ports for arms exports, an action organizers say could disrupt more than 40% of Mediterranean cargo and over $2 billion worth of freight, according to Reuters. The strike was originally called by unions in Italy, France, Greece, Spain's Basque Country, Turkey and Morocco and now has the backing of more than 25 unions in 113 ports. Protesters at more than 100 ports in 22 countries called on dock workers to disrupt arms shipments to Israel, according to Middle East Eye.

The Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) voted in support of a resolution calling on workers to refuse to handle weapons and military equipment destined for Israel, the union said. The union also calls on the Government of Canada to end all direct and indirect transfers of arms and military equipment to Israel. Canada’s central labor union says workers will not handle military cargo going to Israel, according to the Middle East Eye.

Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has refused for the past 18 months to sign off on the transfers of funds owed to Ramallah, which have amounted to over US$7 billion, according to the Times of Israel. For much of the past year, the Palestinian Authority has paid its roughly 150,000 public-sector employees only 50 percent of their salaries. The newspaper assesses that the extended political deadlock keeps Benjamin Netanyahu, Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir in their existing positions of influence over affairs in the West Bank, albeit in a caretaker capacity.

Israeli election officials dismissed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s claim that the election was stolen and said the investigation opened into suspected foreign interference does not change the final result, according to The Times of Israel, in a report by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA). Acting Central Elections Committee Director-General Dean Livne recorded a statement on Friday saying it “does not affect the final results that will be submitted to the President, nor does it concern any particular sector of the population.” On Thursday, he had said that “the elections to the Knesset were conducted lawfully” and that “to the best of our knowledge there is no basis for claims of systematic harm to the integrity of the elections.”

The Mossad has joined the Shin Bet security service's investigation into alleged foreign influence in this week's national election, Hebrew media outlets reported Friday. According to the Jerusalem Post, the Mossad will assist in areas falling under its remit, including the possibility that Qatar was behind payments to the Joint List's apparatus. The Central Elections Committee has repeatedly said that the scope of the investigation is limited and that the results of Tuesday's election, which yielded fresh parliamentary gridlock, were not in question.

The United Nations (UN) human rights office warned that Israel’s actions in Gaza continue to raise concerns of ethnic cleansing, with Palestinians displaced repeatedly, according to Al Jazeera. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) cautioned that the Israeli military is destroying the remaining civilian infrastructure and attacking displacement sites while pursuing its stated aim of expanding its military deployment area to 70 percent of Gaza’s territory.

With more than 99 percent of Tuesday's ballots tallied, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bloc held 53 seats and the opposition bloc led by Gadi Eisenkot held 48, Israeli outlet Haaretz reported, according to Al Jazeera. The Arab list parties held a combined 19 seats in the 120-member Knesset. Neither bloc reached the 61 seats required for a parliamentary majority, CNN reported.

Israel demolished on Friday the homes of the assailants who killed two Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron last week, Reuters reported in a text published by Al-Monitor. In a statement announcing the demolitions, Israel’s military said it would “continue to operate proactively and offensively” to thwart attacks in the West Bank. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the military would “destroy” the neighborhood where the two attackers came from and that Israel was ready for “extensive action” in the occupied West Bank, the BBC reported.

Israel’s Shin Bet domestic intelligence agency said in an official statement that the investigation into suspected voter fraud was “targeted and limited”, Middle East Eye reported. Dean Livne, acting director general of the Central Elections Committee, said separately there was “no basis for allegations of systematic violations of election integrity”. Ra’am and the Joint List, which contested the election on two separate slates, won 19 seats, potentially giving them a decisive role in coalition negotiations.

The United Nations (UN) Commission of Inquiry found that Israeli authorities and forces continue to commit genocidal acts in Gaza even after the ceasefire agreement, with the intent to destroy the Palestinian people, in whole or in part, according to the commission's report. The commission pointed to at least 196 Palestinians killed by Israeli fire since the ceasefire was signed in October 2025, and to Israeli control over Gaza going from 53% to at least 60%, according to the Associated Press (AP). The same commission accuses Israeli soldiers and prison guards of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the West Bank, including extermination, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence, according to AP.

With neither political bloc securing a clear majority in the 120-seat Knesset, leaders of the bloc seeking to replace Netanyahu held meetings on Thursday in several configurations, some involving the Ra'am Party, after Tuesday's election. Yashar Party chairman Gadi Eisenkot accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Likud of attempting to undermine the legitimacy of Israel's election results, according to the Jerusalem Post.

Israel's Border Police and military seized a weapons cache in the West Bank village of Hable, near Kalkilya, on Thursday night: three handguns, one of them an airsoft pistol, an M-4 assault rifle, components for several M-16 rifles, more than 2,300 rounds of assorted ammunition and 67 magazines, according to police, who announced the raid on Friday morning and arrested two suspects. Also on Thursday night, Israeli soldiers arrested four people in the area around Jenin. In Nablus, Israeli forces stormed Joseph's Tomb in the eastern part of the city at dawn and raided homes in nearby villages, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa, cited by Middle East Eye.

France imposed new restrictions on Israeli defense companies ahead of the Euronaval maritime defense exhibition, set to open near Paris on Tuesday, November 3, continuing the French policy of the past two years — in October 2024 Israeli companies were initially barred from Euronaval, a decision later overturned by a commercial court in Paris, according to Defense & Tech reporting cited by the Jerusalem Post. At next week's show, Israeli companies may display only air defense and missile interception systems, with official Israeli representatives barred, Ynet reported.

Counting in Israel’s parliamentary election concluded Thursday, including ballots cast in double envelopes, leaving neither Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc nor the opposition with the 61 seats needed for a Knesset majority, according to i24NEWS. Likud leads with 27 seats as Netanyahu’s bloc secures 53 and the opposition 48, with coalition negotiations facing deep divisions and official results due next Wednesday. The anti-Netanyahu bloc, led by Gadi Eisenkot of the Yashar party, claimed 48 seats, according to DW.

Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, said he would not begin consulting party leaders about forming a government until next week, when he expects to receive the full, official vote count, according to The New York Times. Under Basic Law: The Government, the president is the one empowered to choose who gets the first chance to form a government, according to the Times of Israel.

10 United States Air Force transport aircraft arrived at Israeli bases in southern Israel as part of a larger Middle East air convoy, according to KAN News, in a text published by The Jerusalem Post. The aircraft came from Fort Bliss in Texas and would carry air defense systems to protect regional assets, according to KAN, and United States Central Command chief Adm. Brad Cooper briefed Trump on military options for Iran, according to The Wall Street Journal, in a text published by The Jerusalem Post. An Israeli source told KAN the United States and Israel are coordinating closely and preparing for whatever decision Trump makes, with no decision yet made.

A senior source in United Torah Judaism (UTJ) proposed backing a minority government led by Gadi Eisenkot from outside, with the party abstaining on key Knesset votes, Channel 12 reported. “Our alliance with Netanyahu has run its course,” one party official told the channel, according to Yeshiva World, adding that UTJ will get nothing from Netanyahu and that its interest is to once again become a decisive force in the Knesset. Eisenkot vowed to advance the draft law and the Oct. 7 inquiry despite slim coalition prospects, according to the Times of Israel.

Israel began requiring airlines to submit crew information 48 hours before departure, among other steps to bolster security. According to the Times of India, the requirements apply to inbound and outbound flights by Israeli and foreign carriers and were ordered by Benjamin Netanyahu after a security review. The change follows the attempted hijacking of a Flydubai flight carrying Israeli passengers from Dubai to Tel Aviv, when Omani copilot Hamam al-Hammami allegedly attacked Indian captain Smit Machchhar and tried to seize control of the aircraft.

Israel revoked the electronic travel authorizations of several American rabbis and activists and of Jewish New York politician Brad Lander after the group worked with Palestinians harvesting olives in the West Bank last week, Al Jazeera reported. Emails from Israel’s immigration authority told recipients that their authorizations had been “revoked” following “a change in circumstances in your case”, with no further reason given, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

Jasper Nathaniel and Andrey Kharzhanovsky, activists who are also journalists and assist Palestinians in the West Bank, were arrested by police overnight Wednesday in the South Hebron Hills after footage showed them being attacked by two settlers, at least one of them armed, the Times of Israel reported. Police said Thursday they had received a report of a clash in the area in which two Israeli citizens were attacked, and that police and Israel Defense Forces (IDF) troops arrested an Israeli citizen and a foreign national. No settlers were reported arrested.

Israel renewed until April 2027 the exclusion order that bars Sheikh Ekrima Sabri, a Palestinian preacher and head of the Higher Islamic Council in Jerusalem, from praying or delivering sermons at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Al Jazeera reported. The latest order, issued on October 20, is the fifth against Sabri, who has been kept away from the site for more than two years. The Wadi Hilweh Information Center, a Palestinian human rights monitoring group, says Israeli authorities have issued more than 1,000 exclusion orders barring Palestinians from Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Old City since the beginning of 2026, including against religious figures and Islamic Waqf employees.

Israel’s opposition accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of trying to delegitimize the election by alleging foreign interference after the vote left his coalition without a majority in parliament. Opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot and Arab-led party leaders denounced Netanyahu, the BBC reported. Final results confirmed that neither Netanyahu’s bloc nor the Jewish opposition had won a majority. The two Arab party lists, The Joint List and Ra’am, defied expectations to win a record 19 seats in the 120-seat Knesset following a surge in turnout among Arab voters.

Hebron Governor Khaled Dudin said Thursday that 537 families, or 3,361 people, have been forced from their homes in the Israeli offensive under way in the city, according to Al Jazeera, citing the Wafa news agency. The offensive has disrupted schooling for about 262,000 students at 589 schools in the governorate, and the schools moved to remote learning this week. At Qalandiya camp, Red Crescent teams treated a 15-year-old boy shot with live ammunition in both legs and a 12-year-old child injured by bullet fragments, both taken to the hospital.

Gaza's health ministry said Thursday that six Palestinians were killed and 38 wounded over the previous 24 hours, according to Middle East Eye. Since the ceasefire that took effect on October 10, 2025, the ministry has counted at least 1,574 Palestinians killed and 5,687 wounded, and another 845 bodies have been recovered from the rubble.

The Shin Bet (Israel's internal security service) said Thursday that its inquiry into suspected foreign interference in the election was based on intelligence it collected itself and rejected that the material came from a political party, warning against using the investigation to cast suspicion on an entire community of voters, according to the Jerusalem Post. The Central Elections Committee rejected claims of systematic fraud, saying the vote was conducted lawfully, and police said there was no investigative support for Likud's broad stolen-election allegations.

With more than 99 percent of Tuesday's ballots counted, Benjamin Netanyahu's bloc held 53 of the 120 Knesset seats and the opposition bloc led by Gadi Eisenkot 48, while the Arab lists combined for 19, with no bloc reaching a majority, according to Al Jazeera. The broadcaster said the final results will be certified and announced by Wednesday and that the numbers may change until then.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said on Thursday that there had been no progress on the central issues in talks with Israel — a ceasefire, withdrawal of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), border demarcation in southern Lebanon and prisoner releases — a week after the latest round of US-mediated talks, according to the Times of Israel.

An estimated 80 percent of Palestinian voters with Israeli citizenship turned out for Tuesday's election, a surge in participation by a community that accounts for about 21 percent of the population, according to Al Jazeera. The Israeli press recorded that Netanyahu moved to undermine the Palestinian vote on election day, according to Middle East Eye.

Israeli gunfire wounded two Palestinian children during a raid on the Qalandia refugee camp, north of occupied East Jerusalem, according to the Wafa news agency, as reported by Middle East Eye.

A soldier in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has been indicted for providing information to Iran, the Shin Bet, the Israel Police and the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said in a joint statement. According to the Jerusalem Post, the information he allegedly provided included the locations and coordinates of military bases, along with photographs of interceptor missiles, military vehicles and the US refueling aircraft stationed at an Israeli airport. The Times of Israel reported that the soldier was charged with spying for Iran in exchange for cryptocurrency.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) may exit or reduce their presence over the coming weekend in the Hebron neighborhood they have occupied since last weekend, according to the Jerusalem Post, which says the situation is uncertain and highly dynamic. Before the election, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the recommendation from IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir to leave the area and allow the at least 2,000 evacuated Palestinians to return home. Adalah petitioned the High Court of Justice on Thursday on behalf of Hebron’s municipality and seven residents to halt forced evacuations and demolitions and secure the return of residents ordered out of their homes.

Benjamin Netanyahu and his allies called on the Shin Bet internal security service to investigate alleged vote buying and other irregularities in Palestinian communities in Israel, supposedly funded by foreign money. The prime minister alleged, without providing evidence, that Arab parties’ record gains in this week’s election were driven in part by voter fraud, a charge Arab leaders rejected and described as incitement, according to Reuters. Acting Central Elections Committee Director General Dean Livne rejected the allegations of widespread fraud as baseless on Thursday, and the Shin Bet clarified that its probe of foreign interference in the vote was limited in scope and was not based on information supplied by any political actor.

The container ship Contship Jet, Greek-owned and operated by Israel's ZIM Integrated Shipping Services, was hit by at least three unmanned drone vessels and sank in the Black Sea, according to Globes. The ship had sailed from Haifa, and the 421 containers it carried went down with it. The crew was rescued unharmed. All 18 crew members, 14 Filipinos and four Ukrainians, were taken to the Bulgarian port of Varna, according to Israel Hayom. ZIM said the ship was small, chartered and not owned by the company, that the crew was safely evacuated and that the initial estimate of financial damage is minimal, the company told Globes.

Yashar party chairman and opposition bloc leader Gadi Eisenkot accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday of launching an “organized campaign to delegitimize” the results of Tuesday's Knesset election, according to The Jerusalem Post. “I will not allow the Knesset's swearing-in to be delayed by even a single centimeter from its scheduled date,” Eisenkot said.

Zehut party leader Moshe Feiglin called for Israel to annul its election results and hold snap elections, with Border Police battalions stationed at polling stations in Arab communities, and cited concerns over foreign interference, according to Haaretz, which describes the party as settler-libertarian. “We cannot allow Qatar to take over our Knesset,” he said.

Israel has asked the United States for permission to strike previously untargeted energy facilities in Iran if the military campaign against Tehran resumes, according to state broadcaster Kan, cited by TASS. On Wednesday, Donald Trump told Republican supporters in Ohio, ahead of the US midterm congressional elections, that he intended to end the war against Iran very quickly.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he hopes the period after the formation of a new Israeli government will create an opportunity to resume serious political dialogue, according to Xinhua, which cited the Palestinian news agency.

Qatar denied interference in Israel’s elections and called the accusations ridiculous and dangerous in equal measure. “Qatar should not be used as a scapegoat for the political failures of certain Israeli politicians,” the country’s statement said, according to the Jerusalem Post.

Two Palestinians were killed in an Israeli strike in central Gaza, according to Al Jazeera, which cited medical sources, and ambulance and emergency services reported that a drone strike hit a vehicle in the Maghazi camp, according to Middle East Eye.

Israeli forces arrested at least 13 Palestinians on Thursday in raids across the occupied West Bank and continued raids and closures in Hebron for a seventh consecutive day, shutting iron gates around the Old City and seizing Palestinian homes, according to Palestinian sources cited by TRT World.

The chair of Israel’s Central Elections Committee, Justice Noam Sohlberg, has asked the Shin Bet to investigate “serious suspicions” of foreign interference in Tuesday’s election, according to the Times of Israel, with Hebrew media reporting suspicions that Qatar had sent significant funds to Israel to influence the Arab vote.

Likud and the Netanyahu bloc launched an election-night campaign to delegitimize any political move involving the Joint List and Ra’am, from forming a minority government to replacing the Knesset speaker, the Jerusalem Post reported. The result could be annulled nationwide if suspicions of foreign funding and election bribery are proven to have affected the vote, an outcome the prevailing assessment within the political establishment considers slim to virtually nonexistent, according to the newspaper. Bezalel Smotrich called on the Shin Bet to question the leaders of Arab parties over claims of foreign interference, according to Middle East Eye.

With more than 90% of votes counted in Israel’s legislative elections, projections give Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc 53 seats against 48 for Gadi Eisenkot’s alliance, with a projected record of 19 seats for Arab parties, according to TRT World, while National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir called for the arrest of Arab party leaders after the Central Elections Committee called on the Shin Bet to investigate allegations of foreign interference, according to the Jerusalem Post.

Israeli attacks in Gaza killed at least four Palestinians and wounded more than 30, including one Palestinian who died from wounds sustained in an Israeli attack on a checkpoint in al-Mawasi, southern Gaza, according to Mehr News.

The United Nations human rights chief, Volker Türk, told reporters in New York on Wednesday he hopes Israel’s new government will “change course massively” and respect international law.

Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman has reportedly cut ties with the opposition bloc and is pushing for a unity government, according to a Wednesday N12 report, the Jerusalem Post reports. Israel’s police rejected Likud’s claims that the election had been “stolen” on Thursday morning, saying there was no investigative or intelligence evidence to support them.

Israeli attacks killed five Palestinians and wounded 32 in the Gaza Strip, in Palestine, on Tuesday, according to medical sources cited by Anadolu, while a six-year-old girl and a man succumbed to wounds sustained in earlier attacks. The girl died on Tuesday morning after being shot by Israeli forces in the al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, according to the WAFA news agency.

Activist Adele Shoko said Israeli settlers attacked her and two colleagues in the Palestinian village of Umm al-Khair, in the Masafer Yatta area of the occupied West Bank, in Palestine,, according to social media posts. According to Shoko, US journalist Jasper Nathaniel was also beaten, pepper-sprayed and arrested, then taken away by Israeli forces.

Israel’s Central Elections Committee has announced that the counting of “double-envelope” votes has now begun, according to the Times of Israel. Israel began counting more than 500,000 double-envelope ballots, with the potential to affect the final distribution of parliamentary seats, according to Anadolu.

With over 90% of ballots counted, Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc holds 53 seats against 48 for Gadi Eisenkot’s bloc, with the remaining 19 going to the Joint List and Ra’am, with 12 and seven seats respectively, far short of a majority in the 120-seat Knesset — and Netanyahu told his far-right allies that they are staying together, according to the Times of Israel via Channel 14. Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert endorsed Eisenkot and Yashar as better suited to lead the country and said Netanyahu is “on the wrong side of history”, according to the Jerusalem Post.

Israeli aircraft flew at low altitude and dropped thermal balloons over southern Lebanon on Wednesday, Lebanon's National News Agency reported. The Lebanese army had previously warned that the balloons pose a threat to citizens because of their explosive and incendiary contents, urging residents not to approach or touch them since they are prone to exploding.

Exit polls from Channels 11, 12 and 13 project 11 or 12 seats for the Joint List and seven for Ra’am, which would give the so-called “Arab bloc” 18 or 19 seats, according to The Times of Israel. The result would surpass the previous record of 15 seats for Arab-majority parties, set in 2020. Turnout in Arab towns surged: 72.2% in Nazareth, against 48.29% in 2022, and 82% in Rahat, against 60.61%.

Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem rejected on Wednesday calls to disarm the Lebanese group under the June framework agreement brokered by the United States with Israel, according to Middle East Eye. “The resistance continues and will confront any aggression against it; there is no room for discussion regarding the surrender of its weapons,” Qassem said in a statement, according to the outlet.

Three Palestinians were killed and 10 others injured on Wednesday when Israeli warplanes struck a government facility in al-Mawasi in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, according to Middle East Eye. In central Gaza, three people were wounded in an Israeli strike on the Nuseirat refugee camp, some of them seriously.

With 85% of ballots counted, Netanyahu’s Likud party and its far-right and ultra-Orthodox Jewish allies were on track to win 53 of the 120 seats in the Knesset, according to the BBC. Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, said he expected to receive the official results next week, after which he would begin discussions with every faction: “We must do everything we can, certainly after yesterday, to avoid another round of elections.”

US President Donald Trump wants an Israeli government without ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, American sources told the Walla news site, in a report published by the Jerusalem Post. According to the same sources, Trump believes settler violence is undermining his regional vision and making it harder to implement. Israel's President Isaac Herzog called for everything possible to be done to avoid another round of elections, according to The Hindu. With more than 85% of ballots counted, Netanyahu's bloc was slightly ahead but still short of a majority, the newspaper reported.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party accused Arab parties of allegedly stealing the Knesset election through widespread electoral fraud, bribery, intimidation, and ballot manipulation, according to the Jerusalem Post. The report itself notes that the allegations have not been independently verified and that no evidence of systematic manipulation has been made public. Talal al-Krenawi called the accusations “disgusting” and “lies and falsehoods”. “This is incitement against the Bedouins,” he said, according to the newspaper.

With almost five million votes counted, Benjamin Netanyahu's bloc fell to 53 seats and the opposition took 48, the Central Elections Committee announced on Wednesday morning. Likud is projected at 26 seats and Gadi Eisenkot's Yashar at 21. Arab parties hold 19. The parties seeking to remove Netanyahu from power reach a combined 67 seats, leaving the prime minister's bloc eight seats short of a parliamentary majority, according to projections published by Middle East Eye.

Serbian police killed an attacker outside the Israeli embassy in Belgrade on Wednesday after an officer was targeted in a “terrorist attack”, outgoing Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said, according to Le Monde. Dacic said the terrorism threat level had been raised to its highest, the “red alert”, which means tighter security checks and an increased police presence at sensitive sites, including infrastructure facilities and places where large crowds gather.

The United States is moving a Patriot air and missile defense system from Texas to the Middle East as Washington and Israel prepare for a possible new round of heavy combat operations against Iran after the November 3 midterm elections, according to The Wall Street Journal, cited by The Jerusalem Post. The Wall Street Journal also reported that Washington had warned several Gulf Arab countries to prepare for a short, intense military campaign against Iran after the midterms, according to people briefed on the conversations.

With more than 76 percent of votes counted as of 09:30 GMT, Netanyahu’s bloc had 54 seats and Eisenkot’s 47, according to tallies published by Israeli media and cited by Al Jazeera. With 70 percent counted, both Jewish blocs were below the 61 Knesset seats needed for a majority government, according to The Guardian. Arab-Israeli parties were heading for a record result of 16 to 19 seats, and forming a government would require a pact with them, new elections or a unity government, the newspaper said.

Israel’s benchmark Tel Aviv 125 index dropped as much as 3.5 percent in early trading on Wednesday, according to Al Jazeera, as investors weighed the unclear election results.

Qatari mediators presented Iran with a new draft deal on Sunday to end the war with the US and Israel, and Tehran is expected to send a response by the end of the week, an official briefed on the negotiations said on Wednesday, according to Reuters, in a text republished by Al Arabiya English. The draft sets a seven-day timeline addressing both Tehran’s and Washington’s concerns and lays out daily confidence-building steps that each side must take, the official said.

With more than 66% of the votes counted, Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud was projected to win 28 of the 120 seats in the Knesset and his bloc stands at about 56, short of the 61 needed for a majority, according to El País. The anti-Netanyahu bloc, led by Gadi Eisenkot, stands at 48 seats, and the two Arab lists would hold a combined 16, indispensable for forming a government. Yair Golan called on the opposition to form a government of change “in partnership with Israel’s Arab citizens.”

An assailant attacked a guard with knives outside Israel’s embassy in Belgrade and was killed shortly after midnight, according to Serbian police cited by the Times of Israel. Serbia’s interior minister called the case a “terrorist attack,” raised the terror alert to the highest level and stepped up policing at key sites, while Israel’s Foreign Ministry said no staff members were injured and the embassy was closed during the nighttime hours.

Israeli attacks killed two Palestinians and wounded five others across Gaza on Tuesday, according to TRT World, citing medical sources. In northern Gaza, Israeli troops shot dead Mahmoud Samih al-Harsh, 28, on al-Hawja Street in the Jabalia refugee camp, medical sources told Anadolu. In Khan Younis, six-year-old Tahani Mohammed Saeed Shalalfeh died from wounds sustained in an Israeli attack in al-Mawasi the previous day.

Netanyahu and Eisenkot offered competing claims to lead Israel after Tuesday's vote, according to Reuters, in a text published by Al-Monitor. Israel's three major networks updated their exit polls and gave Eisenkot's bloc a two-seat edge over the Likud-led camp, at 52-50; turnout was 77.7%, the highest in more than two decades and around 7 points above 2022, according to the central elections committee cited by France 24. The initial exit polls had left the blocs deadlocked.

The Israeli firm Discover-Tech concentrated ad spending in markets with no commercial appeal and was the top bidder for ads targeting Starlink users in more than 100 countries, according to the Russian network RT, citing researchers at TrendAI, a unit of Japan's Trend Micro — and the researchers conclude the operation was tracking infrastructure, not commercial advertising, but with no proof of infection of Starlink users.

Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher said the Holy See will continue to firmly support a two-state solution in the Middle East, according to TRT World, saying the formula retains substantial international backing, although its immediate implementation is unlikely.

Arab parties are projected to win 18 seats in the Knesset, a record, after a surge in Palestinian voting in Israel, according to Al Jazeera, with overall turnout at a historic 77.7 percent, the highest since 1999, according to the Central Elections Committee.

Avigdor Lieberman called on Benjamin Netanyahu to step down and urged Likud to remove him, saying that without Netanyahu it will be possible to rebuild the national camp, according to the Middle East Eye, citing Israel's Channel 12, while also voicing doubt about the exit polls.

Bezalel Smotrich said he will not let Palestinian citizens of Israel celebrate the projected electoral gains and promised that Jewish settlements will be established in Gaza, according to the Middle East Eye, also claiming that Palestinian parties will not reverse settlement expansion.

Gadi Eisenkot said Israel had chosen change and that he would seek to form a new government, according to the Middle East Eye, and promised — according to the Times of Israel — to do everything in his power to form a Zionist government that drafts everyone, with conscription for all, saying Benjamin Netanyahu should accept the verdict and leave political life.

