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Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir joined thousands of extremist Jews in a raid on the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem on July 23, 2026. [Screengrab – Anadolu Agency]
Extremist Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem on Monday under heavy police protection on the eve of Israel’s general elections, Anadolu reports.
Israeli Channel 7 reported that Ben-Gvir entered the flashpoint site amid tight security measures and performed prayers at the Al-Buraq Wall (Western Wall), the western portion of the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex
Al-Aqsa Mosque is the world’s third-holiest site for Muslims. Jews call the area Temple Mount, claiming it was the site of two Jewish temples in ancient times.
A photo published by the channel showed Ben-Gvir surrounded by Israeli police officers and special units inside the mosque compound.
Ben-Gvir had not announced the visit in advance, as was the case with several previous incursions since he took office in late 2022.
Another photo published by Channel 7 showed him praying at the site.
Monday’s intrusion came amid accusations by Palestinian parties that Ben-Gvir is using measures targeting Palestinians, their property and holy sites as part of his election campaign and to intimidate Arab voters in Israel.
The hardline minister also used measures against mosques and demolitions of Palestinian homes as part of his electoral campaign.
Israeli voters will cast ballots on Tuesday to elect the 120 members of the Knesset, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc competing primarily against an opposition bloc led by former army chief Gadi Eisenkot.
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham admits to blatently lying and engaging in deception to become leader of the UK Labour Party and Prime Minister. He asks who could possibly object to the IDF starving people to death, conducting forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing all Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He says they’ve got a genocide to do for Israel and to stop objecting.Ed Miliband says that he and the Labour Party are full of shit criminalising people holding signs as terrorists despite anything he says.
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An exterior view of the European Parliament Building in Brussels, Belgium [Dursun Aydemir – Anadolu Agency]
A press officer for The Left group in the European Parliament, Manus Carlisle, said Israeli authorities deported him after detaining him for approximately eight hours at Ben Gurion International Airport, citing political activism, previous travel to the occupied West Bank, and opposition to Israel, Anadolu reports.
Carlisle, who was traveling with his partner to participate in the olive harvest in the occupied West Bank as part of the Fa3za campaign, said the couple were denied entry into Israel upon arrival at Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv.
The Fa3za campaign coordinates volunteers and solidarity efforts between Palestinian villages facing attacks, seeking to support communities, and help protect farmers during the olive harvest season.
Speaking to Anadolu, he said the couple had anticipated difficulties entering the country but were nevertheless “shocked” by the experience, describing an interrogation process during which Israeli officials allegedly demonstrated detailed knowledge of their political activities and social media presence.
“They (Israeli officials) didn’t like the Irish passport, and they didn’t like that I had spent time in Bethlehem before. Eventually, we were told that they knew every demonstration we had ever been on, and every social media post we had ever made,” he said.
Carlisle said the couple had taken steps to remove social media content relating to Israel approximately one month before traveling, hoping this would make their entry into the country less difficult.
He added that they “were denied entry after about eight hours,” and that Israeli officials said it is “because you hate Israel.”
He said the couple were subsequently transferred to a deportation holding area after spending around eight hours in detention at the airport.
There, they encountered two other Irish men who had also been traveling to participate in the same olive harvest initiative.
“They were definitely on the lookout for us specifically,” he said.
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham admits to blatently lying and engaging in deception to become leader of the UK Labour Party and Prime Minister. He asks who could possibly object to the IDF starving people to death, conducting forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing all Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He says they’ve got a genocide to do for Israel and to stop objecting.Ed Miliband says that he and the Labour Party are full of shit criminalising people holding signs as terrorists despite anything he says.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
A general view of the rubble of Palestinian homes and structures demolished by Israeli army heavy machinery in the Farsh Al Hawa area of Hebron, West Bank, Palestine on Saturday, October 24, 2026. [Wisam Hashlamoun – Anadolu Agency]
More than 2,600 Palestinians have been displaced as the Israeli army continued a large-scale military offensive in the West Bank city of Hebron for a fourth consecutive day on Monday, amid raids, closures, and assaults on residents, Anadolu reports.
The army has shut all entrances to Hebron and surrounding villages since Friday following a shooting attack that killed two Israeli soldiers.
Local sources told Anadolu that additional Israeli forces accompanied by military vehicles entered Hebron around midnight through the Farsh al-Hawa entrance, while troops raided the southern part of the city near Jabal Karbaj.
Military reinforcements and large trucks arrived in the Al-Jilda area early Monday, where Israeli forces seized several Palestinian vehicles, the sources said.
Anadolu footage showed Israeli forces stopping and searching Palestinians at military checkpoints near Al-Jilda Roundabout and mistreating a young man.
