Israeli Ministers Escalate Settler Projects and Hardline Rhetoric as October Election Nears

With Israelis scheduled to vote on October 27, the final stretch of the campaign is being conducted in a highly charged atmosphere, and parties appear determined to demonstrate toughness to the electorate. The week's events illustrated how government ministers are combining official duties with campaign messaging, launching an illegal West Bank settlement outpost in a ceremony that functioned as a stump speech, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the United Nations General Assembly as delegations walked out.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir released yet another video from inside an Israeli prison, this time filming himself threatening to kill jailed Hamas figure Hassan Salameh. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich separately called on the army to "go to war" in the occupied West Bank. Such statements, analysts note, are calibrated to appeal to right-wing voters before polling day, even as they carry potentially far-reaching consequences for Palestinians and for Israel's international standing.

The timing of these gestures coincided with the Jewish festival of Sukkot, which brought restrictions on Palestinian movement and tensions around 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, according to Haaretz. Those present, including Smotrich, argued that only a Netanyahu-led government would maintain the current pace of settlement construction.

The site was previously known as the Netzah Harel outpost, established in 2023, near the Bedouin community of al-Muarrajat al-Wasat, which has since been ethnically cleansed, and it sits on private Palestinian land. Metzoke Eretz is one of 104 settlements the Israeli government has legalised during its current term, even though all remain illegal under international law. The legalisation drive has drawn criticism from rights groups, who argue it entrenches occupation and forecloses the possibility of a viable Palestinian state.

Demolitions have continued alongside settlement expansion, with the southern occupied West Bank community of Masafer Yatta particularly affected in recent weeks. Israeli forces razed 24 homes in the village of Jinba on September 23, displacing approximately 180 people, more than 80 of them children, according to the Israeli rights group B'Tselem. Such operations, activists say, are often justified by security claims but in practice uproot entire communities and make their return impossible.

After several days of road closures for Palestinians across the occupied West Bank, Israeli authorities announced on Sunday 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 the congestion that day as "severe and unprecedented," with hundreds of vehicles stranded at checkpoints.

On Monday, soldiers at Atara prevented ambulances from crossing, forcing residents to move patients through in private cars and hand them over at the checkpoint, according to field activists Ayed Jafry and Fidaa Barghouthi. Jafry also reported that soldiers closed the gate at Sinjil, the town's only entrance. Health workers warn that such delays can be life-threatening, particularly for patients requiring urgent care.

In occupied East Jerusalem, Palestinian movement was curtailed further to accommodate 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 during the Jewish holidays. The site is among the most sensitive in the region, and any change to its status quo has historically triggered wider escalation.

Tensions had already been running high after a Palestinian allegedly drove into a group of Israelis at a checkpoint west of Ramallah on September 23, critically wounding Neria Leiter, the son of Israel's ambassador to the United States, before being shot dead. The incident was seized upon by right-wing politicians as evidence of the need for tougher security measures, though critics cautioned against using it to justify collective punishment.

In the West Bank, settlers uprooted olive trees in Beit Ur al-Fauqa, and Israeli bulldozers razed groves in Nabi Saleh and Beit Rima, destroying hundreds of trees, many of them centuries old, according to local activists. Israeli authorities described the Nabi Saleh operation as a security measure tied to the killing of a settler near the illegal settlement of Halamish on September 20. Activists, however, pointed out that the grove is near neither the spring where the shooting occurred nor a settlement.

With the olive harvest approaching, settlers were seen and documented stealing olives in Sinjil, Turmus Aya and Umm Safa on Monday, according to Wafa. For many Palestinian families, the harvest is a primary source of income, and the loss of trees and crops compounds the economic pressure already created by closures and movement restrictions.

Pogroms also continued, including in Farkha, where dozens of settlers, some carrying military-issue rifles, beat two men on September 24. On Sunday, settlers beat two men in Burqa and attacked the Kaabneh community near Taybeh, cutting off its water and electricity, Wafa reported. The involvement of armed settlers and the apparent inability or unwillingness of Israeli forces to intervene have fuelled accusations that the state is complicit in such violence.

In the Gaza Strip, meanwhile, daily killings continued despite the ceasefire, with drone strikes targeting people's homes and displacement camps. Among the week's dead, according to local reports and activist accounts, was Jabr Muqbil, 34, an exchange-office owner killed in Deir el-Balah on September 24; relatives who rushed to the scene were wounded in a follow-up strike. Israel claimed Muqbil was a Hamas member, an assertion his family and local residents reject.

The cumulative effect of these developments, observers say, is to deepen Palestinian displacement and despair while allowing Israeli politicians to present themselves as defenders of security ahead of the vote. Whether the campaign rhetoric translates into lasting policy changes may depend on the election outcome, but for Palestinians living under occupation, the consequences are already being felt in demolished homes, uprooted groves and closed roads.