Parliamentary leaders from the BRICS nations expressed “deep concern” about the escalating tension and hostilities in West Asia and slammed the “unilateral coercive measures” and “unilateral economic sanctions” imposed in the region as contrary to international law, according to The Hindu. The joint declaration called for a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict and asserted the Palestinian people's right to self-determination, freedom and an independent, sovereign state.

Exit polls published by the Jerusalem Post projected Ra'am and the Joint List at seven and 11 seats respectively on Channel 12 and at seven and 10 on Channels 11 and 13, which would give the two parties 18 or 19 seats combined in the 120-member Knesset, compared with five each in the outgoing parliament. Neither Netanyahu’s nor Eisenkot’s bloc was on track for a majority in the 120-seat Knesset, according to TRT World.

Exit polls from Israel’s main television networks pointed to a deadlock in Tuesday’s vote, with neither Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nor his main rival, Gadi Eisenkot, on track for a majority in the 120-seat Knesset, according to Middle East Eye. With his political future at stake, Netanyahu accused “three leaders” of the Arab party United Arab List (Ra’am) of “trying to steal the elections”, according to G1. In posts on X, he attacked Arab voters, describing them as “Muslim Brotherhood supporters” and accusing them of “raiding the polling stations and stealing the elections”, according to Al Jazeera. Mansour Abbas, leader of the United Arab List, denounced the remarks as a “scare tactic to mobilise right-wing voters and drive them to the polls”.

Turnout in Israel reached 55.7% by 4 pm local time, the highest for that hour since 1973, as the election committee considered a request to extend voting hours, Middle East Eye reported. Likud, People of Israel, Shas and Otzma Yehudit called for extended voting hours, but only the chairman of the central election committee, Justice Noam Sohlberg, can decide, the Jerusalem Post reported. The Yashar party of Gadi Eisenkot opposed the request, saying no unusual incident had occurred to justify it.

On election day in Israel, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of having pledged to the US administration that he would form a unity government with opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot and without him after the elections, according to The Times of Israel. “Prime Minister Netanyahu has pledged to the US administration that, after the elections, he will form a unity government with Eisenkot and without Ben Gvir,” the minister wrote on X, citing a report by Israel Hayom. The Jerusalem Post recorded that Ben Gvir said Netanyahu needs to stand with him on the right and pursue a fully right-wing government. The Israel Hayom report describes a US-backed proposal with a rotation government of about two years, advancing the Abraham Accords with a focus on Saudi Arabia and a presidential pardon for Netanyahu — a possibility the President's Residence denied having discussed.

A UN independent commission of inquiry concluded that Israel committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including extermination, persecution, torture and rape, and that it continues to commit genocide in Gaza by deliberately targeting Palestinian civilians. In a report released Monday, the group of experts commissioned by the UN said the ceasefire agreement in Gaza has not stopped what it describes as genocide and accused Israeli forces of torture and rape in the West Bank. The document submitted to the General Assembly compares airstrikes in the West Bank: six Palestinians killed between 2008 and October 6, 2023, against 254 between October 7, 2023 and September 30, 2026.

Halfway through Election Day on Tuesday, 45% of Israeli voters had cast a ballot, the highest level since 1973, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu again made false claims that “Muslim Brotherhood supporters” of his opponents were “stealing the elections”, according to Axios. Eisenkot called on voters not to buckle under the heat or the disruptions and to stick to the mission of replacing “tonight the worst government since the state was established”, according to The Hindu.

The Netherlands has withdrawn from the Eurovision Song Contest 2027. Its public broadcaster NPO confirmed the withdrawal from the contest, citing “sensitivities” over Israel’s participation, according to Al Jazeera. Tuesday’s announcement reverses a September decision to return to the show, according to the AP News, in a text republished by U.S. News.

A man was detained in Tel Aviv on Tuesday on suspicion of stabbing the Democrats' Chairman Yair Golan during a campaign tour to encourage voter turnout at HaMesila Park, according to the Jerusalem Post. At the man's “threatening approach,” Golan's security detail intercepted him and a large knife fell to the ground from inside his jacket. The man was arrested after approaching the center-left party leader with a knife, according to the Middle East Eye.

The UN human rights chief, Volker Türk, warned on Monday that Israel’s operation in the West Bank city of Hebron raises serious concerns of ethnic cleansing, as the number of Palestinians forced from their homes passed 3,000, according to UN News. Threats to empty and erase entire neighbourhoods also raise serious concerns of ethnic cleansing, UN News reported.

Israeli forces closed all entrances to Ramallah on Tuesday morning and set up checkpoints along alternative routes used by Palestinians, including the Ein Sinya and Atara checkpoints and the Rawabi gate to the north, as well as the Nabi Saleh and Aboud gates to the northwest, according to WAFA. Israeli troops also set up a checkpoint near the Ministry of Education district on the al-Bireh-Jalazone road and another on the road connecting Yabroud with Silwad, northeast of Ramallah, according to Mehr News.

Israel votes on Tuesday in the first election since the October 7, 2023 attack, with voters delivering their verdict on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to France 24 — the last polls showed Netanyahu running neck and neck with centrist rival Gadi Eisenkot, and some 7.3 million people are eligible to vote, with more than half a million young people set to cast their ballot for the first time.

A United Nations (UN) commission of inquiry accused the Israeli government of committing extermination, persecution, torture and rape against Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank, according to Opera Mundi. The body also said Israeli forces killed 1,080 Palestinians in the West Bank between October 2023 and September 2026, while more than 34,000 Palestinians remained displaced as of August. The independent commission accused Israel of crimes against humanity, including extermination, against Palestinians in the West Bank, according to UN News.

On the eve of Israel’s election, Benjamin Netanyahu touted Donald Trump’s endorsement and suggested the two leaders could restart their war against Iran if he wins, after the US president said they should “finish the job”, the South China Morning Post reported. “Vote for Bibi Netanyahu for Prime Minister, we have to finish the job that we started!” Trump wrote on Sunday. The White House said the United States will not attack Iran at any time before the November 3 midterm elections, according to a spokesperson cited by the paper.

Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir was reportedly the only Israeli security chief to oppose the military action against Iran sought by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz, the Times of Israel reported. Netanyahu and Katz denied plans to fire Zamir before the election, calling the report a “complete fabrication”, the Jerusalem Post reported.

The Israeli military has carried out a new series of strikes on the Gaza Strip and says they killed four members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, according to the army press service, as cited by TASS.

Israel kept committing genocide in Gaza after last October's US-brokered ceasefire, a UN commission said in a report published on Monday, according to Reuters. The report says Israeli authorities kept committing genocidal acts with the genocidal intent to destroy, in whole or in part, the Palestinians in Gaza. Israel's Foreign Ministry called the report a propaganda document detached from reality aimed at undermining the country's right to self-defense. The commission also recorded almost 500 Palestinians killed annually in the West Bank since 2022, the highest numbers since the UN started collecting that data, according to the Jerusalem Post.

Israel votes on Tuesday (October 27) with 7,331,981 eligible voters and 34 parties running for the Knesset. Polls project 20 to 23 of the 120 seats for Yashar, ahead of Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud, with no easy majority for any bloc to form a coalition. At his final rally, candidate Eisenkot pledged to heal divisions in Israeli society after Netanyahu's government and spoke of a commitment to security and the economy. Netanyahu said “90 percent of the work” had been done and “10 percent remains”, and that Eisenkot and the Muslim Brotherhood “will not destroy Iran's nuclear programme”: “Who is going to do it? Only I can.” Israeli media reported that officials discussed actions in preparation for a strike on Iran at Netanyahu's request, according to Middle East Eye.

Israel votes on Tuesday in its first general election since the October 7, 2023 attack. Many of Benjamin Netanyahu's opponents see the vote as a chance at last to deliver a reckoning for the worst security failure in generations, according to Reuters, in text published by the Times of Israel. Opinion polls have for months predicted a sharp drop for Netanyahu's Likud party, but a rival alliance of right, left and center parties also has no clear path to power. On the eve of the vote, President Isaac Herzog received the credentials of five new ambassadors, who will serve under the next government, the Jerusalem Post reported.

The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry concluded that Israel committed war crimes and the crimes against humanity of extermination, persecution, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. According to the commission, Israel deliberately targets Palestinian civilians and continues to commit genocide in Gaza. The report records that six Palestinians were killed by airstrikes in the West Bank between 2008 and October 6, 2023, against 254 between October 7, 2023 and September 30, 2026, and concludes that Palestinians in the West Bank are targeted on the basis of their nationality, race and ethnicity, gender and age.

The Israeli army killed five people, including a girl, in bombardments in the Gaza Strip, according to Le Monde.

Hebron Governor Khaled Dudin said on Monday that 488 families comprising 3,171 people had been displaced across the wider governorate, according to Al Jazeera. Mayor Yousef al-Jabari told the outlet that 3,043 of those displaced are from within Hebron city limits. The Israeli army said it would bar Palestinian workers from entering most areas of the West Bank through Monday and enforce a full closure of crossings on Tuesday, the day of Israel’s parliamentary election.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed US President Donald Trump to carry out a joint strike on Iran before the Israeli election, and Trump did not give the green light, according to CNN, in an account reproduced by Israel Hayom. Netanyahu’s office rejected the report and called it fake news, according to Israel National News.

Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman called on Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara to open a criminal investigation into Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on suspicion of treason, according to a statement released on Monday and reported by the Jerusalem Post. The request cites a Sunday report by Channel N12 that Netanyahu and IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant-General Eyal Zamir clashed over a proposed military operation that could trigger a confrontation with Iran, two days before Israel's October 27 election. Liberman accused Netanyahu of trying to draw Israel into a military confrontation to prevent the elections from taking place.

Israeli quadcopter drones set off a fire that destroyed tents in Gaza City’s Shujayea neighbourhood, displacing about 800 Palestinians, according to the Palestinian Public Works Ministry, cited by Middle East Eye. The same ministry said more than 200 families were forced to leave the camp at the Shujaiya intersection in eastern Gaza City, Palestine Chronicle reported.

A video published by Channel 13 late Sunday shows Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approving over the phone the deal that pulls the haredi Achi party out of the election race in exchange for a deputy ministerial post. In the recording, Education Minister Yoav Kisch lays out the arrangement he struck with Rabbi Haim Yosef Abergel, Achi’s spiritual leader, and Netanyahu replies “completely acceptable”, according to The Times of Israel. Because current law requires a deputy minister to be a sitting lawmaker, Kisch says Likud will seek to change the law so that someone who is not a member of the Knesset can also be appointed. Abergel, who faces accusations of sexual crimes against minors, announced the party’s withdrawal on Friday, and opposition leaders called the episode “corruption”.

US forces are prepared to launch a major attack against Iran within 96 hours of receiving the order from President Donald Trump, two US officials told CNN on Sunday, according to The Jerusalem Post; Israel has been preparing for possibly striking Iran, as well as lobbying the US to participate in the strikes, a source briefed on the matter told CNN, also according to The Jerusalem Post.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir have been locked in recent days in an unprecedented confrontation surrounding an instruction by the prime minister for unspecified military action that defense officials believe could lead to a swift confrontation with Iran shortly before the election, according to a report by an Israeli broadcaster cited by The Times of Israel; Zamir had been resisting carrying out the action and sought further deliberations, as well as signed documentation regarding legal authorization; Netanyahu denied the report late on Sunday night, saying “there is no confrontation”.

Nearly 2,000 Palestinians in Hebron were displaced as Israeli forces took over homes, according to The Guardian; Hebron Mayor Yousef al-Ja’bari told Al Jazeera that 2,200 people had been forced from their homes by Israeli troops and raids, and Israel’s defence minister confirmed “about 2,000” people displaced.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu published a video on Sunday in which he warned Iran and its proxies that they would suffer blows out of all proportion if they tried to disrupt the elections, according to the Middle East Eye. There are intelligence indications that Iran and its proxies could attack to disrupt the October 27 election, according to Iran International.

Iran remains fully united and on the highest level of alert amid continuing threats from the United States and Israel, Saeed Khatibzadeh, head of the Foreign Ministryʼs Center for Political and International Studies, has said, according to the Tehran Times.

The death toll from the Israeli air strikes on Gaza on Sunday rose to eight, and the Islamic University of Gaza suspended in-person classes for the rest of the week, according to the Middle East Eye, citing Al Jazeera.

Polls published on Friday put Israel's governing coalition and the main opposition bloc almost neck-and-neck, with half a million first-time voters casting ballots, according to the BBC. On the eve of the election, opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot said at a rally in Tel Aviv that Netanyahu “will stop at nothing — no lie, no extreme measure — to stay in power”, according to the Times of Israel.

US President Donald Trump endorsed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the second time in a Truth Social post on Sunday evening, days ahead of the Israeli election. In the message, Trump wrote: “Vote for Bibi Netanyahu for Prime Minister; we have to finish the job that we started!” He also tied the relationship with the United States to the outcome: “If Israel has the wrong leader, meaning anyone other than Bibi, America will have to do this job itself, and I'm not inclined to do that,” according to the Jerusalem Post.

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) chief of staff Eyal Zamir requested an in-depth discussion and formal authorization before carrying out a directive from the political echelon for an action related to Iran, according to the Jerusalem Post, citing Channel 12. Security officials told N12 the action could “trigger a rapid escalation into a confrontation with Iran”. Benjamin Netanyahu denied the report of an “unprecedented confrontation” with Zamir over the political leadership’s effort to order some kind of military action related to Iran just before Tuesday’s election, according to the Times of Israel.

Billionaire American investor Bill Ackman said on Sunday that far-right Israeli ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich should not serve in the next government, saying the two politicians had caused enormous damage to the country's reputation, the Times of Israel reported. The public intervention by the fund manager, who is Jewish, comes two days before Israel's general election, in which polls show a tight race between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition and the opposition.

Israeli forces sealed every major entry point into al-Khalil (Hebron), drove more than 2,200 Palestinians out of their homes and turned entire residential quarters into military barracks, according to the Tehran Times.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted on Sunday an AI-generated image depicting a nuclear explosion over Tel Aviv and warned, two days before the election, that voting for anyone other than him could expose Israelis to the danger of a “second Holocaust,” according to the Times of Israel. He also warned Iran and its regional allies against any attempt to disrupt the parliamentary election on October 27, according to the Hindustan Times.

An Israeli strike on the Islamic University in Gaza City killed three people and wounded eight on Sunday, according to hospital staff, despite a truce agreement that has failed to end the violence fully. Two sources at the university identified the dead as administrative staff and said students are among the wounded. In Khan Younis, at least two Palestinians were killed and four injured in Israeli air strikes, according to the Middle East Eye.

An Israeli settlers’ movement submitted a proposal to build a Jewish neighborhood of 122 housing units at the former site of the Shepherd Hotel in Sheikh Jarrah, according to the Middle East Eye. The application is scheduled for an initial hearing before Jerusalem’s Local Planning and Building Committee on 11 November.

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, requested a plan to circumvent banking sanctions using cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology, the Jerusalem Post reported. Economists and entrepreneurs called the proposal “bizarre” and said it offered “no help whatsoever”, according to the same outlet. In an interview on Saturday, Netanyahu said cryptocurrency was one of several possible options and that he would take the central bank’s objections into account, the Middle East Eye reported. In September, sanctions imposed by the UK and 11 other countries focused on the trade of goods from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said on Sunday that a potential resumption of war with Israel and the United States would not change his country's positions.

Israel and Greece held a joint naval exercise in the Mediterranean this week, practicing the identification and neutralization of maritime threats, sailing as a combined force and sinking a hostile vessel with missile fire, according to the Jerusalem Post.

Yashar, the party of Gadi Eisenkot, said on Sunday it had asked Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara and Central Elections Committee chairman Noam Sohlberg to stop a meeting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called with Police Commissioner Danny Levy on election integrity, according to the Jerusalem Post. Also on Sunday, the Shin Bet domestic intelligence service will begin providing protection for three opposition party leaders: Eisenkot, of Yashar; Yair Golan, of the Democrats; and Ofer Winter, of People of Israel, the Times of Israel reported. The newspaper said Eisenkot's party has led most recent opinion polls ahead of the vote.

The Israeli Army said all land crossings with the West Bank will be closed on election day, October 27, and that it would enforce a ban on the entry and exit of Palestinian workers throughout Judea and Samaria and the Jordan Valley, including industrial zones, according to The Hindu. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to exact a heavy price for Friday's attack, in which two Israeli soldiers were killed, and said he was planning an operation on a scale not seen since Israel first occupied the West Bank in 1967, according to the same newspaper.

Israel's Defence Minister Israel Katz acknowledged that Israeli forces forcibly displaced around 2,000 Palestinians from their homes in Hebron in the southern occupied West Bank, barring residents from returning until alleged “Hamas infrastructure” is dismantled, according to TRT World. Katz said about 2,000 residents had been displaced by the operation, which centred on the Ein Deir Baha and Farsh al-Hawa neighbourhoods and targeted homes, businesses, industrial sites and infrastructure, according to the BBC. The operation was announced by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday, in response to the killing of two Israeli soldiers by two Palestinian gunmen in an attack on a checkpoint, according to the BBC.

Hamas leaders in Gaza conveyed to the UN humanitarian coordinator in the Strip, Ramiz Alakbarov, a message that the group is prepared to carry out another attack like the one of October 7, 2023, and asked for it to be delivered to Israel, according to the Times of Israel, which cites Ynet. The message was passed on to the Israeli army’s chief liaison to the Palestinians, Major General Yoram Halevy, who wrote an urgent letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz stating that it is an unusual threat, which had never been conveyed with that level of bluntness and directness. The excerpt of the letter was published on Saturday evening by Channel 13, according to the same outlet.

The Israeli army said Palestinians with work permits will be barred from settlements in the occupied West Bank on Sunday and Monday, except industrial zones and other approved areas, according to the Middle East Eye.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the country needs to prepare an alternative economy capable of functioning by circumventing sanctions, with blockchain technology among the options under consideration, and said it is only a matter of time before US military aid, tens of billions of dollars for the defense budget, ends: "America has changed", he said, according to RT.

The Israeli military forced around 1,200 Palestinians to leave their homes in Hebron in the occupied West Bank on Saturday, a Palestinian official said, a day after a Palestinian attack killed two Israeli soldiers. The operation in the al-Jaladah and Ein Deir Baha neighbourhoods, near the military checkpoint at the entrance to the city, is meant to search for militants and weapons, and the military said it would carry out demolitions. Yousef Zouhair al-Jabari, the head of Hebron's municipality, said around 1,300 more residents faced losing their homes in addition to the 1,200 already displaced.

Iraq believes Israel was behind recent strikes on two sites where Iran-backed militias had stockpiled “Chinese-made shoulder-fired air defense systems” sourced from Tehran, sources told London-based Asharq Al-Awsat, as reported by the Jerusalem Post. The report did not provide evidence for the claims and noted that parts of them could not be confirmed.

Israeli artillery was shelling the town of al-Mansouri in southern Lebanon's Tyre district, according to Lebanon's National News Agency, as reported by the Middle East Eye.

Thousands of people gathered in Tel Aviv on Saturday for a large anti-government demonstration, three days ahead of a general election widely seen as a referendum on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to France 24. The protest was organised by the October Council, a group founded by the families of victims and of hostages taken by Palestinian militants on October 7, 2023, to demand accountability for the failure to prevent the Hamas attack that sparked the Gaza war. On Hostage Square, participants demanded a commission of inquiry into the failures of the October 7, 2023 massacre, with most opposition leaders present, according to the Jerusalem Post.

Israeli troops and the Civil Administration continued on Saturday to demolish buildings and infrastructure deemed illegal near the northern entrance to Hebron, as part of a large-scale military operation, according to the Jerusalem Post. During the operation, troops searched about 200 locations and arrested 10 suspects. Civilians who requested to evacuate were allowed to temporarily leave the area through designated checkpoints operated by the Shin Bet and the military.

Five Italian activists detained by Israeli forces in the West Bank this week were released and repatriated on Saturday morning, Italy's foreign ministry said, according to Reuters, in text published by The Hindu. The women were detained by Israeli police in the settlement of Kiryat Arba, next to Hebron, along with other international activists, while trying to protect Palestinian farmers during the olive harvest, according to the Times of India.

The Hebron municipality estimated that 35 hectares had been destroyed or marked for destruction, with about 1,500 people evicted from their homes in the Ein Deir Baha district by Saturday afternoon, according to The Guardian. Hebron Mayor Yousef al-Ja'bari told Al Jazeera that around 2,200 Palestinians had been forcibly displaced from their homes in the al-Jalda and Ein Deir Bahha neighbourhoods, as Israeli forces continue a military operation in the occupied West Bank. Days ahead of elections, Netanyahu said there is a “very big surprise” for the Palestinian Authority and, asked whether he would dismantle it, declined to answer directly, saying he favoured “ruse and surprise”, according to Malay Mail.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has decided that Israel should support Argentina on the Falkland Islands issue, according to the British newspaper The Telegraph, as reported by Ynetnews. The decision was prompted by sanctions Britain imposed about a month ago on Israeli settlements, and the newspaper stressed that the move amounts to support for negotiations, without formal recognition of Argentina’s sovereignty.

Around 1,500 Palestinians have been forced from their homes in the occupied West Bank since Friday, and more than 200 families have been left homeless, according to Middle East Eye. Hebron Governor Khaled Dudin called for international intervention and told the Wafa news agency, cited by Middle East Eye, that the Israelis plan to force out 2,500 further people in the coming hours.

Two Palestinians, including a girl, were killed and three others injured on Saturday morning in Israeli drone and artillery attacks on Gaza City and Beit Lahia, according to PressTV. An Israeli drone fired a missile at a gathering of civilians near Palestine Stadium in the al-Rimal neighbourhood, killing a young man identified as Mohammed Annan al-Rawagh, medical sources told the Wafa news agency.

The Israeli army kept up its siege of Hebron, in the southern occupied West Bank, for a second consecutive day on Saturday, forcing dozens of Palestinians from their homes, according to Palestinian media. Separately, Israeli forces detained 19 Palestinians in raids across the occupied West Bank, according to TRT World.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged that the end of US military aid to Israel is “only a matter of time”, Press TV reported. Speaking to Israel’s Channel 10 on Friday, he warned that Israel must prepare for the possibility that Washington will stop providing military assistance: “This is over, and it will end. It is only a matter of time.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the United States has spent 11 billion in taxpayer money on missile defense for Israel over the past three years, Mehr News reported. In a post on his X account late on Friday, the top diplomat wrote: “The US has, over the past three years, spent 11 BILLION in taxpayer money on missile defense for Israel.”

Ahead of the October 27 vote, polls show Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bloc neck and neck with that of his main centre-right rival, Gadi Eisenkot, according to The Hindu. The campaign has turned to AI-generated images: on Wednesday (October 21), Eisenkot posted on X a video wishing Netanyahu a happy 77th birthday featuring AI-generated characters, including a Hamas member speaking from a tunnel. A poll by the Israel Democracy Institute indicates that 37% of Jewish Israelis and 46% of Arab Israelis prefer new elections to forming a minority government or a unity government with rotation.

Israeli bulldozers demolished a three-storey building in Hebron, with families given five minutes to collect their belongings, as part of an operation the army said would last “for several days”, according to Al Jazeera. The announcement was made late on Friday and adds to operations by other forces in “dozens” of areas across the occupied West Bank. In the northern West Bank, Israeli forces raided at least 15 towns and detained dozens of Palestinians, according to Al Jazeera correspondents.

Israel’s military launched an operation in the Hebron area expected to last several days, with systematic searches for infrastructure and weapons and the questioning of dozens of suspects, following Friday morning’s deadly Hamas attack, according to a joint statement from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency). According to the Jerusalem Post, the searches focus on the area out of which the attackers operated. Troops from the IDF, the Shin Bet, the Border Police and the Civil Administration are carrying out “targeted and thorough searches… in the area to locate and dismantle terror infrastructure and weapons, and to interrogate many dozens of suspects,” according to the Times of Israel.

The Democratic Alliance’s candidate for mayor of Durban, Haniff Hoosen, said he would welcome Benjamin Netanyahu despite the International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant. Asked whether he would receive him should the Israeli prime minister travel to the city, he answered: “Why shouldn’t I if he comes to visit the city?”, in a mayoral debate earlier this week, according to Middle East Eye.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Israel could face banking sanctions and said he had ordered preparations for alternative financial mechanisms, including blockchain technology, in an interview with Channel 10, according to the Jerusalem Post. Asked whether blockchain technology could provide a means of dealing with economic sanctions, he replied: “One of them. Certainly. And I’ve already asked for a plan to be prepared for that.” Netanyahu also warned that US military aid cannot be taken for granted: “If you think we’re going to continue receiving what I secured twice, and that’s tens of billions of dollars in American aid for the defense budget, prepare yourselves and get used to the fact that it won’t happen, because America has changed.”

UN Secretary-General António Guterres expressed “deep concern” over escalating violence and widespread Israeli-imposed closures affecting Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank, he said, according to TRT World. On Friday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered an “immediate closure” of Hebron and instructed security forces to prepare for a “full lockdown” across the West Bank following a gun battle in the city. Israel locked down the occupied West Bank after the Hebron shooting, Al Jazeera reported. Guterres condemned the record number of attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in 2026, according to spokesman Dujarric.

Israeli military forces began on Friday, October 23, an operation to evacuate and demolish homes in the cities of Hebron and Halhul in the West Bank, according to Opera Mundi. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the military would go house to house and demolish homes in an operation on a scale unseen in the occupied West Bank for decades, according to The Guardian. According to RT, he said he had instructed the security forces to immediately blockade the city of Hebron and prepare to completely blockade the entire area of Judea and Samaria, the Israeli government's designation, from today. The shooting that prompted the response left five Israelis wounded and two suspected Palestinian attackers killed by Israeli security forces, according to Israeli officials cited by the BBC.