Additional army forces also arrived in the Deir Bahha area, where Israeli forces seized several Palestinian vehicles, witnesses said.
Separately, Israeli forces divided a street in the Jabal al-Rahma area between Palestinians and Israeli occupiers, restricting Palestinians’ movement in the area, according to witnesses.
Hebron Mayor Youssef al-Jabari told Anadolu on Sunday that the Israeli army had forced around 2,200 Palestinians from their homes and demolished five commercial and industrial structures and a three-story residential building since the operation began.
A local relief committee in the area on Monday updated the number of displaced Palestinians from the area at around 2,649.
According to the Palestinian Prisoner Society, the Israeli army arrested 50 Palestinians in Hebron since Friday.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz acknowledged Saturday evening that around 2,000 Palestinians had been forcibly displaced from their homes in Hebron, saying they would not be allowed to return until what he described as “Hamas infrastructure” in the city was dismantled.
The operation comes amid intensified Israeli army attacks and violence by Israeli occupiers against Palestinians across the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since Israel’s war on Gaza began in October 2023.
The attacks have included killings and arrests of Palestinians, demolitions of homes and other structures, the burning of mosques and vehicles, bulldozing farmland, preventing farmers from reaching their fields, displacing Palestinian communities and expanding illegal settlements.
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham admits to blatently lying and engaging in deception to become leader of the UK Labour Party and Prime Minister. He asks who could possibly object to the IDF starving people to death, conducting forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing all Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He says they’ve got a genocide to do for Israel and to stop objecting.Ed Miliband says that he and the Labour Party are full of shit criminalising people holding signs as terrorists despite anything he says.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Iraqi national flag in Baghdad on 10 January 2019 [AHMAD AL-RUBAYE / AFP / Getty]
An attack targeted military facilities in Iraq last week, including Chinese-made air defence systems and ammunition depots reportedly recently delivered from Iran for Shiite militias in the country, Iraqi sources said, with suspicions that Israel was behind the strike.
Saudi media quoted two Iraqi sources as saying that authorities in Baghdad had indications pointing to Israel’s involvement, but had yet to determine how the attack was carried out or whether it involved warplanes or drones.
The attack wounded five people, who sustained minor injuries, according to the sources. Iraqi authorities are still investigating the circumstances surrounding the incident.
The developments come amid previous reports of possible Israeli military activity inside Iraq. About six months ago, US media reported that Israel had established a secret military base in Iraq, housing special forces and serving as a logistical hub for the Israeli air force, in coordination with the United States, according to sources cited in those reports.
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham admits to blatently lying and engaging in deception to become leader of the UK Labour Party and Prime Minister. He asks who could possibly object to the IDF starving people to death, conducting forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing all Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He says they’ve got a genocide to do for Israel and to stop objecting.Ed Miliband says that he and the Labour Party are full of shit criminalising people holding signs as terrorists despite anything he says.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Posters of former Israeli Chief of General Staff and Yashar Party leader Gadi Eisenkot (right) and Prime Minister and Likud Party leader Benjamin Netanyahu (left) are seen as election campaigns intensify two days before the vote as campaign posters of candidates are displayed on billboards and buildings across the streets ahead of the Knesset elections scheduled for October 27, in Tel Aviv, Israel, on October 25, 2026. [Nir Keidar – Anadolu Agency]
Israelis head to the polls Tuesday in a closely contested parliamentary election that could end Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s long rule or leave the country facing another political deadlock, with neither major bloc projected to secure a governing majority, Anadolu reports.
The vote will be Israel’s first general election since the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks and the subsequent Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip, as well as military confrontations with Lebanon and Iran.
It will also be the first Israeli general election held on schedule since 1988, following decades in which successive governments collapsed before completing their four-year terms.
Around 7.3 million people are eligible to vote, including approximately 1.2 million Palestinian citizens of Israel.
Voting will take place at 12,018 polling stations, with approximately 18,000 ballot boxes deployed nationwide.
Most polling stations will open at 7 am (0500GMT) and close at 10 pm (2000GMT). Election day is a public holiday.
Thirty-seven parties and electoral lists are competing for seats in the 120-member Knesset, where a governing coalition requires the support of at least 61 lawmakers.
Under Israel’s proportional representation system, voters choose parties rather than individual candidates. Parties must secure at least 3.25% of valid votes to enter parliament.
No party has ever won an outright Knesset majority, making coalition negotiations decisive in determining who becomes prime minister.
Eisenkot’s party leads final polls
Final surveys published by Israel’s three main television broadcasters put former military chief Gadi Eisenkot’s centrist Yashar party narrowly ahead of Netanyahu’s Likud.
Yashar is projected to win 22 to 23 seats, compared with 19 to 21 for Likud.
