© Amit Elkayam for The New York Times
En octubre de 2023, cuando el shock inicial por el ataque de Hamás iba dando paso a la interiorización de que había sido el mayor fiasco de seguridad en las siete décadas de historia del Estado de Israel, casi nadie pensaba que Benjamín Netanyahu seguiría como primer ministro tres años más tarde. Tampoco que un país acostumbrado a coaliciones amplias y a adelantos electorales (ninguno fue tanto a las urnas entre 1996 y los últimos comicios, en 2022, cada 2,4 años) completaría la legislatura justo esta vez. Y, menos aún, ambas combinadas: que, tras cuatro años de polémicas y guerras, Netanyahu llegaría a la recta final de las elecciones —que se celebran el martes— con menos apoyo y popularidad, pero con probabilidades de mantenerse en el poder. “No me rendiré”, reza uno de los carteles electorales con su rostro.
© Ariel Schalit (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Desde la ventana del pequeño Ayuntamiento de Deir Balut son visibles los cubículos prefabricados en los que viven los colonos instalados en las tierras de este pueblo palestino del norte de Cisjordania y también las obras de la nueva carretera que Israel construye para unir varios asentamientos de la zona.
© Ammar Awad (REUTERS)
President Donald Trump warned Thursday that the United States may launch further strikes against Iran, as Washington and Israel prepare for a possible new offensive following the November midterm elections.
The post Trump Signals More Iran Strikes — ‘We May Do It a Little Bit Further’ appeared first on Breitbart.
Days before Israel’s legislative elections, scheduled for October 27, Israeli forces escalated military activities across the West Bank. Observers speculate that the Israeli government may carry through with its threat to escalate its assaults on Palestinians in the occupied territory.
These speculations are apparently based on the results of the early polls, which showed the bloc of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a tight race with its competitors and facing a likely political deadlock.
On Tuesday, October 20, the Israeli military announced a 24-hour military drill across the West Bank that involved gunfire, explosions, and increased movements of soldiers, aircraft, and military vehicles.
Concurrently, security measures against Palestinians and their supporters have been further tightened. On Tuesday, October 21, the Israeli forces briefly detained 80 US, British, and Israeli volunteers assisting Palestinians harvesting olives west of the southern West Bank governorate of Bethlehem.
The detainees included the New York Democratic congressional nominee Brad Lander, a group of rabbis, and Israel’s former deputy attorney general.
Commenting on the incident, Lander wrote in a post on X:
“I’ve been detained by the IDF, along with a group of rabbis & volunteers. We were simply harvesting olives in a grove near Nehalim in the West Bank.”
“The occupation is a crime under international law. Harvesting olives isn’t a crime under any law I know,” the congressional candidate continued, although he calls himself a “liberal Zionist.”
The Israeli military stated that the mass detention of activists was carried out because they did not submit requests to the relevant authorities in advance for necessary coordination “to ensure the security of the area and maintain public order.”
The incident occurred amid an unprecedented escalation of settler violence in the West Bank, particularly during the olive harvest season.
The last couple of weeks saw horrific settler attacks carried out under the protection of the Israeli forces. Those attacks caused injuries not only to Palestinians, but also international activists, journalists, and diplomats from other countries.
Damage to Palestinian agricultural lands and the looting of crops has also been reported over the same period.
On Friday, October 16, veteran Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine (63) was beaten by a crowd of masked Israeli settlers, while covering the olive harvest in Abu Falah village northeast of Ramallah, although she was wearing a helmet and a protective vest clearly labeled “PRESS” on both sides.
One day later, a delegation of European diplomats was attacked by a group of masked colonists in the village of Taybeh, east of Ramallah, during a visit to the area to support Palestinian farmers harvesting olives.
The Israeli forces also intensified military raids in different parts of the West Bank in recent days, detaining Palestinian traffic police for hours.
Many believe the incident aimed to break the morale of the Palestinian people by exposing the helplessness of the Palestinian security apparatus in the face of Israel as an occupying power.
Meanwhile, others viewed it as a provocation of the Palestinian Authority and its security forces, in a bid to push them for an armed confrontation with the Israeli forces. A scenario that the Israeli government has already laid the groundwork for as per recent statements from Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz.
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