Armed settlers arrived in two vehicles near the Ajja roundabout, south of Jenin, and demolished a memorial to Shireen Abu Akleh, an Al Jazeera journalist, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa. The agency reported the destruction on Friday and attributed it to Israeli colonists.

Israel's military identified the two soldiers killed in Friday's shooting attack in the occupied West Bank: Staff Sergeant Ron Yonatan Roytman, 23, from Ashkelon, and Sergeant Yuval Shai Svilem, 20, from Hod Hasharon. Both fell in combat at the Judea Junction when two attackers travelling in a car opened fire on soldiers with an M4 machine gun and a pistol. Three other soldiers from the same battalion were lightly injured.

The final Maariv poll, conducted by Lazar Research and published on Friday, gives 54 seats to the opposition bloc and 48 to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc, a six-seat gap ahead of Tuesday’s Knesset election. Netanyahu’s Likud stands at 19 seats and Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar at 21. In a head-to-head race for prime minister, Eisenkot leads with 49% against Netanyahu’s 41%. The poll surveyed 1,048 people between October 19 and 22, with a maximum margin of error of 3 points. Sixty percent of Israelis prefer a unity government if the election produces no clear result, and 81% say they will certainly vote. El País, in its English edition, reports that most polls give Likud between 19 and 20 of the Knesset’s 120 seats, the party’s worst polling performance since 2006, and puts the coalition at around 50 seats.

A book excerpted by Vanity Fair says Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, had access during Trump’s first term to secret bank accounts holding some $2 billion provided by United Arab Emirates (UAE) leader Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Saudi royal Mohammed bin Salman, according to the Times of Israel. One of the accounts, in Israel’s central bank, was reportedly overseen by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Kushner denied all the allegations, as did former US ambassador to Israel David Friedman, who reportedly helped facilitate the arrangement.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said it instructed security forces to immediately cordon off Hebron and prepare a full closure of the West Bank starting Friday, according to the Associated Press (AP). The order came a few hours after an attack near Hebron that injured at least five people, some critically, the agency reported. Netanyahu blamed Hamas, saying the group was “planning a major attack aimed at murdering innocent civilians.”

Israeli forces arrested 36 Palestinians during raids across the occupied West Bank, as attacks on farmers intensify during the olive harvest, according to Al Jazeera. The Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission documented 17 attacks by Israeli forces and settlers on Thursday against farmers and land during the harvest.

A shooting attack was reported on Friday morning near the Judea Junction, by Hebron, with several people reportedly wounded, according to The Jerusalem Post. The Israeli military said it killed the two perpetrators and launched a manhunt for possible additional attackers. The two carried a handgun and an M16 rifle and were killed after a brief pursuit as they tried to flee, with roadblocks set up in the area, according to Ynet.

An Israeli air strike on a vehicle in Gaza City’s Tel al-Hawa neighbourhood killed at least one Palestinian and wounded others, according to the Middle East Eye. Another Israeli strike killed one Palestinian in Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, according to an Al-Awda Hospital source cited by Al Jazeera, also according to the Middle East Eye.

Members of the extremist Hilltop Youth group were filmed waving weapons and dancing to an anti-Zionist song at a wedding in Gush Etzion, in the West Bank, according to KAN News cited by The Jerusalem Post. Later that night, Jewish rioters set fire to a vehicle in the Palestinian village of Beit Umar and spray-painted a message referencing the wedding.

Israel's Supreme Court barred polling station officials and observers appointed by political parties from using digital tools to count voters and transmit the numbers in real time to the organisations they represent. The ruling was decided by two votes to one and overturned an authorisation granted by Dean Livne, interim director of the Central Elections Committee, who had allowed the practice. The measure comes days before Israel's parliamentary elections, set for October 27, 2026.

The UN has told Palestinian officials it will stop receiving Palestinians returning from Egypt and coordinating their entry into Gaza from mid-November, citing security risks and repeated Israeli arrests, according to Drop Site News, which quotes a senior source, in a report carried by Middle East Eye. The decision followed Israel's arrest of a Palestinian cancer patient and her daughter on Tuesday, when the Rafah crossing reopened after a suspension of about 10 days prompted by the detention of another returnee.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the most prominent pro-Israel lobby group in the US, announced on Wednesday (21) that it will stop endorsing candidates and making direct contributions to them, while keeping the work of its super PAC, United Democracy Project. In a letter to members, the group’s leadership said the 2026 election was “one of the most challenging environments in recent memory” and predicted that the difficulties “will continue to grow in the years ahead”. The New York Times reported that AIPAC plans to give as much as 9 million dollars to a PAC backing Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers over Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, and that the group had already spent 32 million dollars seeking to defeat El-Sayed in the primaries.

The final Times of Israel poll, published five days before the election, shows the two Jewish-led blocs tied at 51 seats each, well below the 61 needed for a majority coalition in the 120-seat Knesset. MK Ahmad Tibi, chairman of the Joint List faction, presented on Sunday evening a two-stage plan to prevent Benjamin Netanyahu from remaining in power after the election, proposing to support an alternative government from outside the coalition in exchange for commitments addressing the needs of Arab society.

Israeli forces killed a man with a disability during a raid into southern Syria on Thursday, Syrian authorities said, according to the Middle East Eye.

Israel has released nine of the 10 Israeli settler suspects arrested over attacks on a US journalist and European diplomats in the occupied West Bank, placing them under house arrest, according to Al Jazeera. Separately, the Palestinian Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission said on Thursday it had documented 17 West Bank pogroms by Israeli forces and settlers against Palestinian farmers and their land during the olive harvest.

Senior Israeli military officials presented intelligence to their US counterparts indicating that Hamas has no intention of disarming and is instead rebuilding its forces in the Gaza Strip in preparation for possible renewed fighting, the Haaretz daily reported on Thursday, according to The Times of Israel. According to the report, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) believe Hamas will not hand over its weapons to an international body and could be disarmed only through military operations, including entering areas of Gaza not currently under Israel’s control.

Israel's military and the US armed forces have drawn up plans to renew joint strikes on Iran in the coming weeks, according to two Israeli sources familiar with the plans, ABC News reported. The White House said on Thursday that the US will not resume attacks on Iran before the November 3 midterm elections.

An Israeli defense official confirmed on Thursday that Israel Defense Forces (IDF) intelligence continues to provide Saudi Arabia with exceptional capabilities to assist its military operations against the Houthis, through US mediation, the Jerusalem Post reported. According to the official, the assistance is provided in line with Israel’s national interests and directives from the political leadership, and serves to wear down an enemy that plans to attack Israel in the future.

Gaza’s Health Ministry says the Israeli war on the enclave has killed at least 74,498 people and wounded 175,616 since October 2023, according to Mehr News. The same toll records 1,538 Palestinians killed and 5,498 wounded since the October ceasefire.

Four Palestinians were killed in Gaza in the last 24 hours, including a 17-year-old girl shot in the head in the al-Faluja area of northern Gaza, according to Middle East Eye. Two more Palestinians, including a teenage girl, were killed by Israeli fire in areas of northern and southern Gaza, Al Jazeera and the Wafa news agency reported, citing medical sources.

Israeli forces shot dead a man with a disability in the village of Jamla, in Daraa’s western countryside, where they had deployed snipers on rooftops, early on Thursday, according to Syria’s state news agency Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA), cited by Al Jazeera. The victim’s body was taken to Daraa National Hospital, the agency added. The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the report. In a raid on Thursday in the village of Turnejeh, in the Quneitra countryside, Israeli forces searched homes and detained one person, according to SANA.

Israeli forces and illegal settlers carried out 23 attacks and violations against Palestinian farmers, their lands and crops, across seven governorates in the occupied West Bank, within 12 hours on Wednesday, according to a Palestinian commission cited by TRT World. A Palestinian farmer was shot in the hand with live fire while harvesting olives in the village of Osarin in Nablus.

Israel condemned on Wednesday a decision by the eastern-based parliament of divided Libya to ratify a memorandum of understanding with Turkey on maritime demarcations in the Mediterranean, the Times of Israel reported. Israel’s foreign ministry said the agreement infringes upon the sovereign rights of its close allies in the region and that, once again, Turkey is working to destabilize the eastern Mediterranean. Egypt reaffirmed that the memorandum “is null” and “possesses no legal effect”.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) informed members that it will cease officially endorsing US congressional candidates or directly fundraising on their behalf, according to The Times of Israel. The group will keep the United Democracy Project super PAC and emphasize mobilizing individual donors, according to CNBC, in a shift reversing the strategy adopted in 2021 amid growing political resistance, especially in Democratic primaries after the war in Gaza, also according to CNBC.

Israeli troops entered the village of Jamlah, in the western countryside of Daraa, with snipers on rooftops and house searches, according to Anadolu, a day after Israeli tanks shelled the outskirts of Abidin village in western Daraa, also according to Anadolu. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights recorded an Israeli patrol of two vehicles in the Wadi al-Raqad area of western Daraa, according to the Middle East Eye.

The United States and Israel have drawn up plans for renewed strikes on Iran for after the November 3 legislative elections, according to The New York Times in a text republished by The Times of Israel, with likely targets at energy sites, nuclear facilities and missile and drone arsenals — the new detail after the reports of a US veto and flights to the border. US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel this week to discuss the new strikes, according to The Jerusalem Post.

An Israeli settler was filmed shouting at and assaulting a Palestinian child during an attack on a family east of Yatta, in the occupied West Bank, where settler violence has surged in recent years, according to Al Jazeera. On Wednesday, the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court extended the remand of a suspect arrested on suspicion of involvement in settler attacks in the West Bank over the weekend, including attacks against a Washington Post photojournalist and European diplomats, according to the Times of Israel. The suspect, Nadav Cohen Tzemach, has a documented history of violence against Palestinians in the West Bank but has never been charged with any crimes, according to the same outlet.

Israel carried out a series of air strikes and explosions in several areas of southern Lebanon on Wednesday, according to Lebanon’s state National News Agency (NNA), cited by Middle East Eye.

Dozens of Israeli Air Force fighter jets conducted a sortie on Monday, flying as far as the Iranian border, according to Israeli and US officials cited by Axios. Israel notified Washington in advance and described the operation as a training exercise intended for “power projection”, aimed at deterring Iran from attacking ahead of next week’s election, Axios reported. The Times of Israel reported the same advance notice, described as a military exercise and a show of force.

Brad Lander was released with a warning on Wednesday while the other detained volunteers remained held, according to Protect the Harvest. About 80 US, Israeli and British volunteers were detained near Nahalin, in the West Bank, and taken to a police station, the Guardian reported. In a later post, Lander said the IDF released him “with a ‘warning,’ apparently because of my public profile,” according to Reuters.

President Donald Trump blocked an Israeli plan to attack Iran this month, according to the Financial Times, in a report published by G1. Sources told the newspaper the plan foresaw multi-day strikes starting October 10 against Iran's energy infrastructure, nuclear facilities and targets linked to the local government. The Jerusalem Post reports conflicting accounts, according to which the Israel Defense Forces were planning to strike Iran on October 10 before being reined in by Trump.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that his directive to the Israel Defense Forces, the Mossad and the defense establishment is to overthrow the regime in Iran. At an officer cadet graduation ceremony, he said the Iranian regime “has still not learned its lesson” and accused new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei of following “in his father's footsteps” in developing “the bombs of death”, according to the Middle East Eye. Defense Minister Israel Katz threatened: “If Iran attacks Israel, Iran will burn!”

Israel’s Transportation Ministry notified United Airlines on Wednesday that one of its pilots has been barred from entering Israel as a crew member because of his history of Iranian sympathies, the Jerusalem Post reported. The Diaspora Affairs and Combatting Antisemitism Ministry forwarded information that the pilot, Sina Amjadian, shared political and pro-Iranian regime posts on his social media accounts.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the Jerusalem Post he had warnings from military intelligence and the Mossad that Iran and its allies are considering ways to influence the elections. “We have clear warnings that we got from military intelligence, from the Mossad, that Iran and its proxies are considering ways to influence the elections,” he said. Netanyahu also said that about a year ago Iran was on the verge of developing several atomic bombs, and estimated that the country still possessed more than 1,000 missiles.

Israel’s military detained about 90 volunteers with Rabbis for Human Rights in the West Bank on Wednesday, including Democratic congressional nominee Brad Lander and former deputy attorney-general Yehoshua Schoffman, according to sources cited by the Jerusalem Post. The volunteers were accompanying Palestinian farmers during the olive harvest in the village of Nehalim near Bethlehem, an area farmers had been unable to access for three years, according to the group. NPR put the number at about 80 American and Israeli rabbis and activists detained as they helped Palestinians harvest olives near a settlement in the occupied West Bank.

President Emmanuel Macron criticized world leaders on Wednesday for making stupid comments about the rioting on the sidelines of protests in France and said images generated by artificial intelligence showed scenes that never took place in France, alongside claims that the country had been invaded by hordes of migrants and Islamists. According to Le Monde, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that France had been hit by an invasion of extremist Islam, and US President Donald Trump said what is happening in France has to do with immigration.

Malaysia barred civil servants from using the Waze navigation app after Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said the app’s Israeli origins raised security concerns, with the government weighing risks to user data and saying Waze would be subject to Israeli laws, and a letter from the chief secretary dated October 20 orders informing subordinates and enforcing compliance, according to Reuters.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed the military to prepare a multi-day operation against Iran for the weekend of October 10, targeting nuclear facilities, power plants and civilian infrastructure, as well as regime sites, according to Ynet. US President Donald Trump blocked the operation over not wanting to restart the war ahead of the November 3, 2026 midterm elections, and a source told the Financial Times (FT), according to The Jerusalem Post, that there will either be a deal or an attack, with a fresh round of strikes in the coming weeks as a realistic possibility.

Israeli attacks killed at least seven Palestinians in Gaza, including two children and a married couple, and wounded 10 others, according to TRT World, which describes the attacks as the latest breaches of an agreed ceasefire. In western Gaza City, an Israeli attack helicopter launched a missile at a residential home near Al-Shifa Hospital, killing a married couple and wounding four others, including three women.

Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on a podcast that Israel should annex the territory it occupies in Gaza and Lebanon so that they “truly feel the cost of their mistake”, according to the Middle East Eye. According to the outlet, he said the annexation should go “at least up to the lines we’re currently holding” and that, if Hezbollah attacks again, it would go “all the way to Beirut” and, if they attack again, “even beyond that”.

US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth confirmed on Tuesday that he visited US troops in Israel and spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to the Middle East Eye. Hegseth told reporters he would not discuss the nature of the private conversation and said they had been good partners and that he appreciated that.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said France has been hit by an “invasion of extremist Islam” after weekend protests over economic conditions degenerated into riots, according to the Times of Israel. In an interview with i24News, he said, according to the interpreter's translation, that French leaders “did not prepare in time” and “succumbed to the invasion of extremist Islam”. Netanyahu also said he told French President Emmanuel Macron after the October 7, 2023 attack that “if we do not eliminate them here, you will have them in Paris”, according to the Hindustan Times.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he discussed with US President Donald Trump on Sunday the need to topple Iran’s regime. According to Netanyahu, dismantling the Iranian government is key to preventing the country from rebuilding its nuclear programme and the so-called Axis of Resistance.

Between 2023 and 2025, 1,369 physicians left Israel for more than a year, according to a Tel Aviv University report cited by Middle East Eye. The head of the Israel Medical Association (IMA) called the emigration of physicians a strategic threat to Israel.

Blue and White (Kahol Lavan) leader Benny Gantz announced on Monday that he will not run in the October 27 election, saying he will continue to work for unity. Opinion polls had consistently shown his party below the 3.25 percent threshold needed to enter the 120-seat Knesset, according to Al Jazeera. The Jerusalem Post also reported his withdrawal.

US Vice President J. D. Vance declined to endorse Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s reelection on Monday, October 19, saying he endorses American candidates and is focused on the US midterm elections. The refusal came a day after President Donald Trump publicly backed Netanyahu, NBC News reported.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reportedly held a secret meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during an unannounced visit to Israel on Monday, according to the Axios news outlet, cited by The Times of Israel, which spoke to two sources with knowledge of the meeting. The meeting took place at the Ovda airbase in southern Israel, where US fighter jets and refuelers are stationed, the sources said.

At least four Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, health officials said. Medics said an Israeli air strike killed Akram Yassin and his wife Dina Abu Baker in an apartment in Gaza City, while in Khan Yunis a 17-year-old boy was killed by Israeli gunfire near the Qizan Al-Najar neighbourhood, according to the Middle East Eye.

An Israeli attack on an apartment in Gaza killed two people and injured others, according to The Associated Press. The Israeli military says it targeted a Hamas militant.

Lebanon rejects US-backed proposals for its troops to co-ordinate directly with the Israeli army, according to The National, ahead of Tuesday's round in Florida — Lebanese officials describe the talks as technical, to repeat the demand for a full Israeli withdrawal from the south, according to the same outlet.

Iran's envoy to the UN, Gholamhossein Darzi, wrote to the secretary-general and the Security Council against what he called the “arrogant threats” of US President Donald Trump and Israel, according to Mehr News — the letter cites reports that the White House and the Pentagon prepared military options including the possible use of the GBU-43/B bomb and says Israeli minister Yisrael Katz announced on October 18 he was ready to attack Iran and target all energy facilities, according to the same agency, and Iran requested an emergency Council meeting, condemnation and full reparation, according to Press TV.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called US President Donald Trump “by far, the greatest friend Israel has ever had”, in footage shared a day after Trump endorsed him ahead of Israel's elections — after Trump praised him on Sunday as a “great warrior prime minister” and a partner for peace, crediting him with joining the strikes on Iran in February, according to the Middle East Eye.

US Vice President JD Vance said he endorses American candidates and will not get involved in Israel's elections, according to TRT World. “I endorse American candidates, and that's where I'm focused on the midterms, so I'm not getting involved in Israeli elections,” he replied. The remarks stand in contrast to Donald Trump's endorsement of Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday, ahead of Israel's October 27 parliamentary elections.

A senior Palestinian official told AFP that Israeli settler attacks risk setting off an “explosion” in the West Bank while urging that the response remain peaceful, according to The Times of Israel. “The terrorism carried out by the army and settlers, under the supervision of the Israeli government… is a prelude to a coming reaction and explosion,” Rajoub told AFP in Cairo.

The Hind Rajab Foundation said it filed an urgent request with the US Department of Justice to arrest and prosecute an Israeli commander over his alleged involvement in the killing of five-year-old Hind Rajab, according to Middle East Eye.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel on Monday, eight days before Israeli elections. The visit was not announced and was reported by Axios, citing two sources familiar with the matter. The Pentagon and the Israeli embassy in Washington declined to comment, while the Prime Minister’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, according to Middle East Eye.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz declared over the weekend that troops would not withdraw from the areas they currently control in southern Lebanon and warned the military could advance toward Nabatieh and the Litani River if Hezbollah launches further attacks. Katz claimed that more than 60 villages and 23,000 homes had been destroyed in an area of roughly 700 square km under Israeli control and that around 200,000 residents had been displaced, according to RT.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unveiled an expanded map of the Middle East showing Israel and the United Arab Emirates aligned with the RSF, a Sudanese paramilitary accused of committing genocide in Darfur, and with separatists in Libya, Yemen and Somaliland, according to Middle East Eye. The map was part of Netanyahu’s unveiling on Sunday of a new security doctrine that emphasizes preemptive strikes and the creation of “buffer zones” on Israel’s borders.

A high-ranking Syrian government official told the Jerusalem Post that Damascus fears Druze armed groups will launch an offensive against government forces in the southern province of Sweida in the coming days, with Israel encouraging and supporting the operation. The official said Israeli aerial reconnaissance over Sweida and surrounding areas had intensified, along with more reconnaissance flights over Damascus and southern Syria.

Donald Trump formally endorsed Benjamin Netanyahu’s re-election and wrote that if Israel has “the wrong Leader, which would be anyone other than Bibi, America will have to do this work ourselves, and I am not inclined to do so”, in a Truth Social post on Sunday. Trump called Netanyahu a “great warrior prime minister and an even greater partner for peace” and said Iran had been “systematically destroyed both militarily and financially, and unless they change their ways, rapidly, we will soon finish the job”. The Israeli election will be on October 27, and Haaretz’s tracker projected on Sunday 52 seats for the opposition alliance led by Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party against 51 for the Likud-led coalition, with no outright majority for anyone.

Israeli police arrested ten suspects on suspicion of involvement in two coordinated attacks over the weekend against a US photojournalist, European diplomats and Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, according to the Middle East Eye, citing Israeli newspaper Haaretz. In a statement on Monday, the force said the detainees are under investigation over the weekend’s violence in the occupied West Bank, and that the cases include the attacks on The Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine and European diplomats, according to G1.

Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz announced on Monday that his party would withdraw from the election race just over a week before the October 27 election, the Jerusalem Post reported. The announcement came as polling had continuously shown Gantz’s party failing to cross the electoral threshold.

British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband on Monday urged companies and individuals not to submit bids for the E1 settlement project in the West Bank, the Jerusalem Post reported. The British government says it has created new powers allowing it to sanction individuals and companies involved in the construction of illegal settlements such as E1.

Israeli police said on Monday they were examining a complaint filed by the Rabbis for Human Rights NGO against Rabbi Dov Lior over a religious ruling that permits Jews to harvest olives belonging to Palestinians in the West Bank, the Times of Israel reported. In the ruling, written on Friday, Lior said Palestinian land “had essentially been stolen from Jews”, since the Jewish people never willingly relinquished its property in the Land of Israel, and that Jews were therefore permitted to harvest olive trees on Palestinian property “in order to show to the public our ownership of the land”.

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir placed the military on its “highest state of alert” ahead of next week’s election and canceled soldiers’ leave, the Times of Israel reported. Zamir said the IDF’s mission is to enable the democratic elections to take place on schedule and safely.

The State of Israel told the High Court of Justice that journalists should still be barred from entering Gaza without military escort, citing security risks, the Jerusalem Post reported. In a September 27 request, the Foreign Press Association (FPA) argued that conditions had changed substantially, including through arrangements allowing international aid workers to enter and move within Gaza.

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir has decided to deploy an additional Border Police company to the Judea and Samaria Division to combat rising nationalist violence in the West Bank, the Jerusalem Post reported. The company began training in August and is expected to take on dedicated operational missions in violence hotspots beginning in late November. Police arrested 10 suspects on suspicion of involvement in the violent incidents, violating a closed military zone order and illegal construction, the Times of Israel reported — two more than the eight announced earlier.

Israeli police arrested eight suspects over settler attacks on diplomats and a US photojournalist in the West Bank, in operation “Olive Leaf”, after settlers attacked Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine and European diplomats in separate incidents, according to The Hindu.

Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand said Israeli settler violence in the occupied West Bank, including recent attacks against European diplomats, is unacceptable, according to Mehr News.

US President Donald Trump endorsed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday late in his reelection campaign. Trump held off on a public endorsement until internal polling indicated that Netanyahu had a realistic chance of winning, and Netanyahu said Israel’s objectives against Iran are not dependent on American approval, according to The Jerusalem Post.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu published on the government’s official website, nine days before the October 27 parliamentary election, a three-page document setting out 10 principles to overhaul military strategy. The Israeli opposition ridiculed it as a collection of empty slogans, TRT World reported. On Sunday, Netanyahu warned that a future US president could be hostile towards Israel and called for new alliances with India and countries in Latin America, The Hindu reported. US President Donald Trump endorsed his ally Netanyahu on Sunday ahead of the election, the Korea Herald reported.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the country has unfinished business with Israel in a social media post responding to rhetoric from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mehr News reported. Araghchi wrote that Netanyahu “is driving America into another war to stay out of jail, whatever the consequences for Israel”.

The Israeli election on 27 October, the first since 2022, follows the Hamas-led attacks of 2023, the genocide in Gaza and the war on Iran, with key issues including the security of the occupied West Bank, the growth of settlements and compulsory military conscription for ultra-Orthodox communities, according to Middle East Eye, with Benjamin Netanyahu seeking a new term.

Israeli protesters disrupted a Tel Aviv university event featuring far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, chanting “There will be no fascism here”, staging a sit-in and scuffling with security personnel before Ben-Gvir left the venue under escort, according to Al Jazeera.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says settlers raided a Palestinian village, vandalized a building and set fire to a shed, according to The Times of Israel.

US diplomats visited a Christian Palestinian village in the West Bank on Sunday, following attacks by Israeli settlers on European diplomats and an American photojournalist in recent days. The European Union said Sunday that it “strongly condemns” an attack by a group of Israeli settlers on visiting European diplomats in the occupied West Bank, and urged full accountability and effective measures to prevent continued acts of violence and violent harassment against Palestinians, including during the ongoing olive harvest season, as well as against journalists.

The United Arab Emirates prosecutor general said on Saturday that the co-pilot of flydubai flight FZ1073, which was bound for Israel, attempted to carry out a “terrorist attack” with an axe during the flight. Captain Smit Machchhar described his reaction: “Immediately, my hand went to the knob that opens the door, and I screamed for my colleagues, screaming his name,” he told the Jerusalem Post.

Israeli settlers attacked European diplomats, a French mayor and the archbishop of Cambrai in Taybeh, in the occupied West Bank, on Saturday, injuring three people and damaging a car, according to the Tehran Times. Belgium’s deputy prime minister and foreign minister, Maxime Prévot, condemned the violence against Palestinians, foreign diplomats and journalists and said his country would continue to push for European Union sanctions on settlers.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a campaign address that the country must complete its important “tasks on all fronts” within the next two years, while Donald Trump is still US president. Elections to Israel’s Knesset, or parliament, will be held on October 27, 2026, and the leader of the winning party will be tasked with forming a new government, according to TASS.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Iranian regime “must fall, and I will bring it down”, he said, according to the Times of Israel.

US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee denounced the settler attack that left Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine badly beaten and needing surgery as a “despicable act of terror”, The Guardian reported.

