Two explosions were heard in Riyadh in the early hours of the morning, according to an AFP journalist in the Saudi capital, as Yemen's Houthis continue to launch attacks on the kingdom. Saudi Civil Defense said an early warning system had been activated to warn residents of a potential threat. Netanyahu closes the West Bank and announces a maxi military operation for Israel, which began yesterday evening, after the attack on a checkpoint near Hebron, with two Israeli soldiers killed and two others injured. The two Palestinian attackers were also shot down.
Four days before the elections, the prime minister went to the site of the attack and ordered the IDF to completely isolate the area and evacuate the residents: "We are planning an operation the likes of which have not been seen since the Six Day War of 1967." IDF vehicles enter Hebron, residents forced to evacuate. Ultra-right minister Smotrich evokes "a Gaza-style campaign" to dismantle the PNA. Tajani: "We are against it, it is not by attacking the Palestinian population that Israel will have security." The five Italian activists arrested in the West Bank facing expulsion. The return to Italy is scheduled for this morning. The specter of ISIS returns: armed attack against a church in Jordan during a funeral, six dead.
Israel goes to the polls on October 27 in a climate of very high tension, with the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, engaged in a difficult battle for political survival and the West Bank once again at the center of a violent escalation. Three days before the vote to renew the 120 seats of the Knesset, the polls outline a tight challenge between the prime minister's Likud and Yashar, the formation led by former chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot, while the opposition tries to build an alternative to the right-wing and ultra-right coalition in power. But above all the crisis in Hebron has entered the electoral campaign, where the Israeli army has launched a vast military operation after yesterday's attack on a checkpoint which cost the lives of two Israeli soldiers. Two Palestinian attackers were killed by Israeli forces.
Tel Aviv's response was extremely harsh: closure of Hebron and nearby Halhul, blockade of the entire West Bank, searches, arrests and demolitions in the neighborhoods where the attackers came from. According to various media, around 1,200 Palestinians have already been forced to leave their homes, while another 1,300 risk being displaced. The army claims it wants to dismantle terrorist infrastructures and identify weapons and militants, but the Palestinian authorities denounce collective punishment against the civilian population. The new offensive is part of a context already marked by the expansion of Israeli settlements and the increase in settler aggression against Palestinians, in particular during the olive harvest.
The ongoing Israeli military operation in Hebron, in the West Bank, has so far forced 1,500 Palestinians to abandon their homes, local sources reported. There are also fears that the army is planning to order the evacuation of another 2,500 people. According to the Palestinian news agency Wafa, which quotes the governor of Hebron, the operation has already caused the displacement of over 200 families as of yesterday. Hebron governorate has declared a state of emergency in the city and is establishing a crisis management committee to provide assistance to displaced families. Dozens of families were forced to spend last night outdoors, adds Wafa.
Tehran has drawn up detailed plans to strike undersea communications cables in the Gulf if the United States and Israel attack Iran again. One of the officials said that after the attacks, Iran would try to prevent repairs, in order to prolong disruptions to communications, including internet connections. “If Iran is attacked, there will be no more red lines, from undersea cables to military bases, including secret ones,” one of the officials said.