The B’Yachad, or Together, alliance led by former prime ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid is projected to finish third with 14 or 15 seats.
Other opposition parties include the Democrats, led by former general Yair Golan, and former Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beytenu.
The three surveys project Netanyahu’s right-wing and religious bloc winning 50 seats, while the opposition bloc is forecast to secure between 52 and 56.
Palestinian-led parties are projected to win a combined 14 to 16 seats.
The figures suggest that neither Netanyahu nor Eisenkot has a clear path to the 61-seat majority needed to form a government.
Winning the largest number of seats does not automatically determine who becomes prime minister.
President Isaac Herzog will consult the elected parties before assigning the task of forming a government to the lawmaker considered most likely to command a parliamentary majority.
Netanyahu, 77, is seeking another term after serving as prime minister for more than 18 years across three separate periods.
His campaign has focused heavily on national security, portraying his experience and military policies as essential to confronting regional threats.
However, he faces criticism over his government’s failure to prevent the Oct. 7 attacks, its handling of subsequent conflicts and its opposition to establishing an independent state commission of inquiry into the security failures.
Netanyahu is also standing trial on corruption charges, which he denies, and faces an International Criminal Court arrest warrant over war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
His potential coalition partners include far-right parties led by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, alongside the ultra-Orthodox Shas and United Torah Judaism parties.
Ben-Gvir and Smotrich have advocated expanding illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, rejected Palestinian statehood and encouraged Palestinians to leave Gaza.
The ultra-Orthodox parties have meanwhile faced mounting criticism over demands to preserve military-service exemptions for religious students as the Israeli military struggles with personnel shortages after years of conflict.
Eisenkot offers change in leadership, no major shift in security issues
Eisenkot, 66, served as chief of the Israeli military from 2015 to 2019 and joined Netanyahu’s emergency government following the Oct. 7 attacks.
He later left the government after criticizing Netanyahu’s management of the Gaza offensive and the absence of a clear political strategy.
His son was killed while serving with the Israeli military in Gaza in December 2023.
Eisenkot has campaigned on government accountability, political stability and restoring public confidence in state institutions.
He supports establishing an official inquiry into the Oct. 7 security failures and ending broad military-service exemptions for ultra-Orthodox men.
Despite positioning himself as an alternative to Netanyahu, Eisenkot maintains similar positions on several major security issues.
He opposes establishing a fully sovereign Palestinian state under current conditions and says Hamas’ military capabilities and rule in Gaza must be dismantled.
The election therefore presents voters with competing approaches to leadership, governance, judicial independence and relations with far-right parties, even as the two leading candidates share positions on key security issues.
The Joint List and Ra’am, the principal parties representing Palestinian citizens of Israel, could play a decisive role if neither major bloc secures 61 seats.
Polls project the Joint List winning around nine seats and Ra’am securing between five and seven.
An Eisenkot-led government could require support from one or both Palestinian-led parties, either through formal coalition participation or outside parliamentary backing.
Such an arrangement would face political obstacles.
Lieberman has rejected joining a government dependent on Palestinian-led parties, while other opposition figures have been reluctant to commit to such an agreement.
Netanyahu has repeatedly invoked the possibility of Palestinian-led parties influencing the next government to mobilize right-wing voters.
Coalition scenarios, possible deadlock
Several possible outcomes could emerge from Tuesday’s vote.
Netanyahu could form another government if his bloc secures enough additional seats or attracts lawmakers from outside his existing alliance.
An Eisenkot-led coalition would likely depend on an agreement involving Palestinian-led parties, defections from other camps or difficult compromises among ideologically divided opposition leaders.
A unity government involving Likud and major opposition parties is another possible arrangement, although Eisenkot and several allies have ruled out serving under Netanyahu.
If neither side assembles a majority, Netanyahu could remain caretaker prime minister during prolonged coalition negotiations, potentially leading to another election.
The performance of smaller parties polling near the 3.25% electoral threshold could prove decisive. Parties that fail to meet the threshold win no seats, potentially weakening their political allies and shifting the balance of power between the competing blocs.
Exit polls are expected immediately after voting ends at 10 pm local time Tuesday.
Initial official results will begin emerging overnight, although counting ballots from military personnel, hospitals, prisons and other special voting arrangements could take several days.
Official results are scheduled to be published by Nov. 4, after which coalition negotiations could continue for weeks.
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham admits to blatently lying and engaging in deception to become leader of the UK Labour Party and Prime Minister. He asks who could possibly object to the IDF starving people to death, conducting forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing all Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He says they’ve got a genocide to do for Israel and to stop objecting.Ed Miliband says that he and the Labour Party are full of shit criminalising people holding signs as terrorists despite anything he says.