US President Donald Trump declared his “complete and total endorsement” of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu less than 10 days before the October 27 election, Middle East Eye reported. “If Israel has the wrong Leader, which would be anyone other than Bibi, America will have to do this work ourselves, and I am not inclined to do so,” Trump said, according to the Jerusalem Post.

The Israeli government approved on Sunday the allocation of 2.5 billion shekels for “urgent defense procurement”, to be funded through across-the-board cuts of 4.9% to government ministries’ budgets, less than two weeks before the October 27 elections, according to the Jerusalem Post. The cuts affect key ministries such as education, health and welfare, and a legal opinion attached to the proposal warned of the implications of the cuts, noting the need for the government to exercise restraint in making decisions during the election period. The legal opinion also raised concerns that approving the funds so close to the elections could create an irreversible situation for the incoming government and risk prioritizing party interests over the public interest.

The European Union “strongly condemned” violent settler attacks in the West Bank, including attacks against European diplomats, the bloc’s foreign policy spokesperson said on Sunday, according to the Jerusalem Post. The statement came a day after Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot said Israeli settlers had attacked Palestinian civilians, European diplomats and a French mayor in the occupied West Bank. The Israeli prime minister’s office urged caution before drawing conclusions from reports of attacks on European diplomats by masked Israelis in “Judea and Samaria” — the name the Israeli government uses for the occupied West Bank — and said any violence against diplomats is unacceptable, according to the Jerusalem Post.

Hundreds of Palestinians on Sunday attended the funeral of 75 people, including women and children, whose remains were recently recovered from beneath the rubble of homes destroyed by Israeli forces in Gaza, according to TRT World. The victims belonged to around 20 families and the buildings were bombed while residents were inside during the early months of the war. In Gaza City, large crowds attended on Sunday morning the funerals of those 75 Palestinians recovered beneath the rubble in the al-Daraj neighborhood, according to the Palestinian agency WAFA.

Lebanon’s president, Joseph Aoun, told French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot that, if extending the mandate of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) proves impossible, the country welcomes any arrangement that ensures an international presence in the south, prevents a vacuum and avoids placing the Lebanese army in direct contact with the Israeli army, according to The Times of Israel. Barrot’s two-day visit to Beirut was aimed at discussing mechanisms for an international presence in the south, the scene of repeated conflicts between Israel and Hezbollah.

The Trump administration asked Israel to stop settler attacks in the occupied West Bank, according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine, who was attacked by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, underwent surgery on a finger that was nearly detached in the attack, her daughter said.

Israeli drone attacks killed at least six Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Saturday, according to Palestinian medical and emergency workers, and Gaza’s Health Ministry said 1,511 Palestinians had been killed and 5,375 injured since the US-brokered ceasefire was announced on October 10, 2025. Medical sources in Gaza said Israeli attacks had killed six Palestinians since dawn on Saturday, according to Middle East Eye.

Lebanon will send a military delegation to a US-backed trilateral meeting with Israel in Tampa, Florida, on Tuesday, President Joseph Aoun said on Saturday. In a statement from the presidency, Aoun said the delegation would present Lebanon’s demands for an end to Israeli escalation and push for outcomes in line with the US-brokered framework agreement reached in June. Aoun also called for the mandate of the UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, Unifil, to be extended through 2027.

Masked Israeli settlers attacked a delegation of European diplomats in the occupied West Bank, assaulting a French mayor and damaging cars, according to the BBC. The delegation also included officials from Belgium and Poland, according to Al Jazeera. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot demanded that Israel crack down on criminal violence after a French mayor was beaten by Israeli settlers in the West Bank, and top US diplomat Marco Rubio said the United States is very disturbed by footage of the assault and urged Israeli authorities to crack down on violence across the territory, according to TRT World.

Belgium condemned on Saturday an attack by Israeli settlers on a convoy of European diplomats in the occupied West Bank, during which a visiting French mayor was beaten. Witnesses told the Middle East Eye that diplomats from the French, Belgian and Polish missions had driven to Taybeh, a largely Christian village in the occupied West Bank, when settlers arrived to stop Palestinians from picking their olives. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar also condemned the attack, calling it “rioter” violence.

The European Council has warned that companies that become involved in the construction of the E1 settlement in the occupied West Bank could face legal, economic and reputational consequences, according to Middle East Eye. The warning came days before the October 19 deadline for bids in one of the construction tenders. The plan connects West Bank settlements with occupied East Jerusalem and would effectively cut the West Bank in half, making a Palestinian state unviable, according to the outlet. The alert came after Britain’s sanctions on Israeli settlements — including sanctions on bodies that finance settlement construction — came into effect earlier this week.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has urged Israel to halt and reverse the establishment of settlements in the occupied West Bank, calling the Palestinian issue “the greatest historical injustice of this century”, according to Russian state broadcaster RT. Wang said the immediate priority is to fully open access to Gaza, where two million civilians must not be left struggling to survive or exposed to a worsening humanitarian catastrophe. According to RT, he met Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Thursday on the sidelines of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) summit in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Israeli settlers attacked a diplomatic delegation that included the French consul in the occupied West Bank village of Taybeh, according to Middle East Eye. The village’s mayor, Suleiman Khourieh, told Al Jazeera that the settlers launched the attack on Saturday afternoon, the outlet reported.

At least one Palestinian has been killed and another wounded after Israeli drones struck a vehicle in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, according to the Middle East Eye, citing Al Jazeera and ambulance and emergency service sources. Four other Palestinians have been killed by Israeli drones in Gaza since Saturday morning.

Some Palestinians in Gaza have been displaced as many as eight times, according to Karl Baker, regional crisis coordinator for the Gaza response at the International Organisation for Migration (IOM). Materials needed for stronger roofing, concrete floors and more substantial walls are affected by Israel’s “dual-use” restrictions over security concerns, according to TRT World.

Al Jazeera has ascertained that at least 51 Syrians are still detained inside Israel, many of them first at the Sde Teiman military prison and later transferred to facilities run by the Israel Prison Service. In September, the Syrian Sijil Center, which monitors Israeli activity, documented 280 Israeli violations of the 1974 agreement between the two countries, including incursions, raids and arrests, as well as artillery and machine-gun fire, according to Al Jazeera.

The Nachala settlement movement said more than 700 of its activists established “a new community” in southern Israel overlooking Gaza City on Friday, and demanded the government move it into the north of the Strip, according to the Times of Israel. Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi of the Likud party said in a video at the site that, “with God’s help”, the next right-wing government “will keep planting and putting down roots in every part of our fatherland”.

Democrats party chairman Yair Golan questioned the ability of Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) chief David Zini to safeguard the upcoming Knesset elections, according to the Jerusalem Post. Golan linked his concerns to what he described as Zini’s failure to adequately address the “Qatargate” affair and Jewish settler extremist violence in the West Bank.

Of 635 minors held in Israeli prisons in 2025, 351 were placed in solitary confinement at least once, the vast majority of them Palestinians, including five boys aged 13 to 14, according to the Middle East Eye. Solitary confinement was imposed 666 times, with 154 minors isolated more than once, including 42 isolated between four and eight times, according to data obtained by two Israeli human rights organizations, the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel and Parents Against Child Detention, reported by Haaretz. The Israel Prison Service said 92% of the minors placed in isolation had not been sentenced, including 176 held pending the conclusion of legal proceedings and 115 detained without trial under Shin Bet orders in administrative detention, according to the Middle East Eye.

Hardline rabbi Dov Lior, the former chief rabbi of Kiryat Arba, issued a halachic ruling on Friday saying that Jews are allowed to harvest olives from Palestinian lands, drawing condemnation from a group of moderate Orthodox rabbis, according to the Times of Israel. Lior says Jews can harvest olives “in areas far away from Jewish communities to publicly demonstrate our ownership of the land, and in doing so fulfilling the commandment to conquer the land.” Tzohar, a group of moderate religious Zionist rabbis, condemned the ruling, writing that “theft is forbidden from anyone, Jew or non-Jew alike,” and that individuals cannot decide for themselves to confiscate others’ property for security purposes.

Israel said Thursday that the British Consulate in east Jerusalem has “ceased to function” in that capacity and that 20 staffers will leave the country, in what the Associated Press (AP) describes as the biggest diplomatic rift between the two close allies in decades. The dispute began last month, when the United Kingdom banned trade with Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, which the UN and much of the international community consider illegal. A sign outside the consulate was taken down, but Britain said the building remains open and a core staff will continue to deliver “vital services” and work with Palestinians.

The Washington Post condemned the beating of its photographer Heidi Levine and the theft of her equipment by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank and urged a thorough investigation and follow-through from the authorities, in a statement by executive editor Matt Murray cited by RT. The Committee to Protect Journalists documented at least 16 incidents involving 35 Palestinian, Israeli and international journalists in the first eight months of 2026 alone, figures already above those recorded in 2025.

UNICEF said more than 340 Palestinian children have been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire was announced, a little over a year ago. In the past two weeks alone, five boys and two girls were killed and at least 33 children were seriously injured in Israeli air strikes, drone strikes and gunfire across the Strip, and two more boys died of earlier injuries, according to Middle East Eye. UNICEF Global Deputy Spokesperson Ricardo Pires said in Geneva that some 800,000 children are still displaced, most living in tents or in dangerous bombed-out buildings, and called on the Israeli authorities to allow the entry of materials, equipment, spare parts, generators and engine oil.

Prosecutors in Rome have placed Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz, the chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces, Eyal Zamir, and military, police and prison officials under investigation over the treatment of Gaza flotilla activists, Italian prosecutors said on Friday, according to the Times of Israel. The case concerns alleged torture, kidnapping, personal injury, robbery and damage when Israeli forces intercepted small fleets of boats headed toward Gaza in 2025 and 2026.

US President Donald Trump said Saudi Arabia should take up Israel’s offer of help against Yemen’s Houthis, according to Middle East Eye. A diplomatic source cited by Haaretz said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had offered Riyadh help against the Houthis through US mediation.

Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine is one of two people injured and taken to hospitals in the Ramallah area during the attack by Israeli settlers on the annual olive harvest in the village of Abu Falah, in the West Bank, on Friday, according to Palestinian medics cited by Reuters, in a text republished by Al-Monitor. Dozens of masked settlers dressed in black burned olive trees and threw rocks at Palestinians in a coordinated attack on the village’s harvest. Le Monde reports that the Washington Post journalist was beaten by settlers.

Germany’s Social Democrats (SPD) and the Greens made commitments to Israel a condition for coalition talks with the left-wing party Die Linke to form Berlin’s next government, according to Middle East Eye. The document demanded of Die Linke declared “Israel’s right to exist” non-negotiable and rejected general boycotts against Israel.

Latvia ordered 84 combat vehicles from Spain’s GDELS-Santa Bárbara Sistemas for about €800 million, with all of them due to be delivered by 2029, according to Middle East Eye. The Mednieks infantry fighting vehicles carry UT30 MK2 unmanned turrets produced by Israel’s Elbit Systems, despite the arms embargo Spain declared on Israel last year.

Israeli settlers attacked olive harvesters in Abu Falah in the West Bank on Friday, injuring Palestinians and American photojournalist Heidi Levine of The Washington Post, according to The Times of Israel. From her hospital bed, Levine said she was pushed to the ground and kicked repeatedly, and that her flak jacket and helmet likely saved her.

Britain brought new regulations into force on Thursday that significantly expand its sanctions powers, enabling action against construction companies, developers and financial institutions supporting settlement expansion in the West Bank, according to the Jerusalem Post. The measures took effect four days before the deadline for submitting bids for construction in the E1 area between Jerusalem and Ma’aleh Adumim, amid a diplomatic dispute between Israel and Britain.

More than 700 people took part in establishing the “Pioneers of Gaza” outpost, according to the Nachala movement, which says it formed a “new community” next to the Gaza Strip fence, overlooking the ruins of Gaza City — the Israeli army blocked routes near kibbutzim Netzarim and Kfar Aza on Friday, citing concerns that civilians might enter Gaza to establish unauthorized settlements.

The Israeli army said it killed a Hamas commander who took part in the October 7 massacre and a Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) member in Khan Yunis in two separate Thursday strikes — those killed were identified as Mohammed Mohammed Abd al-Khalek Hala, a commander in Hamas’ military wing, and Ahmad Jabrin Tawfiq Dalhan, of Islamic Jihad’s military wing, who, according to the military spokesperson, had recently attempted to attack Israeli troops or civilians in violation of the ceasefire and were eliminated to remove the threat.

The Nachala settlement group says it has formed a new community next to the border with the Gaza Strip, overlooking the ruins of Gaza City, according to the group in a text by The Times of Israel. The action reportedly brought together over 700 people, including bereaved families, people injured in the war, rabbis and public figures, and the group demands that the government authorize the transfer of the community into the northern part of the Strip, where there were settlements until the 2005 evacuation.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi called on Israel to halt and reverse settlements in the West Bank during a meeting with Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Baku, on the sidelines of the seventh summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA). Wang said the Palestinian question is the greatest historical injustice of the 21st century and that the two-state solution is the right path to resolving it, and called for the full opening of access routes into Gaza to prevent a worsening humanitarian disaster. China’s foreign ministry said Wang called on Israel to stop and reverse its “forced establishment” of West Bank settlements.

Asked by Newsmax whether he trusts Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US President Donald Trump said he doesn’t trust anybody, adding: “In the world of politics I don’t trust anybody.” The question comes as Trump has recently been pressed several times on whether he will make an endorsement ahead of Israel’s October 27 election, which he has declined to say if he’ll do.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, announced they had killed Basel Nabil Abd Al-Rahman Kashta and Ahmad Raja Al-Shaer in Khan Yunis for alleged involvement in smuggling weapons and other military assets into Gaza, according to a joint statement. According to the statement, the two were killed to eliminate “an immediate threat to Israeli civilians and IDF troops operating in the Yellow Line area”. The IDF and Shin Bet added that precise munitions and aerial surveillance were used to mitigate unnecessary harm to civilians.

Nickolay Mladenov, director-general of the Peace Council, said on Thursday that he had received a letter from the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) informing him of the suspension of coordination for private-sector goods entering Gaza. Mladenov called the suspension unacceptable and said that “civilian supplies, humanitarian assistance and commercial activity must be protected from coercion, exploitation and interference”. Gazan merchants told COGAT that they had made the decision in response to a 10,000 shekel ($3,220) fee imposed by Hamas on each truck entering Gaza and a demand that 30% of all their sales in Gaza be carried out in cash, according to The Jerusalem Post.

The Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission (CWRC) said on Thursday that it had documented 21 attacks by Israeli forces and settlers against Palestinian farmers and their lands in the last 12 hours, according to the Wafa news agency, in a text by the Middle East Eye.

The Stop the Settlements Act bill reached 53 co-sponsors this week, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ro Khanna, according to The Jerusalem Post. The text calls for sanctions on anyone determined to be complicit in the construction of “any Israeli settlement or outpost on or after September 30, 2026”.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s foreign policy adviser, Ophir Falk, told The Jerusalem Post that Israel is “very close” to creating the conditions for regime change in Iran, and that the decision is up to the Iranian people.

Representatives from Iran, Turkey, Kuwait, Pakistan and the Palestinian Authority walked out of Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s speech on Thursday at the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA) in Baku, according to The Jerusalem Post.

Israel barred a US contractor from Gaza, blocking the base for Moroccan and Kosovan troops, according to Middle East Eye. The contractor was building a fortified compound for approximately 150 international troops, according to Ynetnews, citing the Guardian.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed on Thursday that he spoke with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa and claimed he stopped last year’s massacres of Druze in Syria. According to Netanyahu, the conversation was very short and very sharp, and the massacre stopped.

Former US President Barack Obama said in Belfast that Israel took land from Palestinians and was excessive, and that those people understandably said that this was injustice and that they wanted their land back. Elsewhere, Obama said that, if the attitude of Israel is that, now that it is the strongest and the most technologically advanced in the region, its security will depend on simply doing whatever it needs.

Six Palestinian farmers petitioned Israel’s High Court of Justice to restore access to farmland blocked for three years around Nahalin, in the occupied West Bank. The petition was filed by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, which is seeking an urgent hearing as the olive harvest begins, according to The Jerusalem Post.

Former US vice president Kamala Harris criticized the administration of former US president Joe Biden over its response to Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza during the 2026 Asan Memorial Lecture in Seoul on Wednesday. Harris said the United States needed to uphold its obligation to international law and that the Biden administration’s response was a failure in that regard. She also criticized the current US government, under US President Donald Trump, saying it “offers Netanyahu a blank check.”

Israeli digital advertising agency Discover-Tech spied on internet users through a sprawling network of online ads that it used to track targets and help hack their devices, the research groups Citizen Lab and Confiant said, in a report by The Jerusalem Post. Its services gave Candiru, an Israeli spyware company blacklisted by the US government, and other Israeli surveillance firms access to advertising platforms run by Google, Comcast, Russia’s Yandex and others. According to Citizen Lab, a powerful form of Candiru spyware delivered through Discover-Tech’s ads compromised 45 Windows devices at the Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera between 2024 and 2025, confirmed through network logs from the media group. Google said it had collaborated with Citizen Lab and Confiant on the investigation and kicked Discover-Tech off its ad platforms for “systematically violating our policies.”

Iran instructed Hezbollah to raise its level of military readiness for a possible confrontation, according to Lebanese security and military sources cited by the Emirati site Erem News, in a report by The Jerusalem Post. All full-time Hezbollah members who receive monthly salaries were summoned, with the caveat that the directions were only preparations for a near-term scenario, with no final decision to go to war. Over the past two weeks, Hezbollah launched at least three drones and intelligence-gathering devices toward the security zone in southern Lebanon, according to Israeli Army Radio. Israel tried to intercept all three items and managed to bring down only one, according to the report in Hebrew media reproduced by The Cradle.

An Israeli drone strike targeting a group of Palestinians in Gaza City killed one man and wounded dozens, Wafa reported, according to the Middle East Eye. The strike hit the group of civilians near the Ibad al-Rahman School on al-Jalaa Street, in the city’s northwest.

The UK’s new sanctions regime against Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank came into effect on Thursday, October 15, days before the October 19 deadline for construction tender bids for the E1 settlement, with Israel having closed the British consulate last week in protest, forcing the withdrawal of 21 diplomats and the downgrade of the consulate to mission status, according to Middle East Eye.

The contract for the first Board of Peace base in Gaza was issued in August to Louisiana-based Arkel International, which would build a base for 150 international troops serving as the vanguard of an international stabilisation force, according to Middle East Eye, citing the Guardian. Contractors and trucks are not being allowed to cross into Gaza to begin the work, and “Israel won’t open the border,” a source told the Guardian, according to the same report.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog traveled to Azerbaijan on Wednesday for the seventh summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA), where he met Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Bahrain’s Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid al-Zayani in Baku. Herzog and Aliyev discussed ways to deepen the strategic relationship between the two countries, the President’s Office confirmed. Herzog’s meeting with al-Zayani focused on the necessity of strengthening the Abraham Accords and expanding peace and cooperation.

Israel has still not allowed the contract for the first Board of Peace base in Gaza to move forward, two months after it was issued, the Guardian reported, citing a person with direct knowledge of the matter. The organization, authorized by the UN in 2025 and chaired by US President Donald Trump, issued its first construction contract for Gaza in early August: Louisiana-based Arkel International would build a military outpost for 150 international troops, the vanguard of an international stabilization force. Contractors and trucks are not being allowed to cross into Gaza and begin the work. “Israel won’t open the border,” they said.

Four Palestinians were killed on Wednesday in Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian officials said, in an AFP text republished by Arab News, days after the anniversary of the declaration of a US-mediated ceasefire. Two young men died when Israeli forces struck a vehicle near Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, according to civil defense spokesman Mahmoud Bassal and Nasser Hospital. The Israeli military did not immediately give details on the strikes.

The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and the Palestinian Territories and head of the Supreme Fatwa Council, Sheikh Muhammad Ahmad Hussein, issued a fatwa on Tuesday banning the purchase of olive products from settlers, in response to escalating settler violence, especially against olive trees this harvest season, his office said. Under the ruling, it is forbidden to buy olive products “stolen from Palestinian trees and sold by [settlers], due to the great evils involved.”

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz threatened to seize more territory in southern Lebanon, in the areas of Nabatieh and the Litani River, if Hezbollah joins an Iranian attack, during a visit to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF)’s buffer zone. “If Hezbollah joins Iran in an attack on Israel, it will be dealt a heavy blow and lose additional territory in southern Lebanon, in the areas of Nabatieh and the Litani [River], which will become part of a permanent Israeli security zone — the IDF is prepared to launch a [new expanded] invasion,” he said. Katz also said that “more than 1 million Shiites will become displaced in Lebanon.”

Netanyahu said in an interview with Army Radio that a preemptive strike on Iran before the elections would be inconvenient timing for Israel: “I don’t think the timing is convenient for us.” An Israeli security official assessed on Wednesday that Israel is unlikely to launch a preemptive strike against Iran before the elections, according to Ynetnews. Israeli authorities have heightened their alert against Iranian interference in the vote. IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir warned senior US administration and military officials that an escalation with Iran could lead to the postponement of Israel’s elections, scheduled for October 27, according to Ynetnews.

Israel’s military told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that soldiers were dispatched to Mikhmas, in the occupied West Bank, following a report of graffiti and arson at the mosque and damage to a vehicle, and that no suspects were identified. An AFP journalist reported that slogans were spraypainted in Hebrew on the exterior walls, including “just because we are quiet doesn’t mean we are asleep”. Israeli settlers set fire to a mosque, an olive tree and a vehicle in the occupied West Bank, according to Al Jazeera, amid Israeli forces’ raids on villages across the territory.

Colombia opened its embassy in Jerusalem on Wednesday, becoming the 10th country to do so, as new President Abelardo de la Espriella reversed his predecessor’s break with Israel, according to the Jerusalem Post. On Tuesday, the free trade agreement that was terminated by Petro was reinstated. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and his Colombian counterpart, Omar Bula Escobar, attended the inauguration, according to Middle East Eye. Former president Gustavo Petro had broken diplomatic relations with Israel in May 2024 over its actions in Gaza and had heavily criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Jewish settler extremists attacked the West Bank village of Mukhmas on Tuesday night, setting fire to a mosque, a vehicle and an olive tree, according to the Jerusalem Post, citing Israeli and Palestinian media. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) arrived at the area, but no suspects were found and no arrests were made.

Israeli artillery struck Mansouri and Majdal Zoun in the western sector of southern Lebanon, according to the Lebanese state news agency NNA in a text republished by Anadolu Ajansı. Shelling also hit the outskirts of Haddatha, Baraachit, Shaqra and Wadi al-Salouqi, as well as the Al-Araish area between Haris and Haddatha, with no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

Israeli defense officials assess that the Houthi threat has intensified amid fighting with Saudi Arabia and are preparing for a possible surprise attack against Israel by land or sea, according to The Jerusalem Post. The preparations include reserve and rapid-response troops in the Eilat area, with training exercises, weapons systems and coordination among ground, naval and air units.

A Palestinian woman was killed in an Israeli strike targeting an apartment near the al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza, according to Al Jazeera reporters cited by Middle East Eye.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the return of Palestinians displaced from refugee camps in the northern occupied West Bank and vowed that Israeli forces would remain in control of the area, according to Anadolu Agency. Netanyahu said that the displaced are not residents but terrorists, in response to remarks in the High Court of Justice about the return, while tens of thousands remain unable to return to the Jenin, Nur Shams and Tulkarm camps since January 2025, according to Al Arabiya (AFP).

A Delta Air Lines flight from New York to Tel Aviv was denied clearance for takeoff after police received a phone call claiming a bomb had been planted on board, according to The Jerusalem Post. It was the second case that day: on Tuesday morning, another Delta aircraft that landed at Ben-Gurion Airport was searched, and the incident ended without any unusual findings. Authorities suspect the same person called in both threats.

An Israeli military vehicle ran over and injured three Palestinians during an incursion into Ya’bad, west of Jenin in the occupied West Bank, according to Middle East Eye.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with US President Donald Trump last week to discuss the possibility of a renewed military campaign against Iran before Knesset elections at the end of October, according to an Axios report cited by The Jerusalem Post. Senior US officials told Axios that Netanyahu cited alleged Iranian efforts to rebuild nuclear capacity as the reason for launching new strikes.

The Israeli army has arrested more than 200 people in southern Syria since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in December 2024, according to the Sijil Centre, which tracks Israeli activity in Syria, in a France 24 Observers report. Witnesses have denounced the arbitrary arrests, and former detainees and their loved ones have raised concerns over detention conditions.

A Palestinian family was attacked at home in the early hours of this Tuesday by masked men posing as Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers, near Kusra in the West Bank, according to a KAN News report published by the Jerusalem Post. The father, the mother and two teenage daughters were beaten and taken to a hospital in Nablus. According to the same report, the mother and the two daughters tried to help the father and were also beaten.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) will control the territory from the Jordan River to the sea, during a visit to the separation line in the West Bank: “We are safeguarding the area from the Jordan River to the sea. Our country, our control,” he declared, according to the Jerusalem Post. During the same visit, he called the Tulkarm camp a terrorist stronghold and rejected the Supreme Court order on the return of displaced Palestinians: “I heard that someone at the High Court of Justice says the residents should be brought back here. These are not residents; they are terrorists.”

US President Donald Trump stopped short of committing to support any candidate in Israel’s October 27 election, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to the Jerusalem Post. Trump had already thrice dodged a direct endorsement of Netanyahu in a recent Time magazine interview, according to Al Jazeera.

Israeli forces demolished between 50 and 80 homes and a mosque belonging to a Bedouin Palestinian clan on Monday, leaving about 250 people homeless, according to Middle East Eye. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that the demolitions began late on Sunday near the city of Rahat after an Israeli court rejected a request to postpone the orders.

