Netanyahu announced that Israel was preparing a "total closure" of the West Bank in response to the attack. According to the New York Times, the US and Israel are ready to attack Iran after the midterm vote. “Trump wants to finish the job with me,” Netanyahu says. More Italian activists arrested in the West Bank, after the case of a father and son arrested and then expelled: 5 citizens were detained by the IDF, the embassy requested their release. Seven ships were hit in the Strait of Hormuz: 3 hit mines and 4 were attacked directly by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards.
Unifil, the United Nations interposition force between Lebanon and Israel, has failed in its mission and must therefore be profoundly reformed or dismantled. This was said by the US ambassador to the UN, Mike Waltz, who in an interview with the Financial Time said that Trump had given him the task of "implementing reforms" and "putting the organization on a diet". The United States has reduced funding to United Nations agencies in an effort to impose "necessary" reforms, Waltz said, including cuts to peacekeeping missions - some of which "have been going on for 30, 40, 50 years" or "cost a billion dollars a year" - which, rather than resolving conflicts, end up "freezing" them. "We are reforming the way these operations are conducted," he said, adding that those in which Washington no longer wants to participate are those in Lebanon - where Italy is particularly involved - Somalia and Western Sahara. "We believe that the time has come to leave", said Waltz regarding Unifil for which "consultations are underway" with France, Israel, Lebanon and other countries to hypothesize a different configuration of a future peacekeeping mission.
The confrontation between the United States and Iran will be "prolonged" unless Washington and Tehran reach an agreement on the stockpiles of enriched uranium that the regime still has at its disposal. This is stated by Mike Waltz, US ambassador to the UN, who admitted in an interview with the Financial Times that, in a year's time, Washington could still find itself in a stalemate with Tehran, without a return to free navigation in the Strait of Hormuz. "I don't want to speculate. Hopefully, before then, they decide to come to the negotiating table in a constructive way," Waltz told the financial daily, however "the President and the US Navy are capable of maintaining the blockade of Iranian ports for the foreseeable future." The White House, Waltz pointed out, is "intensifying" its campaign of economic pressure to resolve a conflict, which according to Trump's initial forecasts should have lasted "four to five weeks" and which has now reached its ninth month. In a scenario in which the war has caused a surge in fuel prices and a shortage of fertilizers and raw materials, Trump's approval rating has fallen to 31 percent and Republicans risk losing control of Congress. Furthermore, the agreement reached with Moscow for the supply of Russian diesel triggered a wave of criticism in the allied chancelleries. Waltz, who in 2024, as a member of Congress, had supported the need for the United States to support the Ukrainian government, justified the agreement between Trump and Putin by calling it indispensable to compensate for the "global shortage of refined products" which this year has affected sectors ranging "from aviation to agriculture". Trump, he said, is "balancing the world's needs for energy, in this case diesel" and suggested that the economic issue could serve as an "incentive for the Russians to come to the negotiating table" and end the conflict. Despite pressure from Democrats and some Republicans for a rapid conclusion to the conflict with Iran, Waltz is convinced that Trump will not stop until the United States has achieved the strategic objectives it has set itself and has eliminated the stockpiles of uranium for military use at the regime's disposal and has not signed a "significant agreement on their enrichment program" with Tehran. Waltz briefly served as Trump's national security adviser, but was relieved of his duties last year after using the messaging app Signal to discuss classified military operations in a chat that inadvertently included a reporter.
A firefight lasting more than 20 minutes near the Judea crossing, near Hebron, caused the death of two armed men and wounded at least 5 Israelis, two of them seriously. This was reported by the Israeli army and Israeli medical sources. After a brief manhunt, the IDF killed two Palestinians suspected of having perpetrated the attack. The Israel Defense Forces imposed a blockade on several villages in the area.
The director general of Magen David Adom, the Israeli emergency service, Eli Bin, said that the victims suffered serious gunshot wounds and were treated by rescuers and military forces who responded to the scene. The injured were transported to the Shaare Zedek medical center and Hadasa hospital in Jerusalem. In a video shot during the attack, a witness is heard saying that "there is an ongoing exchange of fire between the terrorists and our forces, and we have not yet managed to evacuate the wounded", adding that the shooting continued for over 20 minutes.
Two people have been killed and five injured in a shooting in the West Bank. The victims are two alleged Palestinian attackers: the images released by rescuers show a lifeless body, in civilian clothes, on the ground next to a petrol station, while Israeli soldiers patrol the area. The Israeli army announced that the military intervened in the area of the Judea junction, near the city of Hebron following an attack which occurred in the early hours of the day. "IDF soldiers eliminated two terrorists and are continuing searches in the area," we read in a statement. According to Magen David Adom, the Israeli emergency service, two injured people are in critical condition. The episode takes place in a climate of growing tension in the West Bank - marked, among other things, by attacks by extremist Israeli settlers against Palestinians engaged in the olive harvest and by the arrest of foreign activists including 5 Italians - and a few days before the elections in Israel.
