The final stretch before Israel’s election is unfolding in an increasingly charged political atmosphere, with parties and candidates keenly aware of how every move will play with voters. This week, ministers launched an illegal West Bank settlement at a ceremony that doubled as a stump speech, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defiantly addressed the United Nations General Assembly as delegations walked out. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir released another video from an Israeli prison, this time filming himself threatening to kill jailed Hamas figure Hassan Salameh.
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called for the army to “go to war” in the occupied West Bank. All of this unfolded as the Jewish festival of Sukkot arrived, bringing closures and incursions at Al-Aqsa Mosque. On September 23, Israeli ministers and members of parliament attended the founding ceremony of the new illegal settlement in the occupied West Bank, Metzoke Eretz, Haaretz reported.
The politicians, including Smotrich, argued that only a Netanyahu-led government would sustain the momentum of settlement building. The site had previously been the Netzah Harel outpost, established in 2023, in the vicinity of the now-ethnically cleansed Bedouin community of al-Muarrajat al-Wasat, on private Palestinian land. Metzoke Eretz is one of 104 settlements the Israeli government has legalised – even if they remain illegal under international law – during its term.
Demolitions continued alongside the settlement building, focused on Masafer Yatta, a Palestinian community in the southern occupied West Bank, which has seen a large number of large-scale demolitions in recent weeks. Israeli forces razed 24 homes in the village of Jinba on September 23, displacing about 180 people, more than 80 of them children, according to Israeli rights group B’Tselem. Meanwhile, after days of road closures for Palestinians across the occupied West Bank, on Sunday, Israeli authorities announced a weeklong closure of the territory and its crossings for the Jewish holidays.
Forces shut roads and village entrances around Ramallah, including those of Turmus Aya, Aboud, Nabi Saleh, Atara and Taybeh, and set up checkpoints at Yabrud, Ein Siniya and Jaba. Palestinian news agency Wafa described “severe and unprecedented” congestion that day, with hundreds of vehicles stranded at checkpoints. On Monday, soldiers at Atara stopped ambulances from crossing, forcing residents to ferry patients through in private cars and hand them over at the checkpoint, according to field activists Ayed Jafry and Fidaa Barghouthi.
Jafry also reported soldiers closing the gate at Sinjil, the town’s only entrance. In occupied East Jerusalem, Palestinian movement was further curtailed to make way for settler worship. On September 24, the far-right rabbi Yehuda Glick led a group in religious rituals inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, which has since seen thousands of settlers enter it during the Jewish holidays.
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