Two Maldivian pilots employed by flydubai were taken into custody in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on October 3, and their families have been formally informed of their detention by the Maldivian embassy in the UAE, according to The Hindu. Flight FZ1073, carrying 174 passengers and crew members, was travelling from Dubai to Tel Aviv when the alleged attack took place. The UAE has described the incident as an attempted terrorist attack and identified the accused co-pilot as 29-year-old al-Hammami.

Israeli forces wounded a child with live ammunition during attacks in Ramallah and Al-Bireh, in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Health Ministry says. Troops entered several Palestinian nongovernmental organizations’ (NGOs) offices and the courtyard of the Palestine Medical Complex, according to Middle East Eye. Wafa identified two injured journalists: Palestine TV’s Khaled Mattawa, who sustained a hand injury from a sound bomb, and Sky News Arabia’s Firas Lotfi, who suffered a shrapnel wound to his foot.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that holding the country's enemies accountable for military aggression and environmental damage is an undeniable necessity, and that US and Israeli attacks on Iran and on oil and energy targets created serious environmental hazards, according to Mehr News, adding that Iran “neither forgives nor forgets.”

Israeli forces have raided multiple locations across the occupied West Bank since late Monday, storming homes and detaining at least three Palestinian men, according to local sources cited by Middle East Eye. The raids targeted the city of Qalqilyah; the town of Idhna, west of Hebron; the al-Jalajel area in Hebron; the village of Tal, southwest of Nablus; the town of Madama, south of Nablus; and the town of al-Yamun, west of Jenin, among others, according to the outlet.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited on Monday victims of the explosion of a Hezbollah cluster munition in northern Israel, among them 14-year-old student Eitan Masouri, who told the prime minister he realised he was injured, saw a friend wounded and tried to help him, according to The Jerusalem Post. Upper Galilee Regional Council head Asaf Langleben demanded that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) search areas open to hikers after an unexploded Hezbollah munition killed one person and injured 24, according to The Jerusalem Post, and said hiking in the region would continue.

Saudi Arabia rejected an Israeli offer to join the Saudi forces in Yemen, according to Middle East Eye, which cites a diplomatic source heard by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. The same account says Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is attempting, through US mediation, to persuade Riyadh to allow Israel to intervene in Yemen, but Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman remains uninterested.

A blast caused by unexploded ordnance in northern Israel, near the Lebanese border, injured approximately 20 people, according to Al Jazeera. Israel’s Magen David Adom said paramedics were treating eight casualties in serious and moderate condition, as well as several additional casualties in mild condition, after the explosion, which police said occurred near the community of Neot Mordechai. The Jerusalem Post reported 12 people wounded, including two in serious condition, according to initial reports.

N12 published on Sunday a transcript in which former chief of staff Tzachi Braverman asks a stenographer to change the time of the Netanyahu–Gil phone call from 6:40 to 6:29 on 10/7/2023, according to The Jerusalem Post citing N12. According to the transcript, Braverman said “it was at 6:29, not 6:40. Change the time”. Former military secretary Avi Gil accused Braverman of ordering the time changed, according to the same paper. Braverman’s defence denies it and says the transcript is false, according to the same paper.

The Palestine Information Center (Moata), in a report published on Sunday, said demolitions hit 2,143 homes and 9,477 structures and facilities in the West Bank in three years, while a United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights report cited in the same text noted hundreds of demolished residential structures and harm to transportation networks and essential service infrastructure, according to Mehr News. Israel’s Supreme Court instructed the state to detail the timetable and acceleration of measures to enable return to the Jenin, Tulkarm and Nur Shams camps, without ordering the immediate return of residents or the withdrawal of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) from the camps, according to The Jerusalem Post. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz to instruct the IDF not to cooperate with the Court, according to the same paper.

A retired Lebanese soldier was killed on Sunday by Israeli artillery fire while tending his land during the annual olive harvest in southern Lebanon, according to the Lebanese army. The Lebanese army identified him as Ali Abdul Hassan Sweidan and said he was directly targeted while inspecting his property in Yater, in Bint Jbeil district.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on Sunday evening on the chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the head of the Shin Bet and the attorney general to launch a comprehensive investigation into participants in the documentary “NAZA”, according to i24NEWS. Netanyahu urged the authorities to prosecute those involved for alleged serious information security offenses, criminal libel and harm to Israel’s diplomatic and security interests. The documentary features anonymous testimony from 24 people presented as Israeli soldiers and intelligence personnel, including allegations about the use of artificial intelligence in targeting operations and the consequences for civilians.

At least four Palestinians were killed and several others wounded in an Israeli air strike in the southern Gaza Strip, according to regional media. The strike targeted a fuel depot this evening in the Al-Buraq Al-Janoubi area, west of Khan Younis, according to the Palestinian Wafa news agency, cited by Al Jazeera.

Israeli authorities barred British journalist Secunder Kermani from entering the country on Sunday, in a clampdown on international journalists reporting on the country, according to Middle East Eye. Kermani said he had just arrived in Tel Aviv for coverage ahead of the Israeli elections and was only then told that the authorities were denying him entry to the country.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry said, according to TASS, that the death toll since the start of the armed escalation on March 2 has risen to 4,387, with 12,424 wounded. In the south of the country, two men were killed in the Bint Jbeil district during the annual olive harvest, and the Lebanese army blamed Israeli tank fire and called the attacks a flagrant breach of existing agreements, according to Lebanese state media and local authorities.

Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said that Tehran will take the legal case over the US strike on the Shajareh Tayyebeh school in Minab to foreign courts. According to him, the school was hit three times by missiles in the early hours of February 28, 2026, in what Tehran describes as the start of the joint US-Israeli aggression against Iran, and 168 people died, mostly schoolchildren, along with a number of parents and teachers.

Israeli opposition leaders demanded a criminal investigation into Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after his former military secretary, Avi Gil, said in an interview that the Prime Minister’s Office tampered with records from the day of the attack. According to Gil, Netanyahu’s chief of staff sought to have a 6:40 a.m. call recorded as having been made at 6:29 a.m., the minute the attack began. The former adviser also accused Netanyahu of prioritising his political survival over a deal that would free the captives.

US Security Coordinator Lt. Gen. Sean M. Salene criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government for stalling measures in Donald Trump's plan that strengthen the Palestinian Authority in Gaza, especially the training of a new Palestinian police force. Top US officials have accused Netanyahu of delaying aspects of the October 2025 ceasefire plan designed to replace Hamas with new Palestinian political and security mechanisms in Gaza.

Israeli authorities installed three iron gates across a 200-metre stretch of Hebron's Old City a few days ago, according to Al Jazeera. Approximately 40 percent of the 89 checkpoints in the West Bank and 11 percent of all 925 movement obstacles are located in the H2 area of Hebron, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it struck three Hamas weapons storage facilities, a command center and a missile launch site in the Gaza Strip, according to TASS. The IDF said advance warnings were issued to the population and precision munitions and aerial surveillance were used, according to the same source.

The Council for a Secure America ranked Kuwait as the Middle Eastern country most likely to join the Abraham Accords, followed by Lebanon and Syria, according to the Jerusalem Post, in a Media Line text. The “Expansion Opportunities: Middle East Analysis” report of October 8 assessed nine Muslim-majority countries without formal diplomatic relations with Israel. Lebanon placed second after signing a US-brokered “Trilateral Framework” in June; Syria placed third after talks accelerated post-Assad.

Check Point research describes hundreds of hacking attempts that targeted consumer security cameras around the Middle East, according to Wired. Russia and Ukraine have ramped up camera-hacking in their war, aiming to spy on each other, find new targets and assess damage from their attacks, according to The Wall Street Journal, in a text republished by LiveMint. The Jerusalem Post reported that hackers use security cameras to track troops and military targets in Israel and Ukraine.

A seven-year-old Palestinian child died on Sunday after being shot by Israeli forces in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip, according to the WAFA news agency. Middle East Eye reported on Sunday the killing of a Palestinian child by Israeli gunfire in northern Gaza. The victim was identified as Jihad al-Ghandour, shot on Saturday near al-Houja Street in Jabalia camp, according to medical sources cited by WAFA.

Israeli settlers stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque under police protection, according to Middle East Eye.

Israeli warplanes carried out two airstrikes on the town of Mansouri in southern Lebanon, according to the Mehr News Agency, which describes the action as a ceasefire violation.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Central Command completed preparations on October 8 for the coordinated Palestinian olive harvest in the West Bank, according to The Jerusalem Post. About 200 Palestinians and activists gathered opposite an illegal outpost and a confrontation with 20 settlers developed, including stone-throwing, until the IDF arrived to separate the sides.

At least six people were injured by Israeli gunfire in Khan Younis, according to the Nasser Medical Complex in Gaza, cited by Al Jazeera, in a text by Middle East Eye. In the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces closed all entrances to the village of Madama, south of Nablus, on Sunday morning, preventing residents from entering or leaving, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.

Hundreds of doctors protested outside the World Medical Association (WMA) summit in Rotterdam, calling for the suspension of the Israeli Medical Association (IMA), according to Al Jazeera. On Saturday, 81 healthcare workers removed their scrubs and hung them in a line facing the WMA assembly in Rotterdam, each bearing the name of a Palestinian healthcare worker held in Israeli detention. The IMA OUT! campaign said it delivered a petition with more than 6,500 signatures from health workers around the world calling for the suspension.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Nobel Peace laureate Navi Pillay a “bigot” and the prize committee “misguided,” according to the Jerusalem Post. The Prime Minister's Office said the committee had lost its moral compass by awarding its highest honor to someone who built a career around inventing and propagating blood libels against the only Jewish state. Israel's Foreign Ministry rejected Pillay's genocide allegations.

A senior Israeli security official told Walla that Hamas is showing signs of preparing for attacks against Israeli forces, according to the Jerusalem Post. Israeli intelligence had identified indications that Hamas was planning to confront IDF troops along the Yellow Line, according to the same official. Asked about the possibility of a large-scale confrontation before Israel's October 27 elections, the official assessed the likelihood as low.

Air France has agreed to enforce an Israeli order barring pilots and cabin crew of certain nationalities from flights to Israel, including those from Muslim-majority countries, according to a Mediapart investigation reported by Middle East Eye. The restrictions cover 31 nationalities, including Algerian, Tunisian, Iranian and Pakistani citizens, and also affect French citizens with dual nationality. Israel's Ministry of Transport issued the directive on October 1, requiring crew in Israeli airspace not to hold the nationality of a country without diplomatic relations with Israel, according to Israeli broadcaster N12.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are investigating a possible ground or air intrusion into northern Israel, Army Radio reported, according to The Jerusalem Post, with the Northern Command deploying checkpoints in the area. The earlier hostile aircraft infiltration alert occurred in the area of Arab al-Aramshe, triggered by a suspected drone launch from Lebanon.

Thousands of people marched across Europe to demand an end to Israel’s war on Gaza, according to Al Jazeera.

International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) President Mirjana Spoljaric said she met former Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Qatar on two separate occasions to arrange a visit to Israeli hostages held in Gaza, according to The Jerusalem Post. Spoljaric said the ICRC had no access to the hostages.

Gadi Eisenkot, chairman of the Yashar! party, called on Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara to decide whether to indict Tzachi Braverman, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s former chief of staff, and others before the upcoming elections, according to The Jerusalem Post. Braverman acknowledged changing the recorded time of a conversation between Netanyahu and the military secretary on the morning of October 7, police sources say. Former military secretary Avi Gil said the time of the call was changed from 6:40 a.m. to 6:29 a.m.

Former Biden administration official Phil Gordon said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu introduced a series of new conditions against the advice of his own security chiefs, making a hostage deal impossible for another six months after July 2024, in a post cited by the Jerusalem Post. According to Gordon, during that period nearly 9,000 additional Palestinians were killed and more Israeli hostages died, including the six executed by Hamas in August. Among the new demands cited by Gordon was retaining Israeli forces along Gaza's entire border with Egypt — a stretch the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had seized only after the original proposal had already been made — as well as a screening mechanism for Palestinians returning north.

The United States pressed Israel to carry out a solo strike operation against Iran during discussions between the two countries over the past two weeks, sources told Maariv, in a report published by the Jerusalem Post. Washington wanted Israel to assume the political risks of a military operation ahead of the US midterm elections, rather than US President Donald Trump. The US has since backed down from its demand, at least for now, and Netanyahu’s position remains undefined.

Iran has retained the ability to manufacture ballistic missiles and drones despite eight months of US and Israeli airstrikes, allowing Tehran to replenish its weapons stockpiles, according to the Jerusalem Post, citing Bloomberg. Western officials speaking on condition of anonymity said Iran had preserved parts of its weapons manufacturing infrastructure despite extensive strikes on its military-industrial capabilities.

Navanethem Pillay, a former UN human rights chief, is the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, announced on Friday in Oslo. Israel is angry about the honor, according to RT, because Pillay chaired a UN commission.

Jared Kushner marked one year since an agreement was reached on Trump's 20-point plan for Gaza, saying significant progress had been made in implementing it over the past year, according to the Jerusalem Post. Among the milestones he cited were the return of the 20 living hostages to Israel in October 2025, the return of the remains of the final hostage in January 2026 and the formation of a technocratic Palestinian administration for Gaza. Kushner said humanitarian aid to Gaza has increased significantly since the ceasefire and that Hamas signed in July a phased disarmament framework that has not been fully implemented.

The Hind Rajab Foundation announced on Thursday that it had asked the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague to investigate the involvement of Israeli medical personnel in alleged abuses at Sde Teiman. The request names medical professionals, hospital administrators, senior Health Ministry and Defense Ministry officials, and leaders of the Israel Medical Association, in connection with alleged abuses at the facility since October 7, 2023. The submission was filed under Article 15 of the Rome Statute and is not an indictment or a court decision to open an investigation, according to the Jerusalem Post.

Two young Palestinian men were shot and wounded during an Israeli military raid on the city of Jericho on Friday night, one in the thigh and the other in the foot, and were taken to hospital, according to the Wafa news agency, cited by Middle East Eye. On Saturday morning, Israeli forces prevented Palestinian farmers from harvesting olives on their land in the town of Kafr Ni’ma, west of Ramallah, Wafa reported.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, expressed concern over the continuing impact of Israeli military operations on civilians in southern Syria, including raids on homes, restrictions on movement, harassment, arbitrary detention and destruction of livelihoods. The UN office continues to document the detention of Syrians by Israeli forces and said 49 Syrians remain in Israeli custody, a total it has not independently and comprehensively verified. According to Middle East Eye, Israel carried out 280 armed incursions into Syria in September, the highest monthly number of the year.

US President Donald Trump said that Washington's sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC) were intended to defend Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and others from prosecution, not himself.

Israeli strikes and gunfire killed at least eight Palestinians and wounded others across Gaza on Thursday and Friday, according to local medical sources and rescue workers cited by RT. Since the US-brokered ceasefire took effect on October 10, 2025, Gaza’s Health Ministry counts more than 1,450 Palestinians killed and over 5,000 wounded, according to RT.

President Donald Trump reposted a message saying the Nobel Committee shamed itself beyond repair and demeaned the once great Nobel Peace Prize by giving it to Navi Pillay, according to Politico. The post came from the law firm of attorney David Schoen, Politico reported. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the Nobel Committee has lost its moral compass, according to Politico. Pillay is a South African human rights lawyer and judge who led a United Nations commission that stated Israel committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, according to Politico.

United States (US) President Donald Trump claimed the country “shouldn’t worry now” because it stopped Iran from having a nuclear weapon and that the war will end soon, in a speech at a White House Columbus Day celebration. Trump alleged that 28 million barrels of oil were “taken out” on Thursday and that diesel prices will tumble. A high-ranking Iranian source told TASS that Iran won’t hold anything back in response to new attacks by the US and Israel.

Employees of a French cargo company refused to load an Elbit Systems security shipment onto an El Al aircraft scheduled to fly from Paris to Israel on Saturday evening, according to N12 News. Israeli security officials intervened in an attempt to resolve the issue, according to N12.

An Israeli attack wounded six people in northeast Lebanon on Friday, near the border with Syria, and Israel said it targeted a “Syrian terrorist” who planned attacks against Israel. The Israeli military said it struck Yusuf Ali al-Hassoun, who, according to Tel Aviv, operated under the direction of the Iranian regime.

US President Donald Trump reshared a Truth Social post on Friday morning that attacks the Norwegian Nobel Committee and calls this year’s winner, Navanethem Pillay, an unabashed hater of the United States and Israel, according to Forbes. The reshared text says Pillay is an unabashed hater of the United States and Israel.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) Public Prosecutor said an Omani flydubai co-pilot planned to carry out a suicide attack on flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv on September 30, according to The Jerusalem Post. Reuters reported that the co-pilot intended to seize the flight and crash it into a terminal at Ben Gurion airport in Israel.

About 245,981 buildings, or 74.5% of all structures existing before October 7, 2023, are likely to have been damaged or destroyed in the Gaza Strip, according to a satellite radar-driven structural analysis by the Conflict Ecology lab, published by The Hindu. The analysis used satellite data from October 7, 2023, to August 3, 2026, with 258 Sentinel-1 radar images in 12-day observation windows. The lab said it completed a three-year assessment in Gaza with active monitoring of repeat damage every 12 days.

The Palestinian Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, a Palestinian government body operating under the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), recorded at least 19 settler attacks on Friday against the olive harvest in the West Bank, according to Al Jazeera. According to the commission, the incidents included attacks on Palestinian olive harvesters, the burning and uprooting of olive trees, and the theft of crops and livestock. More than 50 olive trees were uprooted by settlers in Qusra, the commission said.

Israeli opposition leader Yair Golan said the assassination of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was a “mistake”, arguing that it did not serve Israel’s interests, according to the Middle East Eye, citing The Times of Israel. Golan said the appointment of Khamenei’s son, Mojtaba Khamenei, had left Iran with “more extreme and violent individuals”.

Two men accused of carrying out hostile surveillance on behalf of Iran against Israel’s embassy in London, Britain’s oldest synagogue and other Israeli or Jewish targets pleaded not guilty on Friday. Nematollah Shahsavani, 41, a dual Iranian-British national, and Alireza Farasati, 22, an Iranian national, appeared at London’s Old Bailey court and denied a single offence under the National Security Act, according to Reuters, in a text republished by the Jerusalem Post. The pair allegedly gathered information and undertook reconnaissance in July and August 2025, with a list of targets including the Israeli Embassy, the Israeli Consulate and London’s Bevis Marks Synagogue.

Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs criticized the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to jurist Navanethem Pillay, saying the prize legitimizes “hatred and anti-Israel prejudice.” In a statement, the ministry said granting the Nobel to Pillay, who chaired the committee that accused Israel of genocide, is “the grotesque instrumentalization of a prize.”

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Brazilian presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro, of the Liberal Party (PL), and invited him to visit the country, Netanyahu’s office said on Friday. In the statement, the office said that “the two intend to renew the deep friendship between the two countries… as part of the ongoing transformation in Israel’s relations with South American countries.” According to the Times of Israel, the office confirmed the call took place the night before.

Israeli forces killed eight Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Thursday and issued fresh expulsion orders in several areas, according to local reports compiled by Middle East Eye. A woman and a child were killed in strikes on two houses in the Sabra neighbourhood of Gaza City, minutes after residents were told to leave. According to Shifa and Al-Ahli hospitals, the strike on a house in Sabra killed a woman and a child and wounded 10 other people, while another strike in the city wounded six.

The Royal College of Pharmacy dropped Teva UK as a sponsor of and exhibitor at next month’s annual conference, the second major UK health body to cut ties with the Israeli drug firm after pressure from pro-Palestine campaigners, with Teva saying it was disappointed and that healthcare should not become politicised, according to The Guardian.

A Maariv poll shows a 52–52 tie between the coalition bloc and the opposition, with Likud gaining one seat to reach 20, behind Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar with 21 and with Naftali Bennett’s B’yachad at 13, in a survey conducted on October 7 and 8 among a representative sample of Israeli adults, according to The Jerusalem Post.

Israelis remain stranded in Dubai as Israeli airlines cancel rescue flights, according to The Jerusalem Post.

The first Tamir interceptors for the Iron Dome air defense system manufactured in the United States (US) were delivered at a ceremony in East Camden, Arkansas, on Wednesday, after being built at the new Raytheon-Rafael (R2S) joint-venture plant in Camden, opened in November 2025, according to The Jerusalem Post. R2S was awarded a 1.25-billion-dollar contract to supply Israel with Tamir surface-to-air missiles, with production in East Camden, according to RTX.

Israeli attacks have killed or wounded a Palestinian in Gaza every 90 minutes on average since the ceasefire was announced, according to Islamic Relief. The group reports at least 1,454 Palestinians killed and more than 5,000 wounded over the period. The Gaza Health Ministry says 1,471 Palestinians have been killed and 5,189 wounded since the ceasefire.

Seven people were killed in separate Israeli strikes across Gaza, six of them in Gaza City, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run civil defence. According to the same civil defence, two people, a woman and a child, were killed and others wounded when Israeli aircraft bombed a residential building in Gaza City. The Israeli army said three of the victims were “military operatives”. Middle East Eye recorded seven killed in separate Israeli strikes across Gaza.

The Israeli military announced it had killed Muhammad Muhsen Nimr Yazji, a commander of Hamas’s Shati Battalion, in strikes in Gaza City on Monday, according to the Jerusalem Post. The announcement was made on Thursday evening. Yazji held Emily Damari, Romi Gonen and Matan Angrest as hostages, according to the military. In separate strikes on Tuesday, the military said it killed Muhammad Fawzi Muhammad Awad Gamal, of Hamas’s Daraj Tuffah Battalion.

The Israeli military announced on Thursday the death of Capt. Eliav Haim Tzapalamus, 21, from Haifa, a combat engineering officer in the 603rd Battalion, 7th Brigade, in southern Lebanon, according to the Jerusalem Post. According to the military, he was killed when a Humvee flipped during operational activity in the Litani sector. Three other soldiers were lightly injured, were evacuated to a hospital and their families were notified.

David Milstein, a senior advisor to US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, used his position to quash reports on Israeli activities in the West Bank and present the Netanyahu government in a favorable light to Washington, according to the New York Times, in a report published by the Jerusalem Post on Thursday. The report is based on 12 anonymous sources who work or interact with Milstein in both Jerusalem and Washington. Huckabee refuted the report and criticized the absence of any named source.

Avi Gil, former military secretary to Benjamin Netanyahu, told N12 News on Thursday that he gave an inaccurate account of his timeline on October 7 and said that Netanyahu’s chief of staff allegedly tried to change the official record of the prime minister’s schedule, according to The Jerusalem Post.

Three people have been killed by Israeli gunfire in Gaza City and northern Gaza since early Thursday, according to Al Jazeera, citing medical sources. In a separate attack, two people were killed and three wounded when an Israeli strike hit a vehicle in Gaza City’s Tel al-Hawa neighbourhood, according to the Middle East Eye.

The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel assassinated the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) navy, Alireza Tangsiri, on March 26, fearing he could become a more formidable IRGC chief than Ahmad Vahidi. Israeli officials viewed Tangsiri as a highly creative and resourceful commander, according to the paper.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said the time of containment in the face of hostile acts against the State of Israel is over on Thursday. Israel has removed British representatives from the International Gaza Support Center in Kiryat Gat, terminated British training activities for Palestinian Authority forces and barred 12 British elected officials and other British citizens accused by Israel of antisemitic or anti-Israel activity, according to The Jerusalem Post.

The United Kingdom announced it is closing its consulate in occupied East Jerusalem and downgrading the building to the status of a mission. Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said the UK does not accept that the Government of Israel has the legal right to close the consulate and that it will try to rebuild its diplomatic presence in East Jerusalem. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said the British consulate is ending its operations today and the sign has been removed.

Eight Israeli arms manufacturers, including the three giants Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), Elbit Systems and Rafael, are participating in the 2026 Marrakech Air Show for the first time, Middle East Eye reported. Morocco and Israel formalised ties in 2020 under a US-brokered normalisation agreement, in exchange for Washington’s recognition of Moroccan sovereignty claim over Western Sahara. Hundreds gathered outside parliament in Rabat to denounce the deepening ties with Israel on the first day of the air show.

Israeli forces have killed at least four Palestinians in Gaza over the past 24 hours, the territory’s health ministry reports. The latest deaths bring the toll from the war in Gaza since October 2023 to 74,254, with 175,306 injured, according to the ministry.

The British consulate-general building in East Jerusalem will not close and will be known as a UK mission, Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said, according to The Guardian. Israel says 20 diplomats and the Consul General will leave the country, while a seven-person task force may remain in the building with a very limited scope of activity, according to the BBC.

Yedioth Ahronoth compared a 55-page document released by Netanyahu in February with original records, meeting summaries and testimonies, finding omissions and changes in wording and context, according to the newspaper, in a text republished by Middle East Eye. According to the report, the original records indicate that Netanyahu repeatedly sought calm and rejected approving attacks despite warnings from security officials.

Reuters journalists saw workers remove the “British Consulate General” plaque from the consulate building in East Jerusalem, along with another sign for its consular section, on Thursday, according to the agency, in a text republished by Al Jazeera.

Hezbollah members remain present in the pilot zones of Froun, Srifa and Zawtar al-Gharbiyah, south of Nabatiya, posing as civilians, according to KAN, as reported by the Jerusalem Post. Israeli officials say the pilot program — under which Israeli troops would withdraw so the Lebanese Armed Forces could take over operations against Hezbollah — failed, according to the Jerusalem Post.

Israeli troops shelled late on Wednesday the outskirts of a village in Syria’s southern Quneitra province, according to the Sana news agency — two artillery rounds landed in agricultural areas surrounding Al-Samdaniya Al-Sharqiya, causing no injuries.

Israel will close the UK consulate in East Jerusalem on October 8, but will not expel British diplomats or their families, according to the Times, in a text republished by TASS — the consulate will lose its diplomatic status, and its nearly 30 diplomats will be able to continue working at the UK embassy in Tel Aviv.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said one of its positions near Kfar Shouba, on the Blue Line in the eastern sector, was hit by small-arms fire on the morning of the 7th and that there were no casualties. The peacekeeping force said the shots hit a post on the Israeli border, according to Al Jazeera.

The death toll among Palestinians in Gaza rose to five after an Israeli air strike targeted a house in the Khan Younis refugee camp, according to Al Jazeera, injuring several others, one of them critically.

Saudi Arabia launched an air safety probe into the flydubai flight FZ1073 incident, alongside the UAE-led criminal investigation, according to three people close to the matter, in a Reuters report republished by The Straits Times. The country notified specialist aviation agencies abroad that it would carry out a safety investigation under international rules; the flight was in Saudi airspace when the co-pilot attacked the captain with an axe. Israel has offered to take part in any Saudi-led safety investigation but has not so far been invited, according to the head of Israel’s air accident agency, to Reuters.

Israeli authorities razed a warehouse and a chicken coop belonging to Yousef Zyadna, a Palestinian citizen of Israel who rescued 30 Israelis at the Nova festival on October 7, 2023, and his nephew’s home, according to Middle East Eye, citing the Israeli news site Local Call. Dozens of bulldozers arrived in the Zyadna neighbourhood near Rahat, where they demolished homes and other structures in the Bedouin community; there are 65 demolition orders against homes in the neighbourhood.

Repatriation flights operated by Israeli carriers to bring citizens back from Dubai to Tel Aviv have been canceled after the UAE revoked their landing permit, according to The Times of Israel. Arkia said it had the required permissions until Tuesday evening and had been futilely working to restore them.

Israel carried out new strikes in Gaza on October 7, 2026, on the third anniversary of the October 7 attacks, and Palestinian officials reported three people dead. In Gaza City, Al-Shifa hospital reported two people killed in an Israeli strike overnight. The Israeli military said it struck and killed two Hamas members who had exited Kamal Adwan Hospital. In Khan Yunis, Nasser Hospital said that Hisham Ibrahim Abu Mustafa, 60, was killed in an Israeli strike and that others were injured, according to AFP, in a report published by The Hindu.

A 44-year-old Palestinian, Ali Hassan al-Bazari, was killed in an attack by Israeli settlers on farmers harvesting olives near Burqa, in the occupied West Bank, according to Middle East Eye. The Palestinian Health Ministry said nine Palestinians were wounded, one of them critically. Witnesses said Israeli soldiers were present and protected the settlers during the attack, and it was not immediately clear whether al-Bazari was killed by settler or army fire.

Israeli police opened a preliminary review into the Transportation Ministry’s aviation security system, against the backdrop of the attempted hijacking of flydubai flight FZ1073 on September 30, according to The Jerusalem Post. The review examines a possible conflict of interest involving Dvir Rubinstein, who privately provided consulting and training services to foreign airlines, including flydubai and Emirates, while working for the ministry. No one connected to the affair is currently being questioned under caution by the National Unit for Fraud Investigations, and no criminal investigation under caution is being conducted into anyone involved.

Three years into the war in Gaza, US military aid to Israel remains unconditional, according to Al Jazeera. Washington has provided nearly $300bn in aid to Israel since its creation in 1948, adjusted for inflation, more than to any other country. At least 74,243 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel, which killed at least 1,139 people.

In an interview with the Haredi site Hashtiblach on Monday, Israeli minister Bezalel Smotrich said Israel would destroy Sinai if Egypt attacked Israel, according to The Jerusalem Post. Egyptian presenters responded with threats against Tel Aviv, Ben-Gurion Airport and Netanyahu. Journalist Ahmed Moussa said all 120 million Egyptians would die defending Egypt. There was no immediate official response from the Egyptian authorities, only reactions from journalists, lawmakers and influencers close to the authorities, according to the Middle East Monitor.

Israelis held protests, marches and demonstrations across the country on Wednesday, in addition to memorial ceremonies, on the third anniversary of the October 7, 2023 massacre, according to The Jerusalem Post. Many protesters called for more accountability from officials and a full state commission of inquiry into the national tragedy. The October Council said three years have passed and the truth has still not been fully investigated.

Israeli forces launched several brigade-level operations across the West Bank overnight, arresting and questioning dozens of wanted suspects accused of involvement in terrorism and incitement, including expressing support for Hamas’s October 7, 2023 onslaught, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said. The goal, per the IDF announcement, is to arrest and interrogate dozens of individuals wanted for terrorism and incitement to terror, with particular emphasis on those who expressed support for the October 7 attack.

Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir called for the dismantling of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank during an event on Wednesday morning marking the third anniversary of Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack. Arriving at exactly 6:29 a.m. at the security fence near the Nitzanei Oz interchange, he warned that the October 7 attack could repeat itself.

Israeli forces raided Nablus, in the occupied West Bank, imposed a curfew, arrested residents and demolished memorials to Palestinians, according to the Wafa agency via Mehr News. Settlers attacked a Palestinian home and set a vehicle on fire in Deir Nizam, near Ramallah, on Wednesday, according to Palestinian reports cited by N12 via the Jerusalem Post.

Co-pilot Hamam al-Hammami, 29, an Omani citizen, was restrained in an alleged attempt to take control of a flydubai flight to Tel Aviv with 182 people on board on 30 September and spent 175 days in New Zealand on a student visa, from 30 November 2018 to 23 May 2019, for part of flight training, according to The Guardian, citing New Zealand police confirmation of the stay. flydubai’s fast growth raises questions about recruitment and vetting after the attempted hijacking, according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), in a text republished by the Hindustan Times.

Israel marks on Wednesday the third anniversary of the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas, weeks before a general election and after a ceasefire in Gaza last year, according to France24. The attack killed 1,221 people, according to an Agence France-Presse (AFP) tally based on official Israeli figures. Israel’s military offensive in response left most of Gaza in ruins and killed more than 74,200 people, according to Gaza’s health ministry. Since the ceasefire, Israeli forces have killed more than 1,430 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry.

Armed Israeli settlers beat AFP photographer Jaafar Ashtiyeh on Tuesday, aged 58, leaving him requiring hospital treatment as he covered ongoing settler violence against West Bank olive farmers, according to AFP. Ashtiyeh suffered bruises to his head and torso and was taken by ambulance to a hospital; the attackers also took his camera equipment. The violence took place despite the presence of at least a dozen Israeli soldiers around 500 metres away, according to photographer John Wessels, who was also threatened with a firearm. AFP’s global news management condemned the attack and demanded a full investigation.

Thursday marks 30 days since Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar's order to close the British consulate in East Jerusalem, a retaliatory move against the UK's wave of sanctions on illegal Israeli settlements, according to Al Jazeera. Former British consul Vincent Fean told Al Jazeera that Israel acts unlawfully and has no right to interfere in the diplomatic relations between the United Kingdom and the State of Palestine. Reports cited by Al Jazeera claimed the UK could expel 27 Israeli diplomats if the consulate closure goes ahead.

Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz put the military on alert for the anniversary of the October 7, 2023 attack, according to The Hindu. According to Katz’s office, the move came after intelligence about Hamas’s intention to attempt attacks against Israeli forces in Gaza on that date, and the statement warned that if forces are harmed, Hamas and the population of Gaza will pay a heavy price — beyond all proportion, according to France 24.

An August report by CIA experts assesses that Israel is at risk of internal collapse or civil war because of tensions among Israelis, according to the Middle East Eye, citing Drop Site News. The document describes a volatile situation ahead of the October 27 Israeli elections, in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is fighting for his political future. One of the most divisive issues is the long-standing exemption from military service for ultra-Orthodox Israelis.

Israeli forces opened fire on a vehicle carrying three Palestinians near Bani Naim, east of Hebron, on Monday, according to Al Jazeera. The Palestinian civil authority named the man killed as 38-year-old Hossam Alaa al-Din Abdul Jabbar Walad Ali. The Palestinian Red Crescent said its crews treated three people injured in an attack by Israeli settlers in the Imriha area.

The UK threatened to expel one Israeli diplomat for each of the 27 British diplomats whose diplomatic status at the consulate would be terminated if Israel closes the British consulate in East Jerusalem, according to Al Jazeera. Israel ordered the consulate’s closure by 8 October, in retaliation for British sanctions on illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank. The Foreign Office did not deny the Ynet report and said it would not comment on speculation, according to The Guardian.

An Israeli mathematics lecturer from Petah Tikva in his 60s has been indicted over an alleged plan to kill hundreds of Palestinian citizens of Israel and Palestinians in the occupied territories and force them from their homes, according to Middle East Eye. The indictment was filed on Monday by Central District prosecutors Roy Reis and Tomer Steinberg, according to i24NEWS. The plan called for recruiting 72 Jewish attackers, including himself, divided into 12 cells of six people, also according to Middle East Eye. The university said it “condemns in the strongest possible terms” and is “deeply appalled” by the acts attributed to the lecturer, and announced his immediate suspension, according to i24NEWS.

Britain’s Green Party voted on Sunday to class Zionism as a form of racism, according to France 24. The motion passed by 1,022 votes to 813, and Israel banned the party’s leader, Zack Polanski, from entering the country after the vote, according to the Middle East Eye.

A basic item is among the essential goods Israel continues to prevent from entering the Gaza enclave, according to Middle East Eye. Under the October 2025 ceasefire agreement, Israel was required to lift its restrictions and facilitate the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza, according to Middle East Eye.

The United Nations (UN) special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, Francesca Albanese, dismissed the Israeli claim that 170 journalists killed in Gaza were “terrorists”, saying there is “not a shred of evidence”, and said she will soon publish a report on the matter, accusing Israel of disinformation.

Initial findings indicate that the Flydubai co-pilot accused of attacking the captain and trying to take control of an Israel-bound flight acted alone, according to US authorities and a former Israeli security official. US officials stress that the investigation into last Wednesday’s incident is still in its early stages. Emirati authorities, who are overseeing the investigation, said on Saturday that the co-pilot allegedly attacked the captain with a crash ax and tried to take control of the flight controls.

The United States is expected to deploy more troops and aircraft to Israel in the coming weeks, according to the Israeli news website Walla, cited in a Middle East Eye live blog. The report presents the move as part of preparations for an escalation in the Middle East.

The United Arab Emirates shared with Israel the list of passengers and crew ahead of the FlyDubai flight, according to the Associated Press (AP), in text republished by PBS News; Israel had not raised red flags on any passenger or crew member, officials said on condition of anonymity.

The Israeli army killed a man in southern Syria early on Monday, as it continues to carry out raids in the country, according to Middle East Eye. The army claimed the man attempted to enter one of its military posts when troops opened fire and killed him, according to Middle East Eye.

The co-pilot of the flydubai flight said during interrogation that he planned to direct the hijacked aircraft to Tel Aviv and steer it into Ben Gurion Airport’s terminal, according to unnamed sources cited by Israeli Channel 12 and reproduced by TASS. The plan was thwarted only because the commander, despite his injuries, managed to open the cockpit door, TASS reported. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called for a thorough review of “all aspects” of security of foreign civil flights to Israel in the wake of the attack, according to The Washington Post.

Ireland players wore black armbands in recognition of Palestinians killed in Gaza and bowed their heads during the Israeli national anthem, according to Al Jazeera. The Nations League match ended in a 1-1 draw, on neutral ground and behind closed doors.

Wafa, the Palestinian news agency, reported that more than 15 people were wounded and one was killed in attacks by Israeli forces and settlers on Palestinian towns and villages, according to the Middle East Eye. Israeli opposition leader Avigdor Lieberman called for dismantling the Palestinian Authority and creating an Israeli-Jordanian confederation to control parts of the West Bank currently under the PA’s control, according to Haaretz. Under the plan, Israel would apply sovereignty over Area C, which makes up about 60 percent of the occupied West Bank and remains under full Israeli control.

Syria’s Al-Ikhbariah TV reported that Israeli forces shelled farmland between Buraiqa and Kodana in southern Quneitra, according to the Middle East Eye. Syria, Qatar and Jordan denounced Israel’s resumed excavation work on the “Sofa 53” project in Syria’s Quneitra province. Syria’s Foreign Ministry said the resumption of excavation work near the separation line with the occupied Syrian Golan Heights was a “flagrant breach” of the 1974 deal.

Israel said it killed the director of a Turkish NGO in a strike in the Gaza Strip. Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah had earlier announced the death of Saqr al-Qaisi, who led the Turkish humanitarian organisation Deniz Feneri, in a strike on a vehicle in the southern Gaza Strip, according to the Hindustan Times.

The flydubai co-pilot may have tried shutting down the two engines of the Boeing 737 after his plan to crash the aircraft into a building in Tel Aviv failed, according to the Corriere della Sera, in a text republished by the Hindustan Times. Netanyahu instructed the head of the National Security Council, Shmuel Ben Ezra, to appoint an examiner to review all security aspects of foreign civil aviation to Israel. Investigators were still working to determine a motive, but an Israeli official said information from the inquiry suggested the suspect acted alone.

The co-pilot of flight FZ1073 was identified as Hamam al-Hammami, an Omani who had previously been barred from flying in Oman over alleged extremist views and moved to an administrative role at Oman Air before being hired by flydubai, according to Al Jazeera citing the Associated Press. Israel received the flight's crew and passenger lists in advance, and the checks would fall to the Transport Ministry's security department and the Mossad, according to Al Jazeera citing Haaretz. Iran denied any link to the incident and said the accusations are based on fabricated evidence, according to the Hindustan Times.

Lawyer Stanley Cohen told RT that the International Criminal Court (ICC) is weakened by the impotence of member states and the United Nations in the face of the warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In 2024, the Hague-based court issued warrants for Netanyahu and his then-defense minister, Yoav Gallant, over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza war.

Israeli air strikes hit two areas in southern Lebanon, according to Middle East Eye, citing Al Jazeera. The strikes targeted the Wadi al-Hujair area and the outskirts of the town of Kfar Tebnit in the Nabatieh district, with no casualties reported so far.

An Israeli airstrike on a vehicle south of Deir al-Balah killed one person and injured at least nine, one of them in critical condition, according to the Palestinian Information Center. Six-year-old Suha Mohammed Nasser died after being shot inside her family's tent in Wadi al-Salqa, south of Deir al-Balah, according to the WAFA news agency, in a report republished by Middle East Eye.

Australian authorities are investigating the links between the country and a Flydubai co-pilot who attempted to take control of a plane travelling to Israel, the BBC reported. The co-pilot is alleged to have attacked the captain with a crash axe during the flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv before passengers managed to overpower him. Sources cited by ABC say he was issued a student visa in 2014 and studied in Australia between 2015 and 2017.

Israel's Supreme Court unanimously overturned the Central Elections Committee's decision to ban the Arab-majority parties Joint List and Ra'am from the October 27 election, according to the Times of Israel. The court also ruled 7-2 against the committee's decision to ban Joint List MK Ofer Cassif of Hadash, the same outlet reported. The decision keeps Palestinian citizens of Israel, about 20 percent of the population, in the race after critics accused the committee of double standards, Al Jazeera reported.

Israeli forces detained three Palestinian farmers and seized a truck loaded with bananas in Ras al-Ahmar, southeast of Tubas, according to the Middle East Eye. Israeli settlers protected by soldiers attacked Palestinian homes in Wadi al-Hasin and Harat Jaber, in the Old City of Hebron, and settlers wounded a 27-year-old Palestinian in the village of Usarin, south of Nablus.

Israel’s defence ministry said that 1,318 Israeli personnel have been killed since Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack, whether in the line of duty or as a result of an accident, illness, or suicide, according to the Middle East Eye.

Connie Chan, the US Democrat endorsed by former House speaker Nancy Pelosi to succeed her in California’s 11th congressional district, called for a “full arms embargo on the Israeli government” in a televised debate on Thursday night, according to Al Jazeera. Chan said that “on day one in Congress” she would vote to “end a genocide in Gaza and to end an apartheid state”. The candidate said humanitarian aid must be prioritised and that she would not support funding for Israel’s Iron Dome missile defence system.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu invited to Israel as a guest of honour the Indian captain of a Tel Aviv-bound flydubai flight, Smit Machchhar, and said he wanted him and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to light a flame at a national ceremony for Israel’s Independence Day next May, a role usually reserved for Israeli citizens. In the occupied West Bank, Israeli settlers and soldiers attacked and blocked Palestinian farmers from harvesting olives, according to Al Jazeera; more than 80,000 Palestinian families rely on the olive harvest as a source of income.

Israel said on Saturday it attempted to kill Hamas’s top leader in the Gaza Strip, Ali al-Amoudi, in an airstrike on an apartment. Local officials say the strike killed five people, and an official at Gaza City’s Al-Shifa hospital told AFP it received at dawn the bodies of five people and a number of injured in the Rimal neighbourhood. The Israeli military said it aimed to kill al-Amoudi, describing him as the right-hand man of slain Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar and saying he was involved in planning the October 7 attack.

Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said the country will not accept an Israeli presence “under any circumstances” and will resist any attempts to be pulled into the Middle East’s crises, according to Al Jazeera. Israel plans to establish a naval base in Berbera, on the Gulf of Aden, and is seeking access to the city’s airport, according to Ahram Online. Berbera is a port city on the Gulf of Aden coast in Somaliland, the self-declared republic in northwestern Somalia that Israel recognised last year and that Mogadishu claims, according to Al Jazeera.

US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau praised on Saturday Indian pilot Captain Smit Machchhar and the other passengers who overpowered the co-pilot of flydubai flight FZ1073, who allegedly tried to crash the plane, according to the Hindustan Times. Landau wrote that he wanted to express his utmost respect and awe to the pilot and the mostly Israeli passengers for preventing what would have been one of the world’s most horrific terrorist incidents. Passengers said the crew asked them to untie the Omani co-pilot who attacked the pilot-in-command and that they had no idea why, according to the Hindustan Times.

The co-pilot of the Flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv attacked the pilot with a cabin crash axe and attempted to take control of the aircraft, according to the United Arab Emirates’ prosecutor general. The plane, carrying more than 170 people, plunged 17,000ft (5,200m) two and a half hours into its journey. The prosecutor general said the co-pilot “attempted to carry out a terrorist attack”.

Israel’s National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, said the entire occupied West Bank “belongs to Israel” and vowed to dismantle the Palestinian Authority, according to Middle East Eye. In an interview with Channel 14, he said that, if appointed defence minister, he would work to dismantle the Palestinian Authority and push for Palestinians to leave the occupied West Bank and Gaza. The Anadolu Agency reported that the minister said the entire West Bank “belongs to Israel” and threatened to dismantle the Palestinian Authority.

An Israeli airstrike killed at least five Palestinians, including four women, in a residential building in Gaza City on Saturday, according to health authorities and the territory’s Civil Defence, cited by G1. Among the dead are a Christian woman and her daughter, according to medical teams. There was no immediate comment from Israel’s armed forces on the strike. A witness, Ahmed Al-Dahdouh, told Reuters, in a text republished by G1, that residents were sleeping when they heard continuous attacks and strong explosions, and that the children woke up scared and started running and screaming.

Israel launched a new wave of demolitions of olive groves in the occupied West Bank, with military orders to uproot trees on the eve of the olive harvest, which typically begins in October, according to Middle East Eye. According to the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, 55 such orders were issued between the start of the year and September, affecting about 2,373 dunams, compared with 47 orders covering 1,613 dunams throughout 2025.

Israeli forces detained dozens of Palestinians during a raid on the village of Burqa, northwest of Nablus, according to Wafa, cited by Middle East Eye. Israeli settlers attacked olive harvesters again in the town of Beita, south of Nablus, on Saturday morning as farmers picked olives, and damaged olive trees and crops in al-Mughayyir, northeast of Ramallah, after allowing their sheep to graze on agricultural land, Middle East Eye also reported.

Israeli forces opened artillery fire on a demilitarized zone in Quneitra Governorate in southern Syria, according to TASS, which cited Al Mayadeen TV channel. Shell impacts were recorded in the countryside near the Al-Mantara dam, with no civilian casualties reported, according to TASS. Israeli forces also shelled an area southeast of the town of Al-Rafid in the southern Quneitra countryside in southwestern Syria, according to Anadolu Agency.

Reserve Major General Nitzan Alon, the former government point person on hostage negotiations, said the Israeli hostages in Gaza could have been brought home up to a year earlier, according to Middle East Eye. Alon pointed to “political and personal considerations” as an obstacle during a conversation hosted by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy on Friday, according to the outlet.

The Flydubai co-pilot who attacked the captain has been identified as 29-year-old Omani national Hamam al-Hammami, according to ABC News, cited by TASS. A source close to the United Arab Emirates government accused Israel of exploiting the incident for political purposes and delaying the restoration of Flydubai service, and claimed that, according to Emirati officials, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking to connect the attack to Iran for political reasons ahead of Israel's election, according to Middle East Eye, which cites Ynet.

The death toll from the Israeli attack on the al-Asala building in the Remal neighbourhood of western Gaza City rose to five, including three women and a young girl, according to Middle East Eye, citing Palestinian medical sources who spoke to Al Jazeera. The attack hit the building early on Saturday without prior warning, killing at least five people and severely wounding at least six, according to medical staff at al-Shifa Hospital.

The Flydubai co-pilot who officials said nearly crashed a Tel Aviv-bound flight with 182 people aboard had been barred from flying by his native Oman over concerns he had adopted extremist views, according to the Associated Press, in a text republished by The Economic Times. Israel and the United Arab Emirates agreed on repatriation flights beginning Friday to bring back passengers stranded after commercial travel between the two countries was suspended, according to The Hindu.

A 19-year-old Palestinian, identified by the Palestinian Health Ministry as Bahaa Sami Amin al-Natsheh, was killed by Israeli settler gunfire in Kobar, north of Ramallah; Palestinian authorities say 30 Palestinians have been killed by settlers since the start of 2026, more than in any full year since 2022.

Palestinian medical sources said an Israeli air attack on a residential apartment complex west of Gaza City killed four people, including a young girl, and wounded several others. Health officials in Gaza said an Israeli airstrike killed at least four Palestinians in an apartment building in Gaza City early on Saturday, according to Reuters, in a text republished by The Straits Times.

The World Health Organization (WHO) reported repeated delays in bringing lifesaving medicines, prosthetics and other supplies from Israel into Gaza and called for the unimpeded and predictable entry of humanitarian and health supplies into Gaza at scale, according to UN News.

The co-pilot of flight FZ1073 was transferred on Thursday to the United Arab Emirates, where Israeli officials are expected to question him, according to a source cited by Reuters. Israeli investigators are expected to take part in the investigation led by the United Arab Emirates alongside Emirati authorities, seeking to determine what happened and examine the suspect's motives and background.

The Israel Defense Forces said that 170 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip who were identified as journalists after their deaths were members of armed groups, according to The Times of Israel. According to the military, 118 were active in Hamas's military wing and 49 operated in Islamic Jihad, two were members of the Popular Resistance Committees and one was in the Mujahideen Brigades.

Israeli opposition leader Lapid said he heard from young Israelis that there are no innocent people in Gaza and that they all need to be killed, in an interview. Asked about babies, Lapid says they replied that babies too, because they would eventually grow up and become terrorists.

Flydubai suspended flights to and from Israel while the investigation into the FZ 1073 incident, on 30 September, continues. Israeli investigators will question the Omani co-pilot in the probe led by the United Arab Emirates, according to The Times of India, which cites Reuters. Indian pilot Smit Machchhar was praised by Narendra Modi and Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN), which represents nearly 600,000 nurses, ended its commercial partnership with Teva UK and withdrew the company from sponsoring the RCNi nursing leadership summit on 30 October 2026, according to Middle East Eye. Teva said it was disappointed and accused the union of allowing healthcare to become politicised, according to Middle East Eye.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Friday that Israel would impose a very heavy price on any power behind the FlyDubai incident, according to France 24. The aircraft carrying 174 people was forced to make an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia after the co-pilot apparently stabbed the pilot, according to France 24. US President Donald Trump said he was hearing that Iran was involved and that the country will be hit very hard if so, without presenting evidence, according to France 24. Netanyahu admitted Thursday that there was a loophole in vetting pilots from countries without diplomatic relations with Israel, according to the Hindustan Times.

France approved 35 new sales of military equipment to Israel between May and September 2026, according to research by the rights groups Palestinian Youth Movement and Urgence Palestine. The items include cooling systems for tanks and missile launchers, helmet visors for helicopter and fighter-jet pilots, connectors and electronic equipment, as well as surveillance systems, all destined for Elbit Systems subsidiaries, according to the report seen by Middle East Eye.

El Al canceled two rescue flights scheduled for Friday (LY974-1, LY972) because Israeli airlines’ landing permits were revoked, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) did not grant landing permission for the two special flights meant to bring stranded Israelis home. The rescue flights were organized after the UAE canceled all flights to Israel, following an attack by a copilot on a flydubai route to Ben Gurion Airport on Wednesday, according to The Times of Israel.

Israel’s Supreme Court advised Balad party leader Sami Abu Shehadeh to withdraw from the October 27 Knesset election, warning that it could otherwise issue a ruling disqualifying him, according to Al Jazeera. Court President Yitzhak Amit said a majority of the judges favoured disqualifying his candidacy and gave him until Friday to withdraw, according to the broadcaster. Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara backed disqualification over an article Abu Shehadeh published a day after October 7, which she said expressed support for armed struggle. Abu Shehadeh withdrew from the race after the Court indicated unanimity for disqualification, according to the Middle East Eye.

US President Donald Trump said Iran would be struck “very hard” if it is behind the copilot who tried to crash an Israel-bound flight. Asked about the link, Trump said the answer, based on what he is hearing, is yes, without giving details. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Fox News it is “too early to say” whether there was Iranian involvement.

Commander Smit Machchhar, lying on the cockpit floor and covered in blood, managed to trigger the opening of the Flydubai flight cockpit door, carrying 174 passengers on board, in a gesture Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi lauded as heroic in a post on X early on Thursday, according to The Guardian.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Fox News that the co-pilot of the Flydubai flight underwent Islamist radical indoctrination, saying investigators had learned this from the man’s “personal information”. The United Arab Emirates said it would take the lead in investigating whether the attack was linked to terrorism. A video circulating as a BBC report on the case is a deepfake and the claims it contains are unfounded; the BBC never broadcast it, according to France24.

Israeli settlers shot dead Mashhour Shaher Yassin, 51, during an attack on the village of Yasuf, in the central West Bank district of Salfit, according to WAFA. Salfit Governmental Hospital Director Mohammad Al-Ramahi said Yassin succumbed to injuries sustained during the attack by the settlers. Reuters, citing Palestinian officials, reported that Israeli settlers shot two Palestinians, killing one and injuring the other, in the village of Yasuf in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Thursday.

US President Donald Trump called the Flydubai co-pilot a “terrorist, or perhaps a whack-job” after he allegedly attempted to crash the plane with 180 passengers on board, most of them Israeli, according to Middle East Eye. Trump said he had spoken at length with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the incident and said that, apparently, the co-pilot stabbed the pilot.

A closed-door meeting of the US-led Board of Peace for Gaza descended into a shouting match between Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and Israeli representative Michael Eisenberg, according to Israeli Channel 13, cited by Middle East Eye. The report, which cites no sources, says the altercation began when Fidan accused Israel of genocide in Gaza and that Jared Kushner had to step in.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday (October 1, 2026) that the suspect who allegedly tried to crash a flydubai flight to Israel had undergone “Islamist, radical indoctrination” and gave no details. Asked who helped radicalise the man, he said he did not know and that Israel was cooperating with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) investigation. In a separate statement, he said it was too early to say whether Iran was involved, but repeated the accusation of Islamist radical indoctrination. Indian pilot Smit Machchhar, widely praised as one of the heroes of the flight, was reportedly in stable condition, the Indian Embassy in Saudi Arabia said overnight.

A fellow pilot described the flydubai co-pilot as someone with extreme religious behaviour: “He prayed excessively throughout the day and refused to shake hands with women,” he told Channel 16’s foreign correspondent Yosef Yisrael. The co-pilot joined the airline eight months ago and is an Omani national. Israel has called the incident a terror attack, while the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and flydubai have so far refrained from calling it one. The airline cancelled all its flights to Israel until its own investigation is concluded.

The flydubai plane flying from Dubai to Tel Aviv plunged more than 17,000ft (5,200m) in less than two minutes, about two hours into its journey on Wednesday, before passengers and crew overpowered the attacker and retook control to land safely. Passenger Adam Polovincik, 40, told BBC Newshour that he hugged his six-year-old son and three-year-old daughter “really hard” and tried to stay calm for them as the attack unfolded.

Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, will reportedly demand at the security cabinet the extradition of the flydubai co-pilot who allegedly attempted to crash the Tel Aviv-bound plane with nearly 180 people onboard on Wednesday, according to the Hindustan Times, citing the Jerusalem Post. The suspect is being held in Saudi Arabia, where the aircraft carrying 174 people, including 27 children, made an emergency landing at Tabuk on Wednesday after an altercation in the cockpit. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Attorney-General Hamad Al Shamsi ordered the formation of a team of specialised Public Prosecution members to investigate the circumstances.

The village of Mansouri, occupied by Israel and perched a few kilometres from the coastal city of Tyre, in Lebanon, is slowly disappearing, day after day, according to Middle East Eye. The Israeli army presents the village as an operational stronghold of Hezbollah, and it was initially located outside the “Yellow Line”. Today the Yellow Line cuts through Mansouri and divides it in two, although officially only in part.

Israeli attacks on Wednesday night killed a 33-year-old Palestinian and wounded others, including a minor, on Salah al-Din Street, north of Khan Younis, according to Middle East Eye, citing the Wafa news agency. Gaza's government media office reported that Palestinian journalist Muhammad Abdel Aziz al-Najjar was killed in a separate attack on Wednesday.

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor (Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor) said Israel has turned Gaza into the “largest and harshest ghetto” in modern history, pointing to the use of starvation as a lethal weapon, the diminishing health care system and severe shortages of equipment, aid and humanitarian needs, according to Middle East Eye.

Rescue teams recovered the remains of one hundred five Palestinians from beneath the debris of a residential building destroyed by Israeli strikes in the central district of Gaza City after a seventeen-day search operation, and relatives assembled on Wednesday in the al-Taj district for farewells, with the shrouded bodies arranged in rows among the rubble, according to Press TV. Palestinians will bury the remains of 105 people killed in an Israeli attack on Gaza, according to Al Jazeera.

Israel’s army fired three shells at the Al-Mantara Dam area in Quneitra, in southern Syria, on Wednesday, with no immediate reports of casualties or damage, according to Syrian media cited by Anadolu Ajansı.

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said it was too early to tell who was behind the apparent attempt to crash the Dubai–Tel Aviv flydubai flight, carrying more than 170 people, most of them from Israel, with flights to and from Israel suspended during the investigation, according to The Guardian.

The pilot injured on the flydubai flight was identified as Indian national Smit Machchhar, in stable condition in hospital, according to the BBC — despite being stabbed, he fought back, opened the cockpit door and enabled passengers and crew to overpower the attacker, in the version of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cited by the BBC. A passenger said in a video released by Netanyahu that he put the attacker in a chokehold and pulled him out of the cabin, according to the Hindustan Times.

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said one of the pilots of the plane flying from the United Arab Emirates to Israel stabbed his co-pilot and appeared to try to crash the aircraft, according to The Guardian. The plane descended 17,000 feet in two minutes before it was stabilised, the newspaper said. Captain Machchhar, seriously injured in the stabbing, fought back, opened the cockpit door and enabled passengers and crew to overpower the attacker, preventing a catastrophic mid-air disaster. Netanyahu said the captain saved the lives of 174 people, including Israeli citizens and other nationals, and called him “a true hero,” according to TASS.

Flydubai temporarily suspended flights to and from Israel until the investigation into flight FZ 1073 is completed, according to TASS. In a statement, the airline confirmed the suspension stands while the investigation continues, according to Middle East Eye. Flight FZ1073, which left Dubai for Tel Aviv, transmitted emergency signals and made a sharp descent before diverting to Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz Airport in Tabuk, carrying 174 passengers, including 27 children, according to The Hindu. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the pilot a “true hero” and said that, despite being stabbed and seriously injured, he fought back, resisted, opened the cockpit door and enabled passengers and crew to overpower the attacker — preventing a catastrophic mid-air disaster. Israeli news site Ynet, citing Israeli officials, reported that the co-pilot was an Omani national and was suspected of trying to crash the aircraft.

On the fifth day of Sukkot, a Jewish holiday, hundreds of Israelis stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem, according to Al Jazeera. On Tuesday, 966 Israelis entered the compound through the Moroccan Gate alongside Israeli police, performing Talmudic rituals and singing together in the mosque’s courtyards. Jerusalem’s Islamic Waqf Department reported that about 700 Israelis, including former lawmaker Moshe Feiglin, stormed the compound under the protection of Israeli police.

Switzerland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned Israeli settler violence on Wednesday after an attack on the village of Jalud by around 100 settlers the day before, according to the Middle East Eye. In a post on X, the ministry said “the unprecedented level of settler violence cannot be tolerated” and that Israel must protect Palestinian civilians and bring those responsible to justice.

The secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Mohsen Rezaei, warned the United Arab Emirates against hosting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying that doing so would not have positive consequences, according to the state-run Mehr News. In a post in Arabic on X, Rezaei said that just as hosting US military bases had not brought security to the UAE, hosting the “Gaza butcher” would not have positive consequences either.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said passengers and crew members stopped an attempted midair hijacking of a flydubai flight bound for Tel Aviv after one of the pilots stabbed the other and tried to crash the aircraft, according to VINnews. The airline said the reason for the altercation between the pilots is unknown and is under formal investigation. Both pilots were injured and taken to a hospital after landing in Tabuk, according to airport officials.

Israeli artillery struck the town of Al-Khiam in southeastern Lebanon, according to the country's state-run news agency, in a report republished by Dawn. An explosion was also heard in the town of Houla near the Israeli border, in the country's southeast, according to Al Jazeera.

The Islamic Waqf, the body that administers the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem, said that roughly 700 Israeli settlers entered the site on Wednesday morning, on the fifth day of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, according to Middle East Eye.

Israel’s National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, said on Wednesday that the incident on the FlyDubai flight that landed in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, was an attempted terrorist attack, according to G1. Ben-Gvir said a “terrorist” wanted to bring down the plane and kill Israelis on board. The captain and the copilot were found injured and were taken to hospital, Le Monde with AFP reported. The aircraft dropped from nearly 34,000 feet at 05:21 GMT to less than 17,000 feet at 05:22 GMT, according to Flightradar.

Two children are among six Palestinians wounded in fresh Israeli attacks in Gaza despite the ceasefire, according to local sources cited by the Wafa news agency, Middle East Eye reported. A drone targeted a shelter housing displaced people in southern Gaza, injuring four people, including the children; one of the wounded was reportedly in a serious condition. The Wafa news agency also reported several Palestinians injured in an Israeli airstrike east of Gaza City.

A FlyDubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv landed safely at Tabuk Airport in Saudi Arabia after an incident en route, with all passengers safe, according to Al Jazeera. Israeli officials told local media the diversion followed a physical fight between the pilots, ruling out a hijacking — the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there was no hijack scare. The plane was carrying around 150 people, most of them Israeli, according to the BBC.

At least eight people were killed on Tuesday in Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip, the enclave’s Health Ministry said in a post on X. The Ministry said three bodies were taken to hospitals after the shelling of the Halawa camp for displaced people in the north of the strip, and two others died in an air raid on the Al-Nasr area west of Gaza City. The death toll since October 2023 rose to 74,030, with 175,980 injured, according to the Ministry.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry condemned on Tuesday the visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), according to Iran International. The UAE confirmed that Netanyahu was in the country on Sunday and met President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. According to Israel National News, Netanyahu and his wife visited the UAE on Sunday at the invitation of President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, and the visit focused on strengthening bilateral relations and addressing regional challenges.

Pro-Palestine protests have spread across Moroccan cities demanding an end to diplomatic normalization with Israel as Rabat deepens ties with Tel Aviv, according to Al Jazeera. The demonstrations followed the September 16 announcement that Morocco and Israel would elevate their missions to full embassies and appoint ambassadors. In Tangier, authorities banned the planned September 27 demonstration and security forces dispersed hundreds of participants, with more than 12 detained, according to the outlet, citing its own sources.

The United States (US) Senate blocked by 47 votes to 51 the resolution requiring the State Department to report within 30 days on deaths and human rights conditions in the West Bank, according to The Guardian. The text, led by Democrat Chris Van Hollen, cited nine American citizens killed by Israeli settlers or security forces in the occupied West Bank since 2022. Democrat John Fetterman voted with Republicans against the measure, while Republican Rand Paul voted in favor.

A senior Saudi official denied on Wednesday reports of a meeting taking place between representatives from Saudi Arabia and Israeli officials, according to Middle East Eye. The denial responds to Israeli media reports that representatives from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Libya, Qatar and Morocco were also present at the meeting.

Lebanon’s National News Agency reported on Tuesday that ongoing Israeli attacks destroyed homes and water wells and severed parts of the water network in the southern Lebanese town of Mansouri, according to the Middle East Eye.

An Israeli air strike and gunfire killed two Palestinians and injured several others in Gaza on Tuesday, according to the Wafa news agency, cited by Middle East Eye. The victims’ bodies and several casualties, including children, were brought to Al-Shifa Hospital after the strike on an apartment in the al-Nasr neighbourhood, in Gaza City, according to medical sources cited by Middle East Eye. In the occupied West Bank, more than 100 Israeli settlers attacked the village of Jalud, preventing a Palestinian family from returning home and clashing with troops, witnesses said, in a Reuters text republished by The Hindu. The Israeli military said the settlers set the Tubasi family’s homes on fire, blocked access roads and hurled rocks at Israeli officers, three of whom were injured, and that it arrested two settlers and launched an investigation, Reuters reported.

An Israeli drone targeted a residential apartment in the al-Nasr neighbourhood, west of Gaza City, according to Middle East Eye, which cites Al Jazeera and medical sources at al-Shifa Hospital. Footage showed medics treating children with severe wounds after the attack, and the total number of casualties remained uncertain at that time. Anadolu Agency reported that two Palestinians were killed and several others, including children, were injured in an Israeli airstrike and gunfire in the Gaza Strip early Tuesday, amid daily violations of a ceasefire in effect since October 10, 2025.

British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband confirmed the United Kingdom is considering defying the Israeli order to close the British consulate in occupied East Jerusalem, saying the government does not want that to happen, according to Middle East Eye. The Israeli government ordered the closure in retaliation for British sanctions on illegal settlements, setting a deadline of 8 October, the same outlet reported. Former attorney general Dominic Grieve advised the UK Foreign Office that Israel has no legal right to act on its plan to close the consulate in East Jerusalem, according to The Guardian.

Around 100 settlers raided Jalud, south of Nablus, shortly after midnight, targeting the homes of the Toubasi family, according to Middle East Eye. The family had returned to the house hours before the attack, after an Israeli court ordered the army to secure their return, the same outlet reported. More than 100 Israelis blocked roads, burned tires and threw rocks at security personnel, and set fire to Palestinian-owned structures, vehicles and other property in the area, according to Israel National News.

Israel’s army killed Izz al-Din al-Beik, head of the Hamas armed wing in the northern Gaza Strip, according to Al Jazeera, citing Palestinian sources and Israeli officials. Al-Beik was killed in a strike on an apartment building in Gaza City’s Nassr neighbourhood early on Tuesday, according to medics and Hamas sources. Local sources identified the two Palestinians killed in the strike as al-Beik and Muhannad Abu Foul, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz claimed al-Beik was a commander, according to Anadolu (AA).

Israel’s military set off a significant explosion in the southern Lebanese village of Mansouri, Tyre district, on Monday, according to Arab News, citing Lebanese state media and Agence France-Presse (AFP) correspondents. Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) attributed the explosion to Israeli occupation forces, according to the same report. Israel’s military said it had completed the operation in Mansouri, where it dismantled more than 600 structures and eight underground routes, according to Arab News.

The Netherlands said Monday it regretted Israel's decision to revoke the accreditation of Dutch diplomats based in the West Bank, according to AFP, in a text republished by France 24. Israel retaliated after Dutch authorities began implementing a ban on imports of products from Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Dutch Foreign Minister Berendsen said the decision stems from the obligation, under international law, not to contribute to the illegal settlements.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) confirmed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan in Abu Dhabi, according to Al Jazeera. The official WAM news agency said the two sides discussed bilateral relations between the UAE and Israel and ways to strengthen and develop them.

Israel’s Central Elections Committee voted on September 23 to bar the country’s main Arab parties from contesting next month’s elections to the Knesset, The Hindu reported. The ban targets Ra’am, led by Mansour Abbas, and the Joint List, an alliance of the Arab-led Hadash, Ta’al and Balad parties, according to Al Jazeera. A Channel 12 poll published on Tuesday projected seven seats for the Joint List and five for Ra’am, against 50 for Netanyahu’s current coalition bloc.

During a meeting in Abu Dhabi on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan to refute a report that he had warned Israel of an impending Hamas attack, according to Middle East Eye. The report, in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, said the Emirati leader had warned Netanyahu days before the Hamas-led attack. The UAE Foreign Ministry declined to comment on the latest report and said it maintains “open and direct lines of communication” with Israel and shares “all relevant intelligence”.

Israel has said it intends to shut the British consulate in East Jerusalem on 8 October, in response to the sweeping ban on trade with goods from Israeli settlements announced this month by the British foreign secretary, Ed Miliband, according to The Guardian. Former attorney general Dominic Grieve assessed that Israel has no legal right to close the consulate. The British mission in Jerusalem dates from 1838, more than 100 years before the creation of the state of Israel, and is separate from the embassy in Tel Aviv.

Israel says it killed in Gaza the October 7 attacker who abducted a hostage couple, according to Le Monde.

Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir released a video in which he threatens to kill detained Hamas figure Hassan Salameh, according to Al Jazeera.

Southern Lebanon suffered a series of Israeli airstrikes early Monday, alongside ground attacks and multiple explosions, according to the Mehr News Agency. Israeli warplanes bombed the areas of Mifdoun, Kfar Tebnit, Mansouri, Haddatha, Haris, Khiam, Mays al-Jabal, Qantara and Wadi Zebqin, still according to the agency. A large plume of smoke was recorded after a reported attack in Bint Jbeil, in southern Lebanon, according to the Middle East Eye.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is preparing a potential case at the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, seeking to use it as leverage in their escalating dispute, according to i24NEWS, cited by RT. According to RT, Netanyahu reportedly instructed an Israeli interministerial team and the head of Israel’s International Law Department to prepare a dossier focused primarily on alleged attacks against Kurdish minorities, along with accusations that Erdogan’s government finances Hamas. The move would follow Türkiye’s request last month for an Interpol Red Notice for Netanyahu, after a Turkish court issued an arrest warrant on charges including genocide over Israel’s interception of the Gaza-bound Global Sumud Flotilla earlier this year.

Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called for Israel to go to war in the occupied West Bank and do there what it did in Gaza, according to the Middle East Eye. In a podcast interview, he also renewed his demand to dismantle the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in parts of the occupied West Bank, according to The Times of Israel.

Israel’s Supreme Court unanimously annulled the government’s ban on Red Cross visits to Palestinian security prisoners, according to the Times of Israel. The court said that the state failed to present a legal foundation for its blanket policy, in place since October 7, 2023, according to the Times of Israel. The government’s central justification for the ban was that Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza were being denied Red Cross visits, a justification that no longer applies, according to the Times of Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered an interministerial team and a senior Justice Ministry official to prepare a legal case against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, according to the Middle East Eye, citing i24NEWS. The order followed Erdogan’s announcement that Turkey had asked Interpol to issue a red notice for Netanyahu. According to TASS, which also cites i24News, Netanyahu instructed his government to prepare a filing with the International Criminal Court (ICC) accusing Erdogan. Neither Israel nor Turkey is a party to the Rome Statute and neither recognizes the ICC’s jurisdiction.

Israeli media reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had made an unannounced visit to the United Arab Emirates to meet with the country’s leader, according to the Middle East Eye. TV channels 12 and KAN and the newspapers Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post said it was a one-day visit to meet President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Two sources confirmed that Netanyahu flew to Abu Dhabi on a private plane Sunday morning and returned to Israel that evening, according to the World Israel News, citing Channel 12. The Prime Minister’s Office declined to disclose further details about the meeting.

Israel revoked the credentials of Dutch diplomats in Ramallah in response to the Netherlands’ ban on goods from Israeli settlements, according to the Middle East Eye. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said the diplomats must return their Israeli-issued diplomatic documentation within seven days. The Netherlands began enforcing a national ban on 22 September on the import, purchase and sale of goods from Israeli settlements, according to the Middle East Eye. Israel’s foreign ministry said it revoked the diplomatic status of the Dutch at the Netherlands’ Representative Office in Ramallah, in response to the Dutch government’s ban on imports of products originating from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, according to the Khaleej Times.

Israel’s former defence minister Yoav Gallant said Hamas had reportedly sent a warning to Israel before its October 7, 2023, attack, with the message conveyed through a Shin Bet channel, according to the Times of India. Also according to Gallant, the warning came from Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who cautioned that he would “shake the prisons”. Gallant told Army Radio that he first heard about these warnings from media reports, as quoted by The Jerusalem Post.

Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem said on Sunday that Israel had been unable to break the group, at a ceremony marking two years since Israel killed the movement's longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah, according to Middle East Eye. Qassem said Hezbollah had demonstrated that Israel and its soldiers “were unable to achieve their goals to break the resistance, end its existence, consolidate the Israeli occupation and establish settlements in Lebanon”, in an address televised at a gathering in Beirut's southern suburbs. Qassem said “Palestine and the liberation of our land remains our priority”, at the ceremony marking the anniversary of the deaths of Nasrallah and Safieddine, according to Mehr News.

Gaza's Health Ministry said on September 26, 2026, that the Palestinian death toll had risen to 74,016, with 175,068 wounded, according to The Hindu. Since the ceasefire, 1,145 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Ministry. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and militants and says women and children account for around half the total.

According to the Wafa agency, Israeli authorities decided to impose a comprehensive closure on the West Bank and close crossings into the territory until Saturday for the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. Israeli forces closed roads and entrances to towns around Ramallah, including Turmus Ayya, Aboud, Nabi Saleh, Atara and Taybeh, and set up checkpoints at Yabroud and Ein Sinyah, according to local sources cited by the agency, while residents reported harassment at the entrance to Turmus Ayya.

Israeli fighter jets resumed attacks on Saturday against mountainous areas near the Lebanese towns of Jezzine and Nabatieh, north of the Litani River, according to TASS, citing the outlet Janoubia. The airstrikes targeted underground shelters, command posts and Hezbollah depots on the heights of Jebel al-Rafi, Rayhan and Sajoud. According to Mehr News, southern Lebanon saw Israeli air and artillery attacks in recent hours, with artillery fire covering Al-Mansouri, Eastern Zotar, Barashit, Kafrtbanit and Beit Yahoun.

Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called on Israel to “go to war” in the West Bank and “do what we did in Gaza”, according to Middle East Eye. He said the Palestinian Authority, which he called a “terror authority”, must be dismantled.

Under the proposal Donald Trump rejected, Tehran would reopen the Strait of Hormuz and resume nuclear negotiations in exchange for the end of the naval blockade, relief on restrictions to Iranian oil exports, the release of frozen assets and a ceasefire that includes an end to Israel’s combat operations in Lebanon, according to RT. Trump told reporters Tehran wants a deal because it is “losing so badly” under the American blockade.

Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya told Qatari station Al-Araby that the Israeli election will not change anything for the Palestinians and that “our people have suffered at the hands of all Israeli parties”, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP), in a text republished by the South China Morning Post. He said Hamas refuses to allow the blood, suffering and cause of the Palestinian people to serve as fuel for Israeli elections. The election in Israel is set for October 27.

Gaza's Health Ministry said, in a report cited by TASS, that seven people were killed and another 38 wounded over the past 48 hours in Israeli army strikes on the Gaza Strip. An Israeli air strike on a tent in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood of northern Gaza City injured several displaced people, according to the Palestinian Information Centre. Israeli Air Force fighter jets resumed on Saturday attacks on mountainous areas near the Lebanese towns of Jezzine and Nabatieh, north of the Litani River. The targets were said to be underground shelters, command posts and Hezbollah depots on the heights of Jebel al-Rafi, Rayhan and Sajoud, according to the Janoubia portal.

Israel's attorney general has ordered a one-month postponement of an E1 settlement construction tender in the West Bank to avoid it being used for electioneering, according to Al Jazeera. The tender, published on 18 August, covers seven residential compounds containing 1,234 housing units, out of the 3,401 units approved for E1, according to Israeli media.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Muslim countries should “wake up” and not fight with each other, adding that the United States and Israel “are trying to pit us against each other,” according to the IRNA news agency, cited by Middle East Eye. Back in Tehran after the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, he said he had denounced at the UN the oppression of the Iranian people and the crimes of the United States and Israel.

Hamas condemned the Board of Peace’s decision not to work with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) and its statement that the agency will have no role in Gaza. In a post on X, the Board said it will only work with trusted partners who will deliver for the people of Gaza and contribute to a deradicalized Strip, and that UNRWA fails on those litmus tests. The Associated Press reported on Friday that Board members had been more willing to work with UNRWA behind the scenes than their public stance suggested.

The Republic of Ireland will play Sunday’s Nations League match against Israel in Debrecen, Hungary, after the squad voted by a significant majority to go ahead with the fixture, Football Association of Ireland (FAI) CEO David Courell said Saturday, according to Middle East Eye. The vote followed reports that some players, including custodian Gavin Bazunu, had considered refusing to play in protest at Israel’s actions in Gaza, the Telegraph reported. The Ireland team’s press conference and training session the day before the first of its Nations League games against Israel were delayed Saturday as pressure to boycott the matches grew, according to the Associated Press, in a text republished by Local10.

Israel’s Central Elections Committee voted this week to prevent the three parties that make up the Joint List, an alliance of Arab-majority parties, from contesting the October 27 vote, according to The Telegraph. The committee said the grouping had allegedly expressed support for armed struggle against the state of Israel. The decision threatens to disenfranchise about a million Israeli citizens, mostly of Arab ethnicity. The British newspaper notes the ruling is likely to be struck down by the supreme court in the coming days, as the court traditionally sets a high legal threshold for disqualifying a political party.

Israeli forces shelled the areas of Mansouri and Majdal Zoun, in Lebanon’s southern Tyre district, and Wadi Hassan, a valley on the outskirts of Majdal Zoun, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA). The NNA also reported that Israeli forces used phosphorus munitions while shelling several towns in southern Lebanon on Friday, according to Anadolu, which cites the state news agency.

The United Nations human rights office added 61 companies to its list of firms operating in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, in an update released on Friday. The database, first released in 2020, now lists 214 firms from 11 countries, according to AFP, in a text published by Courthouse News; most are from Israel, and there are companies from France, Germany, China and the United States, according to Middle East Eye. In this year's update, five companies were removed.

Families in Gaza are still sheltering in war-damaged buildings at risk of collapse, with few safe alternatives, according to Al Jazeera. A joint assessment by the United Nations, the World Bank and the European Union found that 371,888 housing units had been destroyed or damaged as of October 2025, 76.6 percent of the housing stock. On 16 September, a six-storey, already war-damaged residential building in Gaza City collapsed, killing 21 people, including 12 children, according to the UN and Gaza Civil Defence.

Amnesty International Austria displayed a banner reading “END GENOCIDE” inside the stadium during the Austria vs Israel match in Linz, in the Nations League, and is calling on UEFA and FIFA to suspend the Israel Football Association (IFA) for supporting illegal settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The protest was recorded by Middle East Eye.

U.S. ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee attributed the decline in public support for Israel in the United States to a lack of “biblical literacy”. He cited disinformation and foreign propaganda, a hatred of those who believe in God and a lack of knowledge of the Bible among the causes of that decline. In an interview with Fox News Digital, Huckabee said he sees “biblical ignorance” on the right.

Forty-one US lawmakers called on Secretary of State Mark Rubio to press Israel for the release of Palestinian healthcare workers, according to Middle East Eye. The letter, led by Representatives Mark Pocan and Mike Quigley, says the detainees are being held arbitrarily, without formal charges or due process. According to the letter, the detentions do further harm to Gaza’s devastated healthcare and erode access to care in the occupied West Bank.

According to Middle East Eye, citing the Palestinian news agency Wafa, Israeli forces detained six Palestinians across the occupied West Bank, including 17-year-old Mahmoud Daher Mahmoud Daoud from the town of Beita, south of Nablus. Israeli settlers attacked a Bedouin community on the outskirts of Asira al-Qibliya, south of Nablus, and stole several sheep and a tractor, local sources told the same agency.

Ed Sheeran’s shows at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, have been cancelled. The promoter Messina Touring attributed the decision to severe weather warnings in Boston and across New England, in a statement cited by Middle East Eye. The venue’s billionaire owner Robert Kraft had threatened to cancel Sheeran’s stadium concerts if Macklemore, who was to open the tour, stayed, and lobbied other stadium owners, according to Middle East Eye. At the start of a concert at Lincoln Financial Field, Sheeran called Israel’s war on Gaza “catastrophic and unjustifiable and disproportionate”.

Delegates left the hall of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly on Friday, September 25, 2026, before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took the podium, in a walkout coordinated at the request of the Palestinian Mission to the 193 member states, according to India Today. Netanyahu rejected the genocide allegations over Gaza, calling them “the biggest lie of the century”, defended Israel’s actions against Iran and called those who had not left the hall “moral cowards”, asking them to leave.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry said that 4,386 people have been killed and 12,413 wounded since the military escalation began on March 2. Five of them were killed in Israeli airstrikes in Nabatieh province, in the south, over the past 24 hours, according to the same tally. A QOM News count records 4,386 killed and 12,407 injured between March 2 and September 17.

Israel bombed three towns in southern Lebanon and shelled two nearby areas, despite the ceasefire in place for months, according to Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA), in an account carried by Middle East Eye. In the past hour, strikes hit Sarbin, al-Mansouri and Qantara, while artillery fire struck Wadi al-Saloqi and Wadi Zibqin, the agency said.

New York police arrested 103 people for disorderly conduct during protests against the visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, and all of them were released, Al Jazeera reported. The arrests rose above 100, among demonstrators demanding accountability over the war in Gaza and an end to United States military support for Israel. Netanyahu left the visit without being detained, while some of those protesting against him were arrested, according to Middle East Eye.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that United States and Israeli aggression killed more than 5,000 Iranians, according to TASS, which reproduces his remarks.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that Middle East states that help an attack on Iran will bear direct responsibility, according to TASS.

The Israeli army dropped white phosphorus bombs on the outskirts of the municipality of Zawtar al-Sharqiyah, near Nabatieh in southern Lebanon, according to Middle East Eye, citing a report by Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA). There is no independent Israeli confirmation of the incident, and the information has not been independently verified.

There is alarm at the United Nations (UN) over U.S. threats of sanctions against the International Criminal Court (ICC), according to The Guardian.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the delegations that walked out of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly hall during his address “moral cowards”, while supporters in the gallery chanted in Hebrew, “The people of Israel live”, according to Geo TV, citing Reuters. Five weeks before the 27 October 2026 election, the roughly 40-minute speech was delivered in campaign style, the same report says.

The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain were among the delegations that stayed in their seats during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to the 81st United Nations (UN) General Assembly, as dozens of delegations walked out, Anadolu Agency reports. Emirati influencers publicly celebrated the country’s decision to remain in the hall, Middle East Eye reports.

The United Nations (UN) human rights office expanded on Friday, 25 September 2026, its database of companies with activities in Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territories: there are now 214 firms from 11 countries, with 61 additions and five removals since the previous update, Le Monde reports. Airbnb, Booking.com, Motorola Solutions and TripAdvisor remain on the list, and the UN human rights office said the update is a reminder to companies of their human rights responsibilities, according to Le Monde.

Lebanon’s Prime Minister Nawaf Salam told the 81st United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) that his country will not be an “arena for the conflicts of others” or a bargaining chip, and called for a ceasefire, a full Israeli withdrawal and all weapons to be held by the Lebanese state, according to Al Jazeera. In New York, Salam’s meetings have so far failed to secure Lebanon’s request for a six-month extension of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) mandate, and Beirut has been pushing for an international force to fill the gap after the mission ends, according to Ya Libnan. In the same session, Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Falih Al-Zaidi called for a sovereign Palestinian state and said there can be no stability in the Middle East without a just solution to the Palestinian issue, according to Al Jazeera.

Israel’s official government mapping site, govmap, published 2025 aerial imagery of the northern Gaza Strip without the blurring it used to apply there, revealing at least 11 Israeli military positions inside the buffer zone and massive destruction to Palestinian towns in the area, The Times of Israel reported. The change, first spotted on Monday, 21 September 2026, by an open-source intelligence (OSINT) account, has no official explanation: the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it was looking into the imagery.

Children in southern Lebanon have returned to a school destroyed by an Israeli strike as the academic year begins, according to AFP. The war in southern Lebanon is confronting the education sector with a new test, with schools among the institutions hardest hit by Israeli bombardment, and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said in a July warning that 340 public and private schools had sustained varying degrees of damage and 17 had been completely destroyed, according to Arab News.

The U.S.-created Board of Peace, which leads the reconstruction of Gaza, says there is no place for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in the territory, but board members have met multiple times with agency officials, The Associated Press reports. Philippe Lazzarini, the agency’s outgoing commissioner-general, told AP that members of the Palestinian technocratic committee want to work with UNRWA, and a Board of Peace official confirmed the meetings.

Syria’s Damascus and Aleppo international airports are now open for nighttime flights after Israel quietly lifted its block on the activation of navigation equipment, Middle East Eye reports, citing regional officials. A regional official told the outlet that the Israeli government had threatened to shoot down the small aircraft carrying out the calibration flights.

Fuel prices in Lebanon have doubled since the start of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, reaching $1.60 a litre, Middle East Eye reports. The country’s trade union federation urged the government to declare a state of economic emergency and threatened an open-ended general strike next week; the World Bank projects Lebanon’s economy will contract 6.4% in 2026, according to the same report. The head of the workers’ confederation said the rising cost of living could lead to a “social explosion,” he told dpa.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used the U.N. General Assembly tribune on Thursday, September 24, 2026, to attack Iran, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, critics and allies such as the United Kingdom and France, and rejected accusations of genocide in Gaza, Al Jazeera reported. Dozens of delegations walked out as the speech began, some jeering and booing, while Netanyahu’s own team stood and applauded; SBS News put the number of delegations that walked out at 77.

The French government said the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not prevent the “Wing of Zion” official aircraft from overflying its territory en route to the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in New York, according to The Times of Israel. According to the newspaper, Paris argues the Rome Statute does not require an overflown state to arrest a suspect, and flight data show the plane also crossed Italian and Greek airspace, both states party to the treaty, according to Today.az.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked Uganda at the United Nations (UN) General Assembly for erecting a statue of his brother Yonatan at the place in Entebbe where he was killed, according to the speech transcript. The monument was unveiled on August 1 at Entebbe’s old terminal by Uganda’s military chief, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, the Associated Press (AP) reports. Netanyahu spoke on September 24 before a hall largely emptied by delegations walking out, according to Pulse Uganda.

Thousands of people marched in Tehran in the “Sacrifice for Iran” (Janfada-e-Iran, in Persian) campaign, from Imam Hossein Square to Enghelab Square, reports Mehr News Agency. The rally was a government-organised demonstration with hundreds of thousands of participants pledging readiness to take up arms, describes Al Jazeera. At the rally, the government unveiled a new volunteer force with limited military and emergency-response training to serve as an additional security layer for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Basij militia, according to the broadcaster. Iranian authorities said 313,000 people joined the event in the capital, a figure that could not be independently verified, the broadcaster notes.

The outgoing commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, said in Geneva in his last press conference before leaving office that the agency must be part of a political solution for the population it serves, and warned that UNRWA is near collapse, with funding for water, health and education services expected to last only until September, according to Geneva Solutions. On 1 July 2026, the Board of Peace (BoP), the body created by Donald Trump’s peace plan with a central role in Gaza’s reconstruction, had already said UNRWA “has no place” in the territory’s future, according to The Jerusalem Post.

Security cameras near the New York City hotel where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was planning to stay recorded three men emerging from sewers before dawn on Wednesday, according to NBC News, which cited police. The outlet said the appearance does not appear to be connected to the prime minister or to the United Nations (UN) General Assembly under way in Manhattan.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shortened his trip to the United States and returned home on the night of Thursday, 24 September 2026, right after addressing the 81st United Nations (UN) General Assembly, according to Dawn. His stay in New York was limited to a few hours, and the immediate departure after the speech was reported by Israel’s public broadcaster Kan, carried by Middle East Eye. The decision not to extend his stay followed a recommendation from security officials presented to Netanyahu in talks held in the previous days, Channel 13 reported, cited by Dawn.

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations (UN), Danny Danon, approached an Iranian diplomat at the General Assembly to offer the Starlink terminal Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had displayed in his speech as a tool for Iranians to bypass censorship, according to Middle East Eye; the Iranian representative ignored Danon, looked away and did not engage, the outlet reports; India Today recorded the on-stage display.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu singled out Zohran Mamdani by name in his September 24 address to the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, calling him antisemitic and saying many Jews no longer feel safe in New York. Mamdani hit back, accusing Netanyahu of repeating lies to sanitize his genocide of Palestinians.

About 100 protesters were detained by New York City police on Thursday, September 24, 2026, at the protest against Benjamin Netanyahu outside the United Nations (UN) headquarters, before Israel’s prime minister delivered his speech to the General Assembly. Among those held were Oscar-winning actor Susan Sarandon and Hacks star Hannah Einbinder, and hundreds of people blocked traffic on the streets around the UN through the day. The action was organized by Jewish Voice for Peace, a US Jewish group critical of the Israeli occupation.

Dozens of delegates walked out of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly hall as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took the stage on Thursday, 24 September 2026, in a protest caught on video. In the address that followed, Netanyahu defended Israel’s military campaigns in Iran, Gaza and elsewhere in the Middle East, rejected the accusation of genocide and said the country would keep fighting: “We’re going to win. We have no other choice.”

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa said he cannot entertain diplomatic relations with Israel while the rights of Syrians are usurped, citing as core concerns the territories Israel has occupied since December 2024 and the Golan Heights, speaking at a panel hosted by the Washington-based think tank Atlantic Council on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, according to Middle East Eye. He said talks with Israel reached ‘almost 90 per cent’ agreement before Israeli pullbacks and that Damascus regards the Golan as Syrian territory whose sovereignty is not open to negotiation, according to the Jerusalem Post. Al-Sharaa also said Russia kept 170 bases in Syria and now operates two, both for training Syrian forces, according to Middle East Eye.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office called ‘grotesque absurdity’ French President Emmanuel Macron’s claim at the UN General Assembly that Hamas has never operated in the West Bank, according to Agence France-Presse, carried by Channel NewsAsia. The Israeli statement said Hamas militants attack Jews in Judea and Samaria, the Israeli name for the West Bank, ‘almost every day’ and that ‘ignorance is no excuse for erasing their blood’. The Jerusalem Post reports that Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich accused Macron of lying and cited the killing of a French-Israeli father of six in an attack attributed to Hamas in the West Bank on Sunday, September 20, 2026, two days before the speech. Macron spoke in French, and published renderings of his remark vary between ‘never operated’ and ‘never caused trouble’ in the West Bank; he criticised daily violations in the territory and called the humanitarian situation in Gaza ‘a spectacle that shames us all’.

Iran’s Oil Ministry said about 50% of the damaged capacity at the South Pars gas field has returned to service, after the Israeli strike of 18 March 2026 that halted output at two refineries in the Asaluyeh complex and cut Iranian gas flows to Iraq, as The National reported at the time. The deputy oil minister for planning said production in that section resumed by 22 September 2026 and that the recovery program will be completed before winter begins, according to Mehr News. The field supplies about 75% of the country’s gas consumption and underpins nearly 80% of its electricity generation, according to a report by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty carried by GlobalSecurity.org.

The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement has launched a petition calling for the suspension of Israel’s membership in the United Nations, addressed to the president of the 81st General Assembly, Khalilur Rahman, Bangladesh’s foreign minister, and arguing that Israel should be treated as South Africa was during the apartheid era. Released on Wednesday, 23 September 2026, during the Assembly’s general debate, the petition says Israel has violated international law, failed to comply with resolutions and decisions by UN bodies and the International Court of Justice and targeted UN facilities and personnel, according to the Palestinian news agency WAFA.

Amnesty International called on the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) to suspend Israel’s football association, saying Israel’s participation in the UEFA Nations League, whose group phase opens on 24 September 2026, is “unconscionable” while clubs based in illegal settlements remain in Israel’s domestic leagues. Steve Cockburn, Amnesty International’s director for Europe, said UEFA and FIFA “should have suspended” the Israeli association long ago for refusing to exclude settlement clubs, in the statement published by the organisation itself (Amnesty International) and carried by Arab News. Israel is in League B with Austria, Ireland and Kosovo; the Ireland–Israel games were scheduled for neutral venues in Hungary and Serbia, behind closed doors, after the Football Association of Ireland asked UEFA to consider suspending the Israeli team. FIFA decided in March 2026 to take no action against the Israeli association, and the Palestinian Football Association appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

An Israeli air strike hit al-Khiam, in southern Lebanon, overnight into Wednesday, 23 September 2026, damaging transmission lines and cutting power to the entire Nabaa el-Hamas area, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA), cited by Middle East Eye. A large explosion in al-Khiam, in the Nabatieh governorate, was felt across southern Lebanon, the agency reported. On Tuesday, 22 September, Israeli artillery struck the towns of Al-Mansouri and Baraachit, and Israeli forces advanced on Al-Mansouri with military vehicles and bulldozers, detonating houses in the town’s Fourth Neighbourhood that had been rigged with explosives, according to NNA.

Qatar’s prime minister and foreign minister, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, condemned Israel’s declared rejection of the roadmap to complete the implementation of the plan to end the war in Gaza, at a closed meeting of heads of state and government convened by French President Emmanuel Macron, UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations (UN) General Assembly in New York, according to Mehr News, citing Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. According to the ministry, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman urged the international community to press Israel to meet its obligations under the Gaza ceasefire agreement and to halt violations of Palestinian rights, and reaffirmed Qatar’s support for a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital. Israel rejected the 15-point plan put forward by the mediators in August and conditions any withdrawal from Gaza on Hamas disarming, according to Mehr News.

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said on Tuesday, September 22, 2026, in his debut at the United Nations General Assembly, that violence in Gaza and Israeli settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank were pushing the two-state solution towards a “point of no return”, according to Middle East Eye. Burnham cited the E1 settlement project, which he said would sever East Jerusalem from the West Bank, and urged action to match the international support states declare for a Palestinian state. The speech came two weeks after Britain, France and Canada announced, on September 8, 2026, sanctions on goods from Israeli settlements, to which Israel responded by ordering the closure of the British consulate in East Jerusalem within 30 days, according to France 24.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office on Tuesday, 22 September 2026, criticised French President Emmanuel Macron’s claim at the United Nations General Assembly that Hamas has never operated in the West Bank. “The grotesque absurdity of Emmanuel Macron’s statement is staggering,” the statement said, as carried by Middle East Eye and the Jewish News Syndicate (JNS). The statement cites the killing of Netanel Shukrun, a French citizen and father of six, who it says was shot dead in his car by a “Hamas terrorist” on Sunday, 20 September 2026, the eve of Yom Kippur, in the occupied West Bank — the region the Israeli government calls Judea and Samaria. “With his final breath, he told his son to run,” it says. “Hamas terrorists carry out attacks against Jews almost every day. They have murdered countless Israeli civilians in Judea and Samaria.” Macron had called the scenes in Gaza “shameful. A shame for all of us”, and said that “all those who claim that Israel’s security requires violating the sovereignty of all its neighbours are making a fatal mistake”, according to Middle East Eye. Netanyahu is expected to address the UN on Thursday, 24 September 2026.

Israeli restrictions have held up more than 900 wheelchairs donated by two Australian charities for children injured in Gaza, according to Australian public broadcaster ABC News, as reported by Middle East Eye. Two shipments from New South Wales-based Kids on Wheels Alliance reached Jordan in February 2025 and a third, from Western Australia’s Wheelchairs for Kids, arrived in October 2025; all three remain in warehouses run by the Jordan Hashemite Charity Organisation (JHCO). The JHCO says the block comes from the Israeli agency coordinating aid into Gaza, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), while an Israeli government source denied that an application for the Australian wheelchairs had been rejected. COGAT did not answer ABC’s specific questions about the Australian donations and said in a general response that it had let thousands of wheelchairs into the strip during the war.

According to the UN’s official record of the debate and Middle East Eye, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva opened the general debate of the 81st United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) saying that “generations of Palestinians will carry the pain and trauma left by the genocide of women and children perpetrated by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in Gaza.” In the same speech, on Tuesday, September 22, 2026, Lula said that “Israeli civilians paid the price for the radicalism and intolerance of Hamas’ terrorist acts” and that illegal settlements in the West Bank are making a two-state solution increasingly unviable, according to The New Republic. He criticised the persecution of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and its members and said that the UN special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, must not be “silenced for telling the truth,” according to Al Jazeera, The New Republic and Israel Hayom.

Colombia’s government withdrew the declaration of intervention it had filed on 5 April 2024 in the case over genocide in the Gaza Strip brought by South Africa against Israel before the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The court made public on Tuesday, 22 September 2026, the decision Colombia notified on 18 September, according to the court’s official case page and Anadolu Agency. The intervention rested on Article 63 of the court’s statute, which allows a state that is not party to a dispute to make submissions when the case concerns the interpretation of a convention it has also signed. Colombia was never a party to the main proceedings, and the withdrawal does not affect them. The decision reverses the policy of Gustavo Petro, who severed relations with Israel in May 2024 and halted Colombian coal exports to the country. Abelardo de la Espriella, who took office on 7 August 2026, restored diplomatic and economic ties, according to Middle East Eye and Anadolu Agency: the government plans to reopen its embassy in Jerusalem, set up a bilateral economic commission and send a delegation to Israel in October. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar thanked Colombia for the withdrawal, according to ColombiaOne.

The US Department of Justice asked the Supreme Court on Monday, 21 September 2026, to review the ruling that freed Indian researcher Badar Khan Suri of Georgetown University, who advocated for Palestinian rights and opposed Israel’s war in Gaza, according to The Georgetown Voice and Al Jazeera. The petition, docketed as Trump v. Khan Suri, asks whether federal immigration law barred a lower-court judge from ordering the release of a noncitizen held while removal proceedings are under way, and argues that rulings such as the Fourth Circuit’s give detainees a route to challenge deportation outside immigration courts. Suri, who holds a J-1 exchange visa, was detained in March 2025 by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers and spent 58 days in custody; Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles ordered his release in May 2025, and in July 2026 the Fourth Circuit ruled 2-1 that he should remain out of detention. Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote that the ruling is “practically disastrous”; the Third Circuit, in January 2026, in the case of activist Mahmoud Khalil, and the Second Circuit, in July, in the case of Mohsen Mahdawi, reached the opposite conclusion, and the Justice Department asked the court to take Khalil’s case as well. Suri also faces a separate immigration case, which opened on 15 September 2026, to decide whether the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) can deport him.

Donald Trump called on Tuesday, 22 September 2026, at the 81st United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York for every country that is a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to resign from what he called an “out-of-control institution” and “an evil group of people”. “I call on all nations that are members of the ICC to officially resign from this rogue institution immediately,” he said, according to The Independent and Gulf News. The US president said Washington would “never allow US service members or anyone else to be investigated or given show trials by an anti-American tribunal with no jurisdiction over us”. The United States is not an ICC member and has never ratified the Rome Statute that created the court; Washington has sanctioned court officials since February 2025, after the ICC issued arrest warrants in November 2024 against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then defence minister Yoav Gallant over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. Secretary of State Marco Rubio vowed in July 2026 to “dismantle the ICC, brick by brick”, and The Independent reports that fresh sanctions against the court could be finalised shortly after the General Assembly.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan accused Israel on Tuesday, September 22, 2026, of holding a “genocidal mindset” toward the Palestinians in a speech at the 81st United Nations (UN) General Assembly in New York, during which the Israeli delegation walked out and Palestinian representatives applauded, according to Al Jazeera. “Despite this so-called ceasefire, more than 1,300 civilians have been murdered in Gaza,” Erdoğan said, describing the territory as “the most inhumane, most shameful concentration camp of our time” and adding that “no one with humanity, mercy or conscience can turn a blind eye”. According to Anadolu Agency, he called for Gaza’s reconstruction to begin “without wasting any time” and urged member states to increase pressure on Israel. In the same address, Erdoğan said the UN has failed to fulfil its duty to preserve peace and security and is “bleeding out” in Palestine, Lebanon and Sudan, and lamented the absence of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who was denied a US visa for the second year in a row. TRT World reports that he also accused Israel of extending its offensive to Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, Iran and Qatar.

Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, said on Tuesday, September 22, 2026, at the 81st United Nations (UN) General Assembly that the Gulf is going through “one of the most dangerous phases” because of the US-Israeli war on Iran, and argued the crisis can be resolved through diplomacy, with the Strait of Hormuz reopened to navigation, according to Al Jazeera. He said the war is the “cumulative result of years” of postponing diplomatic solutions and called for a “regional system of collective security”, saying that without one “it has become possible for a war to erupt”. Sheikh Tamim called Israel’s expansion in the occupied West Bank “aggression” and said “what has transpired in Gaza is genocide in every sense of the word”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video posted on X on Tuesday, September 22, 2026, that he will use his address to the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, scheduled for Thursday, September 24, to defend the country’s soldiers and to “tell the truth” about New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, whom he accused of supporting Hamas and of inciting riots against the city’s Jews, according to The Jerusalem Post and The Times of India. “Shame on you, Mr. Mamdani,” Netanyahu said. “Shame on you for supporting the Hamas terrorist monsters who butchered our people.” The statement answers a CNN interview aired on Monday, September 21, in which Mamdani again called Netanyahu “a war criminal and an architect of a horrific genocide of the Palestinian people” and said the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against the prime minister should be honored.

International Criminal Court (ICC) deputy prosecutor Nazhat Shameem Khan, who has been running the office since chief prosecutor Karim Khan was removed amid sexual misconduct allegations, said the court has taken no steps to withdraw the arrest warrants or the warrant applications against Israeli officials, despite US sanctions and pressure. “The case is still proceeding,” she told CNN in an interview aired on 18 September 2026. “We have taken no steps to try and withdraw any of those arrest warrant applications or the arrest warrants themselves, and the team continues to investigate in that situation.” The ICC issued the warrants in November 2024 for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his then defence minister, Yoav Gallant, over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Gaza since October 2023. Washington has since sanctioned most of the court’s leadership, including former chief prosecutor Karim Khan, the two deputy prosecutors and nine judges, among them the court’s president, and secretary of state Marco Rubio pledged in July 2026 to “dismantle the ICC – brick by brick”, as also reported by TASS and Middle East Eye.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, 22 September 2026, called on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to expel Spain, a day after Madrid said it would not take part in security for the event where he was to speak. Spain has had an arms embargo on Israel since 2023 and recognised the Palestinian state in May 2024. Sources: The Times of Israel and Middle East Eye.

Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, said on Tuesday, 22 September 2026, that Gaza City will be evacuated and destroyed if a single Israeli is abducted, and that the military will not make partial withdrawals from the 63% of the territory it holds until Hamas is disarmed. He spoke at the Yom Kippur War memorial in Jerusalem, according to Agence France-Presse, The Jerusalem Post and i24NEWS. “If a single Israeli soldier or civilian is kidnapped, the entire city of Gaza, with its houses and terror towers, will be evacuated southward with its million residents,” Katz said, addressing the warning to Hamas and, explicitly, to the governments of Iran and Turkey. Gaza City’s municipality puts its population at about 1.1 million.

The Trump administration has informally notified congressional committees of a US$ 2.8 billion arms package for Israel that includes 40,000 907-kilogram bombs, 20,000 MK-84s and 20,000 BLU-117s, The Washington Post reported, citing a government official speaking on condition of anonymity, along with Reuters. If completed, it would be the largest single sale of that munition to Israel in recent years and would exceed a 2025 transfer worth nearly US$ 3 billion that contained more than 35,500 of the bombs and was approved after the administration bypassed normal congressional review. Most of the package would be financed through Foreign Military Financing, a mechanism under which Washington provides the money and Israel buys the weapons from the United States. The package also includes 20,000 I-2000 penetrator warheads, designed to punch through hardened underground structures. Outlets such as Al Jazeera fold the warheads into the bomb count to reach 60,000 items, while The Washington Post’s account treats the two categories separately. The State Department said it does not comment on pending sales before formal notification to Congress, and Senators Bernie Sanders and Chris Van Hollen have said they will work to block the sale. The deal is not final, and deliveries of orders this size can